Sure, the Motorola XOOM has a microSD card slot. But since it's not currently enabled for end user use one has to make due with the 32GB of on board storage that Motorola has included. Although if you're looking to expand upon that 32GB or want to use a USB keyboard, a method of enabling USB host capabilities on the Motorola XOOM is available to anyone who is either wanting to -- or already has rooted their device. You'll need to follow the instructions carefully and need an OTG cable in order for it to work but that's all minor pieces of the puzzle at this point. The hard work has already been laid out for you. So how is it done? Jump on past the break to find out for yourself. [SlateDroid] Thanks, djunio for sending this in!
Pre-requisites: You need the device rooted and unlocked, to use this. Details on how to do that are here
You also need an OTG Cable that will work with the Xoom. I have this exact cable, and it is working with my device
Instructions as taken from source:
Very similar to rooting the device. Extract the img file from the ZIP above, and place it in the same folder as your adb and fastboot binaries. Then, run this:
- adb reboot bootloader - (reboots into the bootloader)
- fastboot flash boot rootboot.usbdisk.img - (which loads the new boot.img onto the system)
- fastboot reboot- (Reboots the device)
Lastly -- using adb or root explorer, you need to alter your /etc/vold.fstab by adding this line to it: dev_mount usbdisk /mnt/usbdisk auto /devices/platform/tegra-ehci
This tells VOLD where to mount the device, when it's plugged in. After the change, you need to reboot. The altered boot.img adds a folder called /usbdisk, so that way if you connect a USB thumb drive using the cable I linked to above, it will automount the thumb drive and you can access files. I tested this with an HP 125W FAT32 8GB thumb drive, and it worked without an issue. The only caveat I can think of is that YMMV on thumb drives - some might require more power than the Xoom can supply.
