Hey dear Xda-developers
I know its a noob question, but can anyone here tell me what "linux-swap" partition is?
Does it make your phone more fast?
I noticed it is required for some ROM's...
I kinda figured out it has something to do with "RAM"... Is it optimizing for the HTC Magic 32a?
It's a kind of file system used only for paging memory to disk, much in the same way that Windows uses a swap file (usually C:\pagefile.sys) for paging memory to disk when the system required more RAM than is available.
A lot (most) ROMs expect to find a swap partition on the memory card. It's used to 'virtually' increase the amount of memory available, mostly to overcome the shortfalls of the 32B board Magic (google branded) which only has 192Mb of physical memory.
The HTC Magic 32a (and HTC Hero) has 288Mb of memory so the swap partition is less important ... as it can run HTC Sense UI without lagging like the 32B Magic.
Android kills programs in the background when ram is low so a swap file or partion on your card gives it extra space on your phone so it does not kill the program and have to reload, I.e like your browser constantly reloading the page, which was a serious annoyance before swap came out....... but beware cause swap will cause acclerated wear on your sdcard but since sdcard are cheap, it is not really that big of an issuse
Related
i've been reading up on compcache and the way that it works, but i'm pretty confused on how exactly this works on the android platform... i can't seem to pull the exact definition of compcache for android through all the chatter from threads, and it seems my answer gets lost in translation...
so to put it simply, i'm assuming from all my thread reading that compcache is actually based off the ext partition that you have on your SD card, and not on the RAM itself on the device? is this right? this is where i get confused, cause the compcache writers and developers say that it creates a ramzswap in the ram itself and stores compressed pages on the device RAM, effectively increasing the efficiency of your onboard RAM... in android's case and all the cooked ROMs, does it work off your SD card and your ext partition? or does it work off the RAM itself...
i'm currently running cyanogen's latest 32b release on my mytouch and its running extremely fast WITHOUT apps2sd, but i would like the benefits of compcache to prevent losing information from my browser and other applications like gtalk, which supposedly compcache helps with... would i have to create a ext partition and utilize apps2sd in order to utilize compcache? thanks in advance
bump... would like to be learned
I'm also a bit confused
i would like to know as well as i've installed Cyanogen v4.0.1
i went into the recovery console and formatted my SD choosing the option of "Format SD: fat32+ext2+swap"
was this the correct thing to do?
either way if you format cyanogen's rom with just a fat32, or fat32 + ext + swap, it doesn't matter as his rom is compatible with either apps2sd or without...
the question is, where does compache compress its file pages? in the RAM, or in the SD card
Compcache uses xMB of RAM as compressed swap space. No ext2 or swap files or swap partitions are needed (though the latter two can be used as "backing swap").
So on a 32B, with RAM limitations already, how is that a good thing?
PsychoI3oy said:
Compcache uses xMB of RAM as compressed swap space. No ext2 or swap files or swap partitions are needed (though the latter two can be used as "backing swap").
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thanks thats the answer i was looking for...
MikLSP said:
So on a 32B, with RAM limitations already, how is that a good thing?
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how is it NOT a good thing? compcache compresses page files, effectively increasing your RAM's efficiency and "technically" increasing its storage size in the allocated ramzswap... according to the developer's tests on different machines, it effectively makes it seem like it doubles the RAM amount on your computer...
this is nothing but good, especially for lower end machines like netbooks, and phones that have limited RAM allocation to begin with...
heres a small tidbit from the google source page
http://code.google.com/p/compcache/
i don't mean to threadjack, but compcache will be active regardless of whether or not i partition my sd card to fat32+ext2+swap...?
and i only have to partition my sd card to fat32+ext2+swap ONLY if i want apps2sd to work correctly using Cyanogenmod's rom...?
please correct me if i'm wrong.
i'm really wondering because even though i'm using Cyanogenmod's latest rom on my MyTouch, i still get considerable lag throughout such as typing on the virtual keyboard, screen orientation rotation, etc. i also use TasKiller.
maybe i'm expecting too much...
probably... lag from orientation, keyboard, and small things like this are still very common... i've tested a lot of roms on both the g1 and mytouch, and cyanogen's is by far the fastest...
As I have understood it sort of compresses things stored in the RAM (like background apps)
I've done a good amount of reading on compcache and have found that its been causing problems in my 4.0.1 build of cyanogen... the best thread i've found on the issue is:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=547752
hopefully users continue to share their findings, as the the thread mentioned is for the G1, and i'm sure optimal compcache settings will differ on the mytouch 3G... i will be doing some extensive testing on compcache only (due to me recently buying a 32gb micro card, and don't want to mess it up with linux swap) and will report my results... if anyone would like to join in, please post your findings as well...
I am trying to work out what is using all the memory on my Magic 32B. After rebooting I am left with only 15Mb which is causing it to run dog slow.
After rebooting I notice that apps I hardly use are running and consuming memory;
MP3 store, facebook, Tunewiki. Those together are using nearly 10Mb. Can I stop them running at startup?
What is the best application to use to manage RAM?
I cannot understand why there is so little RAM available? This device has 192MB? As I have moved my Apps2SD can I reallocate space from internal storage to be used as RAM?
How much free RAM should I be looking to have in order for the phone to run fast?
Should I be looking to use a Swap file? I have already moved by apps to SD...
Sorry if i am asking stupid questions. Relative Noob to Android
aidanbree said:
I am trying to work out what is using all the memory on my Magic 32B. After rebooting I am left with only 15Mb which is causing it to run dog slow.
After rebooting I notice that apps I hardly use are running and consuming memory;
MP3 store, facebook, Tunewiki. Those together are using nearly 10Mb. Can I stop them running at startup?
What is the best application to use to manage RAM?
I cannot understand why there is so little RAM available? This device has 192MB? As I have moved my Apps2SD can I reallocate space from internal storage to be used as RAM?
How much free RAM should I be looking to have in order for the phone to run fast?
Should I be looking to use a Swap file? I have already moved by apps to SD...
Sorry if i am asking stupid questions. Relative Noob to Android
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First off, if you are rooted you should format your SDcard. Second of all what ROM are you using if your not running stock.
I am running Cyanogen's current rom 4.2.13
I repartitioned my SD card to use App2SD. At that time I was able to reallocate space rather than format.
Cheers
Aidan
this might be a noob question, and i searched and i cannot find an answer to my question. i have an HTC Magic (32B) and i been installing all types of roms, and they install fine but the problem im facing that they run slow, so i thought i might be running out of RAM memory so i was using TasKiller which shows how much memory i have, and its on average 35 mb of free memory is that normal? i have my SD partitioned with a 96 mb Swap and 512 EXT. how do i increase the free memory because i think thats whats slowing it down. i read somewhere that i need to enable the Swap as it is not enabled by default. can someone help and explain what i need to do, cause everyone else says that their ROMs fly even on G1 and other 32B and mine is slow. I am currently using KingKlik Espresso Rom but i face that issue with all the Roms
What ROM are you currently using?
32B magics don't have the same amount of ram as 32As from what i understand.
type free /proc/meminfo on a terminal and see what it gives you. I hate task manager info's about ram sometimes they don't give a right amount.
32A have a higher RAM, currently i am using KinkKlik espresso ROM but i face this issue with all the ROMs that are not 1.5. i thought when i have the swap file and all that stuff it would expand the RAM space used
Yes, this is normal on a 32B.
Keep in mind Android has a great shared library framework, and allows apps to save state when it moves them out of RAM so they can re-launch later and be back at the same point you left them.
dstxy said:
this might be a noob question, and i searched and i cannot find an answer to my question. i have an HTC Magic (32B) and i been installing all types of roms, and they install fine but the problem im facing that they run slow, so i thought i might be running out of RAM memory so i was using TasKiller which shows how much memory i have, and its on average 35 mb of free memory is that normal? i have my SD partitioned with a 96 mb Swap and 512 EXT. how do i increase the free memory because i think thats whats slowing it down. i read somewhere that i need to enable the Swap as it is not enabled by default. can someone help and explain what i need to do, cause everyone else says that their ROMs fly even on G1 and other 32B and mine is slow. I am currently using KingKlik Espresso Rom but i face that issue with all the Roms
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Click to collapse
mine stays around their, im on mytouch, tops it gets up to about 45mb
Hello.
Right now I am on Cyanogen 4.2.15.1.
The biggest problem of G1 is imho lack of memory. I did every possible hack to make more memory available to my phone. I use compcache, 10mb hack etc..
I also tried swap, but it has been giving me some troubles and I find my phone working better without it.
I see everybody switching to 2.x roms and of course it makes me want to switch too although my phone runs pretty fine as it is now. But I would switch if I am convinced that things will improve. So here come the questions:
Did you experienced speed improvement by switching or it just runs the same/slower? (I am only interested in answers of G1 users as this is somehow a bit specific phone with the lack of memory)
My second question rose from my concerns of memory too. To use 2.x roms, one has to use DangerSPL, right? I am not sure about this, but I got the impression, that this one moves some of the memory from application runtime to rom space, so we can fit larger roms in. Does that mean, that in the end this rom has less operational memory for itself? Because that would be the exact opposite thing to what I want to do.
Thanks for the answers.
You as many others are confusing persistent storage with ram.
Ram is fast but will not store data over a reboot.. the amount of ram on the dream remains the same regardless of the spl/radio/rom (with maybe an exception of the 10mb hack that borrows 8mb from video ram for general use)
The persistent storage slow and is what danger spl changes.. this is the equivalent of your hard drive on a computer.
In the case of danger spl it significantly reduces the temporary space (cache) and increases both the core system storage (system) and the user space storage (data) this allows more on internal phone storage instead of the sdcard, having your core apps not using apps2sd is likely to increase perceived speed.
Since the memory (ram) is unchanged and the new kernels are better at memory management there is potential for newer versions to support more tasks at the same time than the older versions. (We are not there yet but cm-5.0.8-test4 and cm-4.2.15.1 seem similar in behavior in terms of what can be done with the ram avalible)
As for upgrading that's your choice.. in general on the dream anyway I don't recommend going to cm5.0.7 and related roms if you have not already done so.. and I never recommend a test version if you are not looking to be a tester. So I'd wait till cm5.0.8 final and related roms are pushed if you feel it's time to upgrade.
Otherwise if you are on a stable 1.6 rom that fills your needs and want to keep a very stable phone.. there is no need to rush the upgrade.. at some point you will find something that requires you to upgrade to 2.1 and will be glad it exists as it will improve the usefulness of the phone.. and I'm sure the stability of 2.1 will only improve over time.
Thank you for your answer.
I of course understand the difference between ram and persistent storage (rom?). The information I missed is that the additional memory is taken from the cache. Someone somwhere here posted something that implied that it reduces ram. Hackery!
Thank you for clearing that up. What are consequences of having less cache? Is this not a problem then?
You got my point with stable 1.6. I do not want to flash new rom every week and prefer stable working phone. The ONLY thing I was hoping for is the better memory management and maybe the whole rom footprint in ram, leaving more room for apps instead of system. I am running apps2sd but I think the main source of sluggishness of my phone is that apps are too often removed from ram by dalvik.
So I was hoping for something like " Yep, 2.1 is 50mb in ram instead of 80mb of 1.6 and you will have more free memory." That would make me switch. Having the same amount or even less makes no sense for me. I see no killer 2.x feature that I need to have so far.
Same amount of ram with both spls as I said. No 10mb hack on cm5 because the gpu is used for system operations
Cache is mounted as /cache and as I said contains temporary and cached data.. As designed its intended as a staging area, which will usually persist across reboots but may not under certain situations.
No performance impact ought to exist due to the resize. If too many things are attempted to be saved here you will get out of disk space errors.. but 30mb is plenty for the staging operations required by the system during normal operation.
As you may know: Linux never has "free" memory.. but reclaimable memory.. the reason for thus is anything read from persistent media is put into "disk cache" in case its needed again.. if the memory is needed for something else it will be freed at no/little cost, but if the cached files are needed they wont be reloaded thus saving the time reading disks/SD/flash.
(Thus why devs cringe when people show the output of free.. 'cat /proc/meminfo' will give full detailed breakdown of memory use if you qknow how to read it)
I am Linux guy myself, so I know how it manages the memory. Anyway, 10mb hack was a huge thing for me, can not live without it.
That pretty much means I am staying and 1.6, thank you for your time.
I have used to use Kaiser and Topaz for now. I think these devices made by HTC has a single chip for storage for use of both Ram and Rom.
I do not use the program memory generally, i have ~150mb of free space of it, however, i have only ~60-70mb of ram which is not enough.
Is it possible to partition this chip to change the size of ram module by picking up a little from the program partition?
As I know, It uses different modules, you can see them in this topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=669871&page=2
And the RAM and ROM cannot be the same, because RAM forgets everything what is loaded into that if you restart/shutdown.
And you know the RAM means Random Access Memory and ROM means Read Only Memory. We can write the ROM because it has to be programmable, but it doesnt forget its data.
So I'm sorry, I think its impossible
Sorry for my English, I hope you understand.
ccaparli said:
I have used to use Kaiser and Topaz for now. I think these devices made by HTC has a single chip for storage for use of both Ram and Rom.
I do not use the program memory generally, i have ~150mb of free space of it, however, i have only ~60-70mb of ram which is not enough.
Is it possible to partition this chip to change the size of ram module by picking up a little from the program partition?
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disable push internet .exe. it takes up 10mb ram. disable lock screen 6mb ram. disable start menu,use kenia1234 alternative for sense 15mb ram. disable htc tabs you don't use. disable htc phone skin dialer, 15mb extra ram. use these, you will get lots of free ram.