There are tons of useful functions that come with a2sd aside from the ability to install apps to your sdcard. While many of them are useful one in particular is very useful - setting the low memory kill sizes. These are the limits that if met or exceeded, tell the system to start killing apps. I just started playing around with it and any input would be great so I don't steer anyone the wrong way. I assume the higher the setting (MB) the less often apps are killed, and the lower setting (lower MB) causes apps to be killed really frequently but that's where I'm not sure since it could mean if the memory drops below the higher MB then apps will be killed - if that makes sense.
Anyway, here's what I got from terminal and I'll add the other functions later.
Code:
su
cd /system/bin/
sh a2sd lowmem-whatever
HTML:
Low mem killer commands (a2sd)
*See bottom for legend
*lowmem-moderate
Foreground Apps: 1536 pages / 6MB
Visible Apps: 3072 pages / 12MB
Secondary Server: 4096 pages / 16MB
Hidden Apps: 7680 pages / 30MB
Content Provider: 8960 pages / 35MB
Empty App: 10240 pages / 40MB
*lowmem-optimum
FA: 1536 pages / 6MB
VA: 2048 pages / 8MB
SS: 4096 pages / 16MB
HA: 10240 pages / 40MB
CP: 21800 pages / 50MB
EA: 15360 pages / 60MB
*lowmem-strict
FA: 1536 pages / 6MB
VA: 2048 pages / 8MB
SS: 4096 pages / 16MB
HA: 15360 pages / 60MB
CP: 17920 pages / 70MB
EA: 20480 pages / 80MB
*lowmem-aggressive
FA: 1536 pages / 6MB
VA: 3072 pages / 12MB
SS: 4096 pages / 16MB
HA: 21000 pages / 82MB
CP: 23000 pages / 90MB
EA: 25000 pages / 98MB
*lowmem-extreme
FA: 1536 pages / 6MB
VA: 3072 pages / 12MB
SS: 4096 pages / 16MB
HA: 38400 pages / 150MB
CP: 40960 pages / 160MB
EA: 43520 pages / 170MB
*lowmem-ultimate
FA: 1536 pages / 6MB
VA: 3072 pages / 12MB
SS: 4096 pages / 16MB
HA: 51200 pages / 200MB
CP: 57600 pages / 225MB
EA: 64000 pages / 250MB
lowmem-default
Sets back to default
#########LEGEND#########
FA > Forground Apps
VA > Visible Apps
SS > Secondary Server
HA > Hidden Apps
CP > Content Provider
EA > Empty App
If you want to see the functions yourself just type this in terminal:
Code:
su
cd /system/bin/
a2sd help
Hit enter to show more functions (see the % amount?).
ooooh, autokiller has those options. so we could use a2sd instead of using a memory app? I am going to try.
Yeah. You can zipalign and quite a few other things too.
Is that normal that after restart I can see only 65Mb of used memory and 235Mb of free memory?
Yes. The rest is allocated to the system for things like the camera and GPU (which takes a sizable chunk).
After camera buffers, radio, etc, there are about 350MB free:
MemTotal: 355108 kB
If I open ES File Explorer (or any other file manager, for that matter) and check the properties of the sdcard, I get a report of 10.21 GB being used, which is accurate. But if I use the SD Card Analyst tool I get a report of:
Total: 14.96 GB (Accurate)
Used: 8.13 GB (Off by 2 GB)
Avail: 6.83 GB (Off by 2 GB)
Can someone explain why this happens? I tried a couple other file managers and they were also inaccurate, although in different ways. For instance, Astro File Manager reported 10+ GB used (accurate) and 7 GB available (2 GB more than the card holds!).
Thanks.
-Bob-
It's not off, it looks correct to me so far.
Hardware Manufacturer's (General)
1KB = 1,000 bytes
1MB = 1,000 KB = 1,000,000 bytes
1GB = 1,000 MB = 1,000,000 MB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
Software Developer's
1KB = 1,024 bytes
1MB = 1,024 KB = 1,048,576 bytes
1GB = 1,024 MB = 1,048,576 KB = 1,073,741,824 bytes
So, in that sense, 16 GB = 16,000,000,000 bytes
16,000,000,000 /1024^3 = ~14.9 GB
At least for HDD manufacturers anyways. SD cards are pretty similiar
Then you have Partition Table Information, File System Information.
Then you have Clustering.
Cluster = 4096bytes
Meaning any date will take a minimum of 4kb, so even if a file is 1byte, it will take up the full 4kb cluster.
So much wastage huh?
Well, that's just the first part of it.
Then if you have corruption, which I think your SD Card has, then it will give you wonderful issues like wrong file size, wrong partition size, etc.
I have seen many Kingston 4GB reporting themselves as 8GB which sounds like great, but the data keeps getting corrupted so fast, it is totally unusable.
Hi all,
I believe many are having problems with low free RAM in Dexter's Froyo. The reason why available RAM is always low in XT720 Froyo is that the low memory killer level limit has been lowered. Here's the comparison of low memory levels between 2.1 and 2.2 (didn't check 2.2.1 though as I am on Dexter's 1.1 release):-
2.1
Foreground App: 12 MB
Visible App: 18 MB
Secondary server: 36 MB
Hidden App: 42 MB
Content provider: 48 MB
Empty App: 48 MB
2.2
Foreground App: 6 MB
Visible App: 8 MB
Secondary server: 16 MB
Hidden App: 20 MB
Content provider: 32 MB
Empty App: 32 MB
The difference shows that at 2.2 empty apps will only be killed at 32MB and hidden apps at 20MB compared to the original 2.1 where empty apps will be killed at 48MB and Hidden Apps at 42MB. So in order to gain back the same amount of free RAM as 2.1 we can modify the low memory killer levels to:-
Foreground App: 6 MB
Visible App: 8 MB
Secondary server: 16 MB
Hidden App: 42 MB
Content provider: 48 MB
Empty App: 48 MB
This should bring back the same amount of free RAM in 2.1. However, this also means that the backend apps would be killed off easier compared to the original settings in 2.2. Free RAM only comes handy if you need to run memory intensive apps/games. For day to day usage the default setting is probably better because more apps can be kept in the memory (faster switching) so change at your own risk.
To change the low memory killer level, I used a free app called "MinFreeManager" from App market.
Do feedback your experience so that we know the overall experience when low memory killer level is changed. If the overall experience is good, we can probably get Dexter to change the default low memory killer level in his ROM.
Cheers.
will try and report back when trouble has found
Removing some apps instead
I just removed some of the built in apps that I don't use such as world clock widget (9MB) and OpenRecovery.apk (11MB) to free up some RAM since it appears in OS Monitor even if I don't use it.
I also removed Email, MotoGAL, Car Portal and such. However, I don't think they use up any background memory.
AccuWeather does take up memory, but I do use it so no biggie there.
However, the end effect is the RAM is still small, which is fine, but you would have more RAM available to be freed up when needed.
These appear to be set in the init.mapphone_umts.rc in ramdisk.tar
It contains the following settings with a note that these are 4k blocks, so the first line for example would be: 1536*4096=6291456 bytes or ~6MB as reported in the app you are using.
Code:
setprop ro.FOREGROUND_APP_MEM 1536
setprop ro.VISIBLE_APP_MEM 2048
setprop ro.SECONDARY_SERVER_MEM 4096
setprop ro.BACKUP_APP_MEM 4096
setprop ro.HOME_APP_MEM 4096
setprop ro.HIDDEN_APP_MEM 5120
setprop ro.CONTENT_PROVIDER_MEM 8192
setprop ro.EMPTY_APP_MEM 8192
And just below that:
Code:
write /sys/module/lowmemorykiller/parameters/minfree 1536,2048,4096,5120,8192,8192
If you want to make permanent change without 3rd party app, you can play with settings here it seems.
I cant see an app being allowed to take up 48MB of background RAM ...
R-D said:
These appear to be set in the init.mapphone_umts.rc in ramdisk.tar
It contains the following settings with a note that these are 4k blocks, so the first line for example would be: 1536*4096=6291456 bytes or ~6MB as reported in the app you are using.
Code:
setprop ro.FOREGROUND_APP_MEM 1536
setprop ro.VISIBLE_APP_MEM 2048
setprop ro.SECONDARY_SERVER_MEM 4096
setprop ro.BACKUP_APP_MEM 4096
setprop ro.HOME_APP_MEM 4096
setprop ro.HIDDEN_APP_MEM 5120
setprop ro.CONTENT_PROVIDER_MEM 8192
setprop ro.EMPTY_APP_MEM 8192
And just below that:
Code:
write /sys/module/lowmemorykiller/parameters/minfree 1536,2048,4096,5120,8192,8192
If you want to make permanent change without 3rd party app, you can play with settings here it seems.
I cant see an app being allowed to take up 48MB of background RAM ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the info. I am still testing the phone so I am not making the value permanent yet. will do so if I find the settings good. as I mentioned in the first post, the stock settings is probably fine so I may just keep the stock settting. the only advantage I see setting the killer level higher is that it kills off many unwanted background apps for me saving me a bit of battery juice. but that also means that multitasking apps get killed off earlier.
cheers.
Another app for setting these is Autokiller Memory Optimizer. The defaults on 2.2.1 (Dexter's stock221 v1.2b) are:
Hidden App: 20 MB
Content provider: 32 MB
Empty App: 32 MB
I've been testing the "Moderate" (30,35,40) and "Optimum" (40,50,60) presets. Optimum worked well on 2.1 but sometimes seems like it may be a little too aggressive for 2.2.1 so I've mostly stayed at Moderate lately.
R-D said:
I cant see an app being allowed to take up 48MB of background RAM ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The values are thresholds for free memory, not limits on memory used. When free memory falls below the threshold values then processes in the particular categories start to be preferred for automatic termination and garbage collection. http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
How necessary is it to use Autokiller Memory Optimizer? I'm still on 2.1 and I'm not sure if I want to upgrade (or downgrade ) to Dexter's 2.2 with all of these low memory issues.
hey guys, Im a battery freak and I've removed/disabled almost every app that is unnecessary to extend battery life (I even disabled motorola thumbnailservice and hiddenmenu, lol). My memory is almost 99% above 60mb at all time. does that mean doing such changes suggested in this thread is pointless for me? Is there any diadvantages to set all the values to 60mb? thank you
Is there any way to remove Google Talk? It keeps running as a service, but I don't use Talk at all.
Vistaus said:
Is there any way to remove Google Talk? It keeps running as a service, but I don't use Talk at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct me if im wrong, but I think the gtalk service is needed for market and calling
Yes get a system app remover it will do the job.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App
Guys...download super box from market.Can free ram up to 80+ without kill the apps,.
How? I have Superbox and want 80mb of ram and am pretty stationary at around 35-40. Might spike at 51 or so but never higher than that. I have looked at background and forground and just maybe not seeing the right things.
Btw using your Steelblue rom.
Anyone else notice that under Applications- Manage Applications, the system only shows around 512 mb of RAM. The same applies to my task killer. The Xoom is supposed to have 1 GB of RAM. Anyone else find this a bit odd?
According to the linux os:
Code:
# ./busybox free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 736512 723028 13484 0 56204
Swap: 0 0 0
Total: 736512 723028 13484
It appears 768MB of ram is available to the OS, I bet the other 256 is dedicated to video.