Database Users

What is "linux-swap"?

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

Managing Memory

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

[LEO] HTC HD2 576MB Ram not what is seems

Hi,
I've been using a cooked ROM with the 576MB RAM enabled. Clearly the total available memory increases 457.4MB.
The concerning thing is when I begin to test the memory. Presumably this extra memory means more applications can run simultaneously. However when i open multiple applications the OS will automatically close applications to conserve memory even when it has not reached the 457.4MB limit.
In previous ROMS I recall the memory would go upto about 290MB - 300MB before applications would automatically close to conserve memory. However with the extra RAM there is no change in this behaviour.
Another issue I have noticed, is when the memory reaches over 330MB, this then stops applications like YouTube and HTC Album from running (this NEVER happens on the roms without 576MB enabled). Clearly there is atleast 100MB more memory available which the HTC HD2 is not making full use of.
Can I please have your views and whether or not the 576MB is actually beneficial and not just a way of stopping other apps running when memory usage is high. Although I believe the extra memory is available, i'm not convinced certain applications can handle it correctly.

I'm using the Energy ROM with Radio 2.08, which gives you 576MB memory. I have no issues with programs losing, I have 7-8 programs open at once. Also I have noticed a noticeable speed increase with the extra RAM unlocked, and of course with the new ROM.

Abolisher2407 said:
Hi,
I've been using a cooked ROM with the 576MB RAM enabled. Clearly the total available memory increases 457.4MB.
The concerning thing is when I begin to test the memory. Presumably this extra memory means more applications can run simultaneously. However when i open multiple applications the OS will automatically close applications to conserve memory even when it has not reached the 457.4MB limit.
In previous ROMS I recall the memory would go upto about 290MB - 300MB before applications would automatically close to conserve memory. However with the extra RAM there is no change in this behaviour.
Another issue I have noticed, is when the memory reaches over 330MB, this then stops applications like YouTube and HTC Album from running (this NEVER happens on the roms without 576MB enabled). Clearly there is atleast 100MB more memory available which the HTC HD2 is not making full use of.
Can I please have your views and whether or not the 576MB is actually beneficial and not just a way of stopping other apps running when memory usage is high. Although I believe the extra memory is available, i'm not convinced certain applications can handle it correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
people want to believe in the 576 mb ram trick
truth hurts

After doing some research I have found out the following information :-
Windows Mobile 6.x is powered by Windows CE 5.2.
http://www.slideshare.net/abhisheksharma/windows-mobile-6
http://www.addlogic.se/articles/articles/windows-ce-6-memory-architecture.html
The memory architecture is divided in to 32 process slots. Each with a capacity of 32MB. However with a little testing of my own I have found that it is not possible to run more than approximately 11 applications similtaneously which equates to 28 processes running on my setup. The remaining (28 - 11) 17 processes are operating system specific processes such as the GWES.exe DLL's etc.
If you calculate the memory required for the max of 11 applications it is 352MB which explains why I never see the memory go above 300-330.
The advantage of having the extra memory (576MB) is possibly to allow the other 21 processes to run with more head room.

Abolisher, to test if the 576Mb Ram trick works, you can make the following test.
Create a 128Mo Ram disk, fill up this new storage with data (internet cache for example) and run agin your tests, you'll see that you could fill all your ram and your data on the storage will be OK.
Some tests were done to prove that the 576Mb trick was real.

Abolisher2407 said:
After doing some research I have found out the following information :-
Windows Mobile 6.x is powered by Windows CE 5.2.
http://www.slideshare.net/abhisheksharma/windows-mobile-6
http://www.addlogic.se/articles/articles/windows-ce-6-memory-architecture.html
The memory architecture is divided in to 32 process slots. Each with a capacity of 32MB. However with a little testing of my own I have found that it is not possible to run more than approximately 11 applications similtaneously which equates to 28 processes running on my setup. The remaining (28 - 11) 17 processes are operating system specific processes such as the GWES.exe DLL's etc.
If you calculate the memory required for the max of 11 applications it is 352MB which explains why I never see the memory go above 300-330.
The advantage of having the extra memory (576MB) is possibly to allow the other 21 processes to run with more head room.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it is even more complicated with even more limitations. This article series gives you more insight into memory subsystem in WM/WM:
http://blogs.msdn.com/hegenderfer/archive/2007/08/31/slaying-the-virtual-memory-monster.aspx
pen-pen said:
Abolisher, to test if the 576Mb Ram trick works, you can make the following test.
Create a 128Mo Ram disk, fill up this new storage with data (internet cache for example) and run agin your tests, you'll see that you could fill all your ram and your data on the storage will be OK.
Some tests were done to prove that the 576Mb trick was real.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the 128MB ramdisk work? It's been told it fails above 32MB.
Some tests were done to prove that the 576Mb trick was real.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's real. But absolutely useless unless any real life working scenario is found.

576MB does increase performance.

djet said:
Does the 128MB ramdisk work? It's been told it fails above 32MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is more than one ramdisk driver floating about,with different max sizes, go look in the non phone specific win mo sections.

djet said:
Well, it's real. But absolutely useless unless any real life working scenario is found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, if no real life scenorio is found for 576MB, then what is the purpose for 1024MB in TMOUS version?

chrisukhd2 said:
576MB does increase performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hoax. Go get "1GHz hack".
noris08 said:
well, if no real life scenorio is found for 576MB, then what is the purpose for 1024MB in TMOUS version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answering this question equals finding this scenario.

djet said:
Hoax. Go get "1GHz hack".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 1Ghz Hack is an hoax.
The "1Ghz driver" was the exact same file as the original one.
djet said:
noris08 said:
well, if no real life scenorio is found for 576MB, then what is the purpose for 1024MB in TMOUS version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answering this question equals finding this scenario.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the TMOUS have 576Mb of RAM and 1024Mb of ROM, RAM and ROM are two different things.

pen-pen said:
The 1Ghz Hack is an hoax.
The "1Ghz driver" was the exact same file as the original one.
Well, the TMOUS have 576Mb of RAM and 1024Mb of ROM, RAM and ROM are two different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The mass hysteria on this subject and tons of noobs lurking for "576 RAM" effectively make this story a worthless hoax.
I know. I've misread his question regarding LEO1024, just missed the "MB" point.

i am going to clear this up once and for all
1ghz hack = fake
576mb RAM = REAL as conclusively proved by advanced testing when it was first discovered, the fact that it comes as default whena tmous rom is flashed on a EU hd2, and my own testing (i built a rom wiht a 400mb pagepool and was able to sucessfully fill the remaining 50 odd mb of ram before the system gave out)
end of story
G

I've tried to load a lot of programs to test 576mb ram. After 10min test i loaded ~20progs and: In Use 372mb ram free 86........so i think 576mb is REAL I also tried memory test program that used all ram except last 10mb....

Real life tests with documented results. Please.

Something to keep in mind if you are opening loads of apps to test the memory:
When i have Opera 10 running in the background, it sometimes stops me opening HTC albums saying there isnt enought memory when there clearly is. As soon as you close it, it opens again.
So maybe you have opera 10 running when you try to open HTC album, causing the error. Close opera 10 and see what happens

That Ram bonus would be usefull if we were using ALOT of apps simultaneosly . But never in my experience with this phone needed more ram . So If you plan on installing a long list of apps and running them all in background(just to boast) maybe more ram is required. But aside the app that eats ram to check if it is valid i do not know of anyone to have reported to reach the limit with even pro usage.
If the phone hardware recognizes the extra ram and uses it then it is there. The extra tmous radios enable the phone to use more of its hardware perhaps? Remember PCs...? Windows x86 works up to only 3 gigs of ram even if you have 16 gb of ram installed onto the motherboard. Using a higher functionality operating version in x64 mode (for dual-core proc) enables the " hidden ram " . The ram was always there but the system needed a better programing to use it . I am not much of a computer expert but i guess its not fake, only that u do not need it !

It is my personal thinks:
The fact:
- ROM that show 448 MB run smoother than ROM that show 576Mb as I fell and some tests.
The reasons may be:
- HD2 (Leo) have enough 576Mb, it is real.
- With basic ROM, the manufacturer hide some part of RAM to use it for permanent applications/programs that may support for WinMo run faster and smoother and that apps/progs do not need to start/stop usually. The hidden part could be set to priority access mode (may be). And the RAM shown for you is 448 Mb only and you could do every thing with this part of RAM.
- The ROM that hacked RAM side to be shown as 576Mb open the hidden part and make all off RAM could be used randomly by user. In that case, top necessary applications run by Windows should start and stop many times, it may make the OS be slower a little.
It is my idea.

The question is not If 576MB RAM is real (its proven to me), it's the question if there may be 1GB ROM also.. as I don't see any reason why they would do that little change if they alrdy didn't change the 576 RAM thing
The only question is.. why don't TMOUS roms unlock the (may) hidden ROM?
I guess it could some realy deep coded software thing.. not sure if thats even possible..maybe others can tell
We will see alot more clear if we can boot into linux =)
Cheers

the actual chips are different for the rom. cotulla posted the two chip model numbers. one has 576ram512rom onboard the other has 576ram1024rom.

[Q] RAM issue with HD2

Hello guys,
I have a little problem.
I use the "HD2 NDT MIUI Ginger Rom" and its really fast but my only problem is that when I use it a few hours without reboot my RAM falls down to 80MB .
Even when I kill all tasks it's still under 100MB everytime. After I reboot the RAM is like 200Mb or more.
Why is that so? Is it possible to change it?

streety12 said:
Hello guys,
I have a little problem.
I use the "HD2 NDT MIUI Ginger Rom" and its really fast but my only problem is that when I use it a few hours without reboot my RAM falls down to 80MB .
Even when I kill all tasks it's still under 100MB everytime. After I reboot the RAM is like 200Mb or more.
Why is that so? Is it possible to change it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what is your problem exactly? The great memory management of this rom? To much free ram? Force closes? Apps not starting?

greg17477 said:
So what is your problem exactly? The great memory management of this rom? To much free ram? Force closes? Apps not starting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? I said that I only got 80MB Ram left. I don´t want to reboot every few hours .

streety12 said:
Hello guys,
I have a little problem.
I use the "HD2 NDT MIUI Ginger Rom" and its really fast but my only problem is that when I use it a few hours without reboot my RAM falls down to 80MB .
Even when I kill all tasks it's still under 100MB everytime. After I reboot the RAM is like 200Mb or more.
Why is that so? Is it possible to change it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get yourself Automatic Task Killer, select all apps and i guarentee youll have plenty of Ram left
I use it on all my roms it works great

casemandan said:
Get yourself Automatic Task Killer, select all apps and i guarentee youll have plenty of Ram left
I use it on all my roms it works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks , I'll give it a try and post my feedback here

you don't need task killer.....you do not even have to look at the free memory....just use your phone...you won't have any kind of memory problem... GB memory management is great...!

mrbr0wn said:
you don't need task killer.....you do not even have to look at the free memory....just use your phone...you won't have any kind of memory problem... GB memory management is great...!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not when you have A LOT OF APPS installed. Trust me. Its very needed on Sense roms too. More ram equals faster rom experience

streety12 said:
What? I said that I only got 80MB Ram left. I don´t want to reboot every few hours .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
casemandan said:
Not when you have A LOT OF APPS installed. Trust me. Its very needed on Sense roms too. More ram equals faster rom experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Android, espacially on miui you dont need a taskkiller. MIUI has a built in taskkiller, just hold the home button. 3rd party automatic task killers are plain bs. Free ram is wasted ram. 80mb of free ram is plenty. More free ram won't speed up your device, it will slow it down. Of course your apps open faster, if they are allready loaded into RAM, not when they have to be loaded from nand or sd first.
Wise words from mrbr0wn:
"you don't need task killer.....you do not even have to look at the free memory....just use your phone...you won't have any kind of memory problem... GB memory management is great...!"

Yes, more isn't always better...

Task Killer are not helpful :/
After reboot my RAM starts with around 200MB but after a while it stucks at 50-40mb even when I kill all tasks.Everything is a little bit laggy then and I NEED to reboot in order to use it again normally. Whats wrong?

i use the "autostarts.apk" (known as a170.apk) to remove all the apps from the autostart list.
When you kill apps, the always open in background again.
Remove the Autostart entry from them and its all perfect now !

I use Sense 3,5 ROM and RAM after my first boot:
Full size 411.50Mbytes
Fluent: 4.67Vbytes
Used: 406.83 MB
What can eats so much memory? What does he do? How to free more RAM?
Or what you can see that it has eaten so much RAM?

[Q] need a lil explaination about the storage space on HD2.

Hello all,
I am using the Energy Rom for Android Nand cLK installed. I really have this question in my mind since a very long time never discussed about it though..
The phone by default has 768 Mb of space but then whenever I happen to see in the task manager it shows me 404 Mb where is the rest of the space gone...
I mean i wish to know that is it a current limitation or that's all we can use for android coz when i was using WiMo 6.5 i used to see the entire space show up in task manager..
Kindly give me some input..
I am also attaching the screenshot of my phone.. space..

vikasraj said:
Hello all,
I am using the Energy Rom for Android Nand cLK installed. I really have this question in my mind since a very long time never discussed about it though..
The phone by default has 768 Mb of space but then whenever I happen to see in the task manager it shows me 404 Mb where is the rest of the space gone...
I mean i wish to know that is it a current limitation or that's all we can use for android coz when i was using WiMo 6.5 i used to see the entire space show up in task manager..
Kindly give me some input..
I am also attaching the screenshot of my phone.. space..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rest of the space is used by things like System Partitions, and since you areon a Sense ROM im pretty sure the System partition is around 300 . plus the recovery partition and cache partition, those two might make up around 60 mb, so 300MB + 60MB + 404MB .equals 764 plus im sure there are some bad blocks taking up some space. But yeah you have partitions with android nand that use up the space hope that helps maybe somebody else could broaden the explanation.

vikasraj said:
Hello all,
I am using the Energy Rom for Android Nand cLK installed. I really have this question in my mind since a very long time never discussed about it though..
The phone by default has 768 Mb of space but then whenever I happen to see in the task manager it shows me 404 Mb where is the rest of the space gone...
I mean i wish to know that is it a current limitation or that's all we can use for android coz when i was using WiMo 6.5 i used to see the entire space show up in task manager..
Kindly give me some input..
I am also attaching the screenshot of my phone.. space..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're confusing ROM and RAM. The task manager shows how much free RAM you have, whilst your storage space is 768 mb or whatever it is because it's the internal memory. Those are readings of two completely different things.

Nigeldg said:
You're confusing ROM and RAM. The task manager shows how much free RAM you have, whilst your storage space is 768 mb or whatever it is because it's the internal memory. Those are readings of two completely different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well even in that case HD2 has this spec : 576 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM
Is there a way to know if i have bad sectors and option to rectify them.. coz i believe it's not so..

elesbb said:
The rest of the space is used by things like System Partitions, and since you areon a Sense ROM im pretty sure the System partition is around 300 . plus the recovery partition and cache partition, those two might make up around 60 mb, so 300MB + 60MB + 404MB .equals 764 plus im sure there are some bad blocks taking up some space. But yeah you have partitions with android nand that use up the space hope that helps maybe somebody else could broaden the explanation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This makes some sence to me but T mobile hd2 has about 1gb rom i am guessing.. mine shows 764 Mb. any option we have to get this thing working so i can use the max out of it...
Thanks in advance...

vikasraj said:
This makes some sence to me but T mobile hd2 has about 1gb rom i am guessing.. mine shows 764 Mb. any option we have to get this thing working so i can use the max out of it...
Thanks in advance...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ROM is taken up by Android, and the lack of RAM is normal and has always been there.