Database Users

Available Memory

So when im not running anything, when i open Advanced Task Killer it has like 125M is this right???
So what the other 387MB doing?

what I see
when I 1st start I have about 230MB, after a few minutes it goes down to about 90mb...without opening anything...seems many programs on the Samsung "open" by themselves...also, I see that the CPU goes down to about 100Mhz so I keep it at 1000Mhz with setcpu....plus deleted many Samsung apps(about 30MB)...helps with the lag...

Don't worry so much about it. This isn't windows, you don't need to worry about free RAM. Android will kill tasks as needed to free ram when it needs to. Some of that is likely used for disk cache as well. That will also be released as needed. Let the OS do its job, it's quite good at it..
Killing some of the bloatware will help as well, but you need root.
I also think that this phone, like the G1, has some of the speced 512M ram dedicated to the camera, GPU, and other stuff. In the terminal, free shows about 388M as total ram.

is it a good to create a swap partition on the SD card?

Why on earth would you want swap with this much ram? You likely can, with root and swapper, but why? This phone doesn't need it like the G1 did. Swap could help keep more apps open in the background, but there are already a lot of them there. I don't see any benefit to swap right now. What isn't working for you that you think is related to low ram?

ttabbal said:
Why on earth would you want swap with this much ram? You likely can, with root and swapper, but why? This phone doesn't need it like the G1 did. Swap could help keep more apps open in the background, but there are already a lot of them there. I don't see any benefit to swap right now. What isn't working for you that you think is related to low ram?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah...what he said ^
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA App

As with the nexus one, not all 512mb can be addressed by the system right off the bat; we may need to wait until a newer kernel comes out
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

How to add more ram to our tiny devices(Through SD card;) )

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=683123
How to use Swap space on SD to increase ram on our devices so we can run more demanding apps.

swap is possible only with custom kernel, so it will not work for us

I believe that doixanh proved more than enough that custom kernel is not needed for any kernel modifications Still, we would need a module.

but i don't think that he should make swap module it will be better if he will finish this

Well, it's up to him what he wishes to develop

IMO swap is useless for Android. It has its own memory management already.

And it would certainly take a high class sd card, AND it would be harmful for it So next time we should just buy a phone with bigger RAM memory

doixanh said:
IMO swap is useless for Android. It has its own memory management already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, how can we increase the memory through SD, my finding isn't good ? If not, how to do it the right way?XD

Graveir said:
And it would certainly take a high class sd card, AND it would be harmful for it So next time we should just buy a phone with bigger RAM memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really care about my SD card's health XD i just want more ram XD

But what do you need slow RAM for? RAM is very dynamic and since we already use app2sd it could even slow your device down instead of enhancing performance...
EDIT: Well, maybe it would be faster if you have a class 10 card...

Yeah SD is slow and putting swap there will be incredibly slow.
Sent from my X8 using XDA App

doixanh said:
Yeah SD is slow and putting swap there will be incredibly slow.
Sent from my X8 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but i want this because you know that there are some applications that won't run on X8 because of it's low ram...so, i dont care about about speed, also, i don't use app2sd, so no slowdown, I am using Class 4 card

Yeah I know. Just my opinion

doixanh said:
Yeah I know. Just my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, is there a way of using ram just for the ram consuming apps, to make X8 able to at least run them? (You already released an SD card speed fix, so it should go a bit faster...Can you help me, cuz i really like running RAM hungry apps and i don't have enough ram :|

No I don't know about that. Haven't tried swap thingies yet

for example, there are games, like dungeon defenders that requires 256 MB of RAM at the runtime (it's the requirement of unreal enginge 3 i belive). some guys have managed to run the game on LG swift, which is pretty much the same device as x8 when it comes to hardware. maybe it's not running too fast (although i saw some video where it was even faster than on some more powerful devices), and it's not quite playable, but some people might still enjoy it. and without SWAP, it's impossible; and it's just a one example.

wujekandrzej said:
for example, there are games, like dungeon defenders that requires 256 MB of RAM at the runtime (it's the requirement of unreal enginge 3 i belive). some guys have managed to run the game on LG swift, which is pretty much the same device as x8 when it comes to hardware. maybe it's not running too fast (although i saw some video where it was even faster than on some more powerful devices), and it's not quite playable, but some people might still enjoy it. and without SWAP, it's impossible; and it's just a one example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for supporting my ideea XD We really need Swap for Ram Hungry apps

Yes. great. ideA. but... is posible?

The app that does this on market requires custom kernel so might not be possible atm

Next i-wonder-if-you-can-make-...- topic?
Wysłano z X8 z użyciem Tapatalk

Swap File

Most Say that a swap file doesn't make Much of a Difference, From personal experience I would have to disagree
Running free in the terminal on a normal nor swap enabled day I would have 22 - 200 free, this is running no programs, and 3 email accounts
Recently I created and enabled a 512MB swap on my SD, against my better judgment of swapping on solid state..
This has had Drastic improvement in performance let alone free not showing 3916 free in mem and 14424 used on the swap, My shift is alot more fluid and responsive,
Your results may vary but i figured i would share my results
Im running scarystable comp cache 18%, vm heap 48m on CM7 nightly 238
again I don't claim to know anything more then the next guy Just sharing my results

Give me about 15 minutes and you can have these types of stats when you type free in terminal. It does help, regardless of what others have said. And scary kernel will work.
http://db.tt/6NzMLnpl
Sent from my PG06100 using xda premium

I love it, Now my only worry it the wear on my SDcard, but I figure aslong as I delete and create the Swap file once in a while it will ware evenly, I just never expected this kind of gain from it.
I will admit 512 may be overkill but it sounded nice
Thanks for your results!

The problem with swap files/partitions is they're slower then ram so you need to buy the highest class sdcard your device can handle to have anything resembling a positive effect and they'll destroy your sdcard. Plus unless you have a script or app to manage swap its a pain to have to disable and re-enable swap when attaching to your pc through usb.
With our devices having 512 ram and something like V6Supercharger with compcache disabled I've found I always have more then enough free ram for pretty much anything.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Move thread to here: New thread with instruction and patch
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18921074#post18921074
---------- Post added at 01:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:38 PM ----------
Ron Overdrive said:
The problem with swap files/partitions is they're slower then ram so you need to buy the highest class sdcard your device can handle to have anything resembling a positive effect and they'll destroy your sdcard. Plus unless you have a script or app to manage swap its a pain to have to disable and re-enable swap when attaching to your pc through usb.
With our devices having 512 ram and something like V6Supercharger with compcache disabled I've found I always have more then enough free ram for pretty much anything.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, swap file is slow, swap partition is not

sparksco said:
No, swap file is slow, swap partition is not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The data rate of a class 10 sdcard is 10MB/s. DDR-200 which is the oldest and slowest DDR ram is 1600MB/s. Swap is slow regardless whether its a file or a partition.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Ron Overdrive said:
The data rate of a class 10 sdcard is 10MB/s. DDR-200 which is the oldest and slowest DDR ram is 1600MB/s. Swap is slow regardless whether its a file or a partition.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a difference between swap file and swap partition

blahbl4hblah said:
There is a difference between swap file and swap partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but a swap partition can -not- increase the physical read/write speed of the sdcard which is the point I'm making. Is swap file slower then a partition? Yes I never argued that. My argument is swap in general is slow.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Ron Overdrive said:
Yes, but a swap partition can -not- increase the physical read/write speed of the sdcard which is the point I'm making. Is swap file slower then a partition? Yes I never argued that. My argument is swap in general is slow.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your here to use, test swap, provide your results ect fine. If your here to bash swap, then please stfu and go away. We don't need negativity in these forums. do you even know what swappiness is or how to set it?

Swap
Swap is not meant nor does it truly need to be fast, From my understanding it takes whats not being used from ram and "swaps" it to disk to free up ram for programs that require the speed, It is not a replacement for direct ram.
None the less I thank sparksco for his Post and will be trying it out later in much anticipation

JaceAlvejetti said:
Swap is not meant nor does it truly need to be fast, From my understanding it takes whats not being used from ram and "swaps" it to disk to free up ram for programs that require the speed, It is not a replacement for direct ram.
None the less I thank sparksco for his Post and will be trying it out later in much anticipation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your trolling skills amaze me...
Sent from my PG06100 using xda premium

JaceAlvejetti said:
Swap is not meant nor does it truly need to be fast, From my understanding it takes whats not being used from ram and "swaps" it to disk to free up ram for programs that require the speed, It is not a replacement for direct ram.
None the less I thank sparksco for his Post and will be trying it out later in much anticipation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice
10char

JaceAlvejetti said:
Most Say that a swap file doesn't make Much of a Difference, From personal experience I would have to disagree
Running free in the terminal on a normal nor swap enabled day I would have 22 - 200 free, this is running no programs, and 3 email accounts
Recently I created and enabled a 512MB swap on my SD, against my better judgment of swapping on solid state..
This has had Drastic improvement in performance let alone free not showing 3916 free in mem and 14424 used on the swap, My shift is alot more fluid and responsive,
Your results may vary but i figured i would share my results
Im running scarystable comp cache 18%, vm heap 48m on CM7 nightly 238
again I don't claim to know anything more then the next guy Just sharing my results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swap file is useless and slows your phone down. Just like a pagefile on windows.
"disk" is ALWAYS slower than "RAM"
Post your linpack and antutu scores.

Does MTD/Yaffs2 perform better than BML/Rfs,Ext4?

By now maybe there are some available performance results, especially since it's possible to run the same rom with different file systems.
I haven't seen much discussion about the performance aspects even in theory.
Is yaffs2 faster? Is it more stable or less likely to corrupt files? Does it result in more disk writes? Is it harder on the storage medium?
So beyond the fact that MTD/YAFFS2 is more mainstream and will make CM easier to keep up with what, if any are the performance benefits of the filesystem itself? Especially for people who may never go to CM or won't for months.
Oh, last question: MTD allows more storage in the /data folder if I understand correctly. How much more though? What is the /data size under BML and how large can it get under MTD? And what performance benefit is there from that?

More stable, faster, less writes, easier on disk, open source, dev customizable for partition sizes (not just data)...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I switched over to MTD yesterday and so far my phone is running fine. The switch took half an hour and I notice a little less lag with
certain apps.
IMO, you need to try it for yourself and see if you like it.
Send from my SPH-D700 (Samsung Epic 4G)

garyf said:
By now maybe there are some available performance results, especially since it's possible to run the same rom with different file systems.
I haven't seen much discussion about the performance aspects even in theory.
Is yaffs2 faster? Is it more stable or less likely to corrupt files? Does it result in more disk writes? Is it harder on the storage medium?
So beyond the fact that MTD/YAFFS2 is more mainstream and will make CM easier to keep up with what, if any are the performance benefits of the filesystem itself? Especially for people who may never go to CM or won't for months.
Oh, last question: MTD allows more storage in the /data folder if I understand correctly. How much more though? What is the /data size under BML and how large can it get under MTD? And what performance benefit is there from that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. From my own personal experiences, yes it contains a quicker response in areas in which it is needed, more of a smooth user experience. I've not yet seen someone complain about a clunkiness due to our new partition configuration. Yes it is more than stable, data corruption on MTD/yaffs2 is unheard of, very unlikely as it doesn't just randomly occur or nowhere as often as it can on EXT4, it doesn't mean that if you do something like OC to a high frequency that it cannot happen. That's always is and always will be subject to how you run your device. And no, it is more meant for flash based devices which we in essence are. It's a ways smoother and reads and writes better to our nand.
2. To a normal user, in all honesty, it's something new. The benefits are the increase in space of data. 689 mb to be exact, although some of that space is always being used from the getgo. Being that there are now stock boot.imgs any user can go to MTD and not truly have a need to go back to BML or the constant fear of having to Odin for those who are iffy on it and not lose out on the stock feel, they've a choice between AOSP as well as StockWiz.
3. 689 mb MTD compared to about 200ish BML, or less in the data. And you've got to take space from the others to allocate it in the longer run of things. It doesn't stunt or skyrocket performance, it's independent of it.
Let me know if I answered your questions at all lol. I was vague as usual.

I've battery pulled dozens of times on yaffs2 with no data corruption. no such luck on ext4
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

I've not noticed one iota of difference between RFS, ext4 and now yaffs2 in real world usage, so all I can go on are the benchmarks I've run.
In my testing synthetic disk benchmarks have shown yaffs2 to perform about the same as RFS. ext4 is only faster when mounted with the unsafe, data-corrupting 'noauto_da_alloc' option. Without that options, it performs about the the same as RFS too.
yaffs2 is a win for all of the reasons marcusant listed aside from (IMO) performance.
---------- Post added at 08:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 PM ----------
starskyrob said:
I've battery pulled dozens of times on yaffs2 with no data corruption. no such luck on ext4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can thank the 'noauto_da_alloc' option for that. In all of the documentation I've found regarding ext4, it explicitly warned that if you use that option you must have battery backup for your disk devices or you will experience zero length files in the case of power loss.
Whoever first discovered that tweak on ext4 and convinced everyone to use should be smacked over the head a few times.

I think team bonsai disabled journaling
..
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

marcusant said:
I think team bonsai disabled journaling
..
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I was first making my kernel I noticed that my ROM running ext4 would only score 1700 in Quadrant while other ext4 ROMs scored 2300. It turned out to be the 'noauto_da_alloc' option that provided that instant 700 point boost. I also experimented with jourmaling and found the difference it made very small - at least in quadrant scores. The 'noauto_da_alloc' option leads to zero length files on power loss, regardless of whether or not journaling is on.
Oh, and I think I found the person who introduced this to everyone. It was supercurio.

I have to say I find this thread extremely informative.
Because of rfs/ext4, I expect there to be some form of tradeoff going between file systems. I'm a lot less worried about that now.
Thanks a lot all.
My understanding from the answers I've seen is that quadrant scores are about the same between rfs and yaffs2 and there are almost no real-world performance issues either way, except that it will take longer before you have to begin moving apps to sd storage.
If that's right, thanks for making it very easy to get that info.

marcusant said:
I think team bonsai disabled journaling
..
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch!...LOL! And as quickly as I could re-enable journaling I did. Did not notice any performance difference. Now we have MTD!

Another thing, the extra space on the /data partition only comes for roms built for MTD, correct?
Until TW roms are built from the ground up with MTD, rather than porting them across, that benefit will not apply?
Also can someone explain in more detail where this extra memory is coming from? Do BML filesystems just waste 400 megs or so of storage space, or is something being compressed or removed to get this extra storage?

garyf said:
Another thing, the extra space on the /data partition only comes for roms built for MTD, correct?
Until TW roms are built from the ground up with MTD, rather than porting them across, that benefit will not apply?
Also can someone explain in more detail where this extra memory is coming from? Do BML filesystems just waste 400 megs or so of storage space, or is something being compressed or removed to get this extra storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This extra space is on every MTD ROM out. The space won't change whether the ROM is intentionaly built on MTD or not. The extra space on BML is taken by /cache which is reduced to 25MB or so. /cache is really only used by market(for large app downloads) and by OTA updates(which we'll only see 1 more).
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

ac16313 said:
This extra space is on every MTD ROM out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! I went and checked, and I have 267mb used and 409mb free now!
....and thats with NO apps on SD card!!!
Dammmmmmmmmmmm!
edit: 193mb used with 483mb free after moving apps to SD WOOHOO!
ac16313 said:
The extra space on BML is taken by /cache which is reduced to 25MB or so. /cache is really only used by market(for large app downloads)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would this affect extra large app downloads, as in when the app is 50+mb or some such?

DCRocks said:
Would this affect extra large app downloads, as in when the app is 50+mb or some such?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not if the market is fixed to cache to sdcard
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

ac16313 said:
Not if the market is fixed to cache to sdcard
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, gonna have to keep an eye on that the next time I dl a large app

ac16313 said:
Not if the market is fixed to cache to sdcard
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an init script in my rom and cm7 that downloads large apps to data.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

marcusant said:
There is an init script in my rom and cm7 that downloads large apps to data.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you make a flashable for the rest of us ROM hoppers?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

(INFO)What is zram and how does it work???

I think its better to Post this here,when its not better,than sorry!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Once a brief statement for those who are not traveling so long in the Android scene:
ZRAM = ramzswap = Compcache
In order to explain more precisely ZRAM first need other terms are more clearly defined:
Swap can be compared with the swap file on Windows. If the memory (RAM) to complete the PC the data that are being used not actively outsource (eg background applications) so as to re-evacuate RAM free. To this data is written to a hard disk. If required, this data is then read back from there easily. Even the fastest SSD is slower than the RAM. On Android, there is no swap!
In ZRAM unnecessary storage resources are compressed and then moved to a reserved area in the fixed RAM (ZRAM). So a kind of swap in memory.
This Ram is more free because the data then only about 1/4 of the former storage requirements have. However, the CPU has to work in more because they compress the data has (or unpack again when they are needed). The advantage clearly lies in the speed. Since the swap partition in RAM is much faster than this is a swap partition on a hard drive.
In itself a great thing. But Android does not have a swap partition, and therefore brings Android ZRAM under no performance gain as would be the case with a normal PC.
In normal PC would look like this:
Swap = swap file (on disk) -> Slow
ZRAM (swap in RAM) -> Faster than swap
RAM -> Quick
With Android, there is no swap partition, and therefore brings ZRAM also no performance boost.
The only thing that brings ZRAM is "more" RAM. Compressed by the "enlarged" so to speak of the available memory. That's on devices with little RAM (<256MB) also pretty useful. The S2 has 1GB but the rich, and more than. There must not be artificially pushed up to 1.5 GB.
After you activate the ZRAM also has 2 disadvantages. The encoding and decoding using CPU time, which in turn has higher power consumption.
Roughly one can say (For devices with more than 512MB RAM):
Without ZRAM: + CPU Performance | + Battery | RAM
With ZRAM: CPU Performance |-Battery | + RAM
For devices with too little RAM so it makes perfect sense. But who shoots the S2 already be fully complete RAM and then still need more?
Check whether you can ZRAM runs in the terminal with
free or cat / proc / meminfo
I hope it helps to understand zRam!!!!

Thanks for the info

Yeah thanks indeed for the info - so does this mean that we must have zram disabled because of low memory ?

no its very good for devices with less ram like 289mb and we have less ram,so its useless for higher ram devices with 800-1000,but that can u read in this guide

CALIBAN666 said:
no its very good for devices with less ram like 289mb and we have less ram,so its useless for higher ram devices with 800-1000,but that can u read in this guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i misunderstood thanks for explaining !
But one more doubt - its good for us anyhow if we disable it will we get more free ram ?

in your statement zram is not battery friendly. ? am i correct. ? or not?

Sorry for too many questions mate - am the noobest guy here on xda that is why

not really because the system all the time creates virtual ram and distributed, just as if the ram is not needed, because then the virtual ram not needed and the system distributes it then falls to a normal ram, but I think it also comes to the what and how much the device is made for running multiple concurrent tasks, it is recommended.

nikufellow said:
Sorry for too many questions mate - am the noobest guy here on xda that is why
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem bro,thats the reason why i open this thread.and hey im noob too

Thank you

one of the best information thread on forum
thank you mate

ewat said:
in your statement zram is not battery friendly. ? am i correct. ? or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are correct as cpu will have to do more work compresshog and de compressing stuff so more power will be consumed

Nice guide
But still i dont get it
post source : www.posting-a-post-at-tapatalk.com

@CALIBAN666
ramzswap != compcache. both using compressed data on memory. both even from the same person AFAIR. the different is ramzswap using compressed swap and compcache using compressed cache.
kernel 2.6.35 source code from samsung have ramzswap support, but you need user space program to enable it (need little patch to build it for sgy but it's easy).

irfanbagus said:
@CALIBAN666
ramzswap != compcache. both using compressed data on memory. both even from the same person AFAIR. the different is ramzswap using compressed swap and compcache using compressed cache.
kernel 2.6.35 source code from samsung have ramzswap support, but you need user space program to enable it (need little patch to build it for sgy but it's easy).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can u help me on enabling ramzswap?? Zram is laggy
Sent from my GT-S5360 using XDA

hell_lock said:
Can u help me on enabling ramzswap?? Zram is laggy
Sent from my GT-S5360 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i follow this instruction but using build-in ramzswap.ko in sgy kernel source. the trivial part is compile rzscontrol for sgy. i forget how i build it but AFAIR need few patching. i'll post if i find it.

Not understood... Android has no swap? Then what is swapper for? Swapping partition?

I tried swapper for my galaxy y n i didnt liked it personally
By that time i had stock sd card
Im gonna try zram on my 16 gb class 6 sd card..i wish this thing works for me cuz after installing merruk kernel, my 50 mb ram got stuck
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda app-developers app

swapp != zram
Rcain said:
Not understood... Android has no swap? Then what is swapper for? Swapping partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With swapper you can have an swap file or you can choose to partition your SD-Card to have an swap partition there. Swap is not used by default in Galaxy Y and swap space is optional not really needed in Android (or Unix/Linux in general).
On the other hand, zram is a whole different beast.

If I'm not mistaken a dev for ace2 already made it several month ago. It using init.d script to control the zram stuff