Swap on cache or on microsd partition, what's better? - Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo, Pro

Many memory hungry apps force close on ics, specially when web browsing.
Would you advise to use swap? If so what would be better, use it on the cache partition or on the microsd?
My current setup:
- Neo V with ics pureness 14 rom
- microsd 16gb class 10
- 1gb ext4 partition for link2sd apps
- Autostart of many apps disabled with Lbe or autostarts

I would go for sd-card (for greater storage; you I'm having cache partition of ~ 100 mb only - cant say of ics pureness 14 rom, i'm on stock)

yogeshm.007 said:
I would go for sd-card (for greater storage; you I'm having cache partition of ~ 100 mb only - cant say of ics pureness 14 rom, i'm on stock)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are killing your card with that.
Flash memories have limited read/write cycles.
Not saying it will die fast but still there is impact.

Is the 100mb cache partition even used? Every time I've seen it it's almost empty. Also it may be faster, but are there any negative effects of using a 64mb swap from there?

Related

Linux-Swap without App2SD???

Hi everyone,
A relatively noob question here.
I am running the Official ROM 2.76.405.5 on an unbranded Hero, and want to give Linux-Swap a try. But I don't want Apps2SD; I might move certain apps cache to the SD after rooting, but like the Apps themselve on the internal memory though. How can I go about it? What do I need to do?
1) Can I format my SD card so that it has a fat32 and a linux-swap partition but NO "ext" partition?
2) If I do make an EXT partition, what patch/fix should I do to make only swapping work, without Apps2SD? Modaco's Hero patch as well as his custom ROMs come with Apps2SD. Is there a way to get rid of it?
3) Will I need "busybox" to make swapping work? Or is "Swapper" alone going to be enough?
4) If I make my custom update.zip file from Modaco's Hero patch.zip, from which I delete A2SD, and then falsh that update.zip via the recovery mode, will it work?
5) And what swap size do you recommend? Some people use as large as 256MB... while the default in most cases is 32MB. Is the larger the better?
Please help a non-developer here. Many thanks in advance!
OK, I have done it and it seems right. I made all three partitions (fat32, ext3, and linux-swap) and then pushed busybox by Modaco's method via "adb shell". That means I have the ext3 partition but no Apps2SD, so my apps would stay on the internal memory. Am I right?
Now I have also installed Swapper and so far it has not given me any error. Via Advanced settings, I have told it to use Swap "partition" instead on swap file. My swap partition is 256MB
My questions now are:
1) If I kill swapper by taskkiller, will swapping end?
2) How much swappiness should I choose?
3) How do I know that it is working and what improvements should I expect to see? How can I test that my phone is functioning faster??
Please reply
Would anyone like to share their comments on this, please?!?
One more thing, Hero comes with a 288MB RAM, but the total available system memory (RAM) shown by Swapper app is 197MB. Why such discrepancy??
Your views will be much appreciated!
Very well asked questions. Some masters respond to them please so we don't disturb you about these questions within every thread of yours
to format your sdcard (i'm assuming you know how to use parted and have only 1 partition) resize your fat32 partition, for example, with my 7948 MB sdcard:
Code:
(parted) resize 1 0 7850 (where 7850 is the maximum size of your sd-card minus the amount you wish to allocate for swap, in this case, 98 MB)
wait for it to finish re-sizing, doing it this way prevents data loss, after it's done;
Code:
(parted) mkpartfs primary linux-swap 7850 7900
(parted) mkpartfs primary linux-swap 7900 7948
(parted) rm 2
(parted) resize 3 7850 7948
(parted) quit
you basically create two linux-swap partitions (the second partition can be anything, but I use linux-swap because it can be any size in MB) so that the third one gets asigned a p# of 3, then remove the second one, and then resize the third one to take up the whole space left after your fat 32 partition, that way you don't waste any space. You can always
Code:
(parted) print
to make sure your fat 32 partition has a p# of 1 and your linux-swap has a p# of 3
About why there's only 197MB left on your device? Radio and GPU take the other 96 MB and the system has no access to that memory. Don't worry, it's still enough for you to run hero, pity us dream users with only 96 MB working RAM.
===edit====(answer more questions)
If by "official rom 2.73.405.5" you mean the one you can download from MoDaCo, then I don't even think it has root. There are four 2.73.405.5 roms there, the RUU, which you should avoid like the plague, the Official one which is only the RUU but packaged in OTA format, the Official one with Radio update, and the Official rooted one. You wan't to use the rooted one. Also, you do need busybox (you're already done it). I think that in the official rooted there are no scripts running at boot, so you won't get A2SD forced upon you (always a good thing, soon as I buy my Hero I'm using that build too as a base for my build), no compcache, no swap-file usage, nothing, just a stock rom with root. Anyway, you already have busybox, and that's all swapper requires, so you're good. For extra credit, you could learn how to unpack boot.img and edit the init.rc to call on your own script from bin and have it do swap automagically instead of using swapper (plus you can do nifty things like using mmcblk0p2 instead of p3, among other things).
I don't know how swapper works exactly, but I think all it does is echo settings to the VM to set up swap, so killing the app should do nothing (it's just a front-end to what other roms do automatically) and swap should stay working after you kill it. You can try, just kill the app and then open up the terminal and type
Code:
$su
# busybox free
that will tell you how much memory you have and how much swap you have, you should still have swap even after killing swapper.
About swap size?... depends who you ask. If you ask me, you have a hero with 198 MB working ram and you shouldn't even have to bother with swap at all. If you still want to, maybe try to set up a 32 MB compcache setup (you have enough ram where compcache makes sense) with a swappiness of 0 (this keeps the memory pages for Rosie in swap and even after heavy usage, you can always go back to rosie w/o reloads).
Having a swap-file on your sdcard makes no sense if you don't have a class 6 sdcard as it will hurt performance, so, if you do, anywhere between 64 MB and 198 MB (to match the whole working memory space of the device) with a swappiness of 60 should suffice.
I wish I had a hero...
Thanks jubeh, thanks soo much. It was really helpful After reading your answer, I completely understand how to make only fat32 and linux-swap partitions and save space by not having an ext3.
I am afraid I don't quite understand the compcache thing; I think I have to do more reading/homework on this before I ask further questions
I did install the Official ROM which I downloaded from HTC website as an RUU >> flashed Amon_RA's recovery image via flashrec >> rooted by pushing "su" and "Superuser.apk" via ADB shell, and then also pushed Busybox (from Modaco's 2.2 ROM, I think it is version 1.5.1).
I am using a Sandisk 8GB class 6 card... it is fine so far (except the photo thumbnails not being generated in the ".thumbnails" forlder, but that's a different story). I have noticed that after the ROM upgrade, a folder called "rosie_scroll" get automatically created on the SD card... may be it's a kind of built-in swap?!?! Am not too sure.
Moreover, at the moment, I have set swappiness to 60. When most of the apps are open, the hero functions quite well but I see that about 190-194MB of the internal memeory is being uesd at times and heavy use and the area of occupied swap partition gradually increases. I think it is because only thise apps will swap which are kind of sleeping or dozing in the background. Am I right?
Just another question, if you unzup MCR 2.2, you see in the xbin folder, a file called "dexopt-wrapper", an addition to busybox. What does it do? Its function?
Will having lots off apps open in the background and swapping them continuosly have a deleterious effect on the battery life??
Thanks again
Best regards.
having many apps open means using ram a lot. if you add swapping, it means not only ram sucking battery, but also reading/wirtting sd, which is pretty much battery sucker itself.
so yes, if you want to lengthen your battery life, keep your apps loaded atst to a minimum.
if what you want is a comparison for battery life between swapping and not swapping.. you should check if you have your phone always on or off and some other factors (keeping ram alive in hibernation mode wastes more battery than static sd memory, ie).
Thanks sik_gerar I understand where you are coming from.

[Q] Low Memory after Cyanogenmod

I am left with too little internal memory for apps etc after installing cyanogenmod, about 80 mb. Does anyone else have this problem?
sanimagus said:
I am left with too little internal memory for apps etc after installing cyanogenmod, about 80 mb. Does anyone else have this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's alot actually. Arias internal memory is weak. 256mb I think.
Sent from my Atrix
The Aria only has 185MB dedicated to the userdata partition (where downloaded apps are installed). To make things worse, the Dalvik cache for CM7 is stored in the userdata partition as well, because the partition that is INTENDED for Dalvik cache is too small. The result is that there's just not much space left over.
To really get the most out of CM7, you should use S2E (what I'd personally recommend) or another apps2sd method to store your apps on the SD card so that you'll have plenty of space.

[Q] Is there a way to increase system storage on Viewpad 7?

Hello!
I've just rooted Viewpad 7 and installed EUViewpad7 v1.7b firmware.
In Quick System Info app it says I have only 4 kb free "system storage" left.
I'd like to try to increase internal storage size, perhaps at expense of some internal storage or somesuch (since apps run from SD thanks to apps2sd)
And yes, the ROM already has apps2sd, so I don't think I can move any more stuff to SD without breaking everything...
Is increasing "system storage" possible ?
1. Link2sd way
- Rooted
- Partition EXT3 or 4 in your micro-sd, size whatever u want (1024 mb recommend).
- Open Link2sd's app select ext3 or 4.
- Reboot
2. a2sd way
- Rooted
- Install CMW.
- Partition EXT3 or 4 in your micro-sd, size whatever u want (1024 mb recommend).
- Install a2sd from recovery mode.
- Install a2sd gui from Google play.
- move data from app or in terminal [type su>enter>type a2sd datasd>enter>auto reboot]
3. Google move to sd-card, apps2sd or app way
- Install app that the name say move to sd or something.
- Not help.
And like other developer alway said, Do it with your own risk.
Sorry for my weak english.
I think a2sd is already installed and all the apps that can be moved to SD are on SD already (a2sd comes with EUViewpad7 v1.7b by default, and I did create all the partitions and stuff on SD. Also, terminal emulator -> a2sd check says that I have apps and dalvik cache running from SD)
So. moving apps 2 sd is unlikely to yield much relief since they all are already there
Any other ideas on getting more "system storage" ?
If your a2sd run perfect, your rom space will not decreate even if u install a lot of app.
Sent from my ViewPad7 using xda premium
Yeah.
Though I would still rather have it larger, you know, just in case (also curious about it on general principle of finding out new stuff)
indyend said:
If your a2sd run perfect, your rom space will not decreate even if u install a lot of app.
Sent from my ViewPad7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+++1 on that, many others have successfully used A2SD on the EU v1.7b ITE ROM like myself, it's been documented in extensive details in the custom Rom's thread, please re-read and follow the steps outlined, and, backup anything & everything important on the mSD card first.
I'm guessing that the mSD card wasn't fully reformatted and setup properly.
Quick key steps: make sure you do a full dalvik, cache & system wipe first (after backing up via CWM 2.x - recommended verison over 4.x or newer 5.x) and format ext3/4 with 1MB space, move/copy ZIP file back to ROM and select it to flash/install, continue with full setup, power down & restart.
You will need to re-install Titanium Backup & A2SDGUI from Market (it's now Google Play, once your account is setup/restored) and check your memory/storage with A2SDGUI, it should show plenty of available/free space for internal, system/rom and SD/ext card usage.
If not, re-check your steps and repeat it for proper installation. If it's working, A2SD will dynamically move & free up plenty of space for Apps, I have over 50 (market) apps of them in addition to the default/custom Rom's Apps, and 2 verisons (soon to be 3) of Angry Birds running on it.
A 8GB mSD is the minimum that I would use, a 16GB mSD is better with all the CWM files that you will store on it, plus MP3 and videos, etc.
FYI - mine device's readings are:
Internal memory free (total) 93MB (171MB)
SD-Ext free (total) 555MB (914MB)
/cache/free (total) 86MB (88MB)
Ram free (total) 226MB (415MB)
A corrupt installation will not display all of the above. I have yet to come across after trying other App2SD apps out in the "Market" that work and can free up so much "extra" for the Vpad7 ... YMMV
Good luck & if you are not sure, please post your results/space as shown under A2SD as written by DT.
Link of my space and u will see how much free of my viewpad7. And the most important is no app on m-sd. It's all in ext3.
http://db.tt/YTSbK5Ss
Sent from my ViewPad7 using xda premium
Okay, guess I'll just have to stop worrying lol

[Q] Avatarrom / JB 4.2: memory issues - not enough space

Several weeks ago I installed the Avatarrom with Jelly Bean 4.2 on my Galaxy S2 I9100. At first I was very pleased with everything. It was much faster, and in many ways better. Since then I've installed two updates. I'm constantly running out of memory. I cannot read my Gmail using the default gmail app anymore (your device doesn't have enough storage space to sync). Updating apps in the playstore doesn't work (Insufficient storage available). I removed many apps, cleared the general cache and that of many apps, moved numerous apps to the external SD, and that freed up enough memory to get the rest working, but not for long. With the second update, things seemed improved and I could open gmail again, but only for two days.
I've installed the app DiskUsage. This reports the following:
App storage (system ram I suppose)
Total 2015 MB
System data: 1645 MB
Applications: 309 MB
Free: 60 MB
Storage card
Total 11781 MB
Free 4900 MB
Storage SD card
total 14972 MB
6700 MB free
If I remember correctly the system data was "only" 1200MB when installing the avatarrom. Now it's 1645MB. How can that be? My phone has 2GB system memory, and if I'm correct there are not many phones with more than that. So if it grows 200MB with each update, something's wrong, isn't it? Or am I missing something? Should I clear some other cache or download folder? Does the free space on the storage card make a difference? Can I increase the system memory space, like resizing a partition?
roger9000 said:
Several weeks ago I installed the Avatarrom with Jelly Bean 4.2 on my Galaxy S2 I9100. At first I was very pleased with everything. It was much faster, and in many ways better. Since then I've installed two updates. I'm constantly running out of memory. I cannot read my Gmail using the default gmail app anymore (your device doesn't have enough storage space to sync). Updating apps in the playstore doesn't work (Insufficient storage available). I removed many apps, cleared the general cache and that of many apps, moved numerous apps to the external SD, and that freed up enough memory to get the rest working, but not for long. With the second update, things seemed improved and I could open gmail again, but only for two days.
I've installed the app DiskUsage. This reports the following:
App storage (system ram I suppose)
Total 2015 MB
System data: 1645 MB
Applications: 309 MB
Free: 60 MB
Storage card
Total 11781 MB
Free 4900 MB
Storage SD card
total 14972 MB
6700 MB free
If I remember correctly the system data was "only" 1200MB when installing the avatarrom. Now it's 1645MB. How can that be? My phone has 2GB system memory, and if I'm correct there are not many phones with more than that. So if it grows 200MB with each update, something's wrong, isn't it? Or am I missing something? Should I clear some other cache or download folder? Does the free space on the storage card make a difference? Can I increase the system memory space, like resizing a partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clear the cache files occasionally, every app generates cache data like Chrome Browser can generate more than 100mb of cache over a period of time.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Many apps store data on the system /data partition, the only chance to get more free space in the standard way is:
- remove unused apps
- move apps and/or data to sd (but not all apps will alow that)
This should give you some additional free memory, but yes, I agree, the /data partition is a bit small.
Hey, my friend has the same problem.
I installed him 3 different 4.1 JB roms, but the problem is same in all 3 roms.
We did factory reset and also wiped phone in recovery mode, but it didn't help.
We also tried this with sd card in phone and without sd card with phone, no difference at all.
What should my friend do to fix this?

CM12 to CM14: 3 GB ext3 partition still free but no more app can be installed

Hello.
I guess the following is an almost general CM problem at low ROM space. That's why I post it here...
Is there any reason why I cannot install as many apps as the internal memory allows me with enough space?
It is about Xperia 2011 (still 512 MB ROM internal memory):
CM12: Regular 512MB ROM is 'expanded' by a separate ext3 or ext 4 partition on SD card.
CM13..14: No extra partition is necessary.
The following experience I made with any of the versions CM12 to CM14 (e.g. on Sony Xperia Ray or Neo):
The more apps I installed the longer I had to wait for the completion. The same with deinstallations!
Even after the complete and successful download in GooglePlay it then needs several minutes until the progress bar changes to "app is been installed", independent from the installed app. What can be the reason for that phenomena?
This experience may have made everybody having this constellation cause it appeared here very reliable at any CM version!
However, I thought I could live with that. But after I installed about 15 own apps the launcher (here: Trebouchet) crashed directly after I installed the 16th app. When I uninstalled it the system runs stable again.
I attached to this messages the related CM12 bug report. Can this help you?
Also strange: The Android storage management says the following about the internal memory:
* Complete space: 6,63 GB
* Available: 3,70 GB
* Apps: 1,66 GB
* Cache data: 174 MB
Where is the remaining space of 1,1 GB then?...
So who could give an explanation...
1) why the installation/deinstallation time systematically increases (up to 10 minutes and more) with the increasing number of installed apps?
2) why there is a limited number of apps I am allowed to install? (there is still enough space on my 6 GB ext3 F2FS partition left!)
3) how I can solve both problems but especially avoid the launcher crash?
Thank you so much for your help!
Hello to all of you,
I would be happy already if someone of you would report about his/her experiences (with comparable conditions) and inform me if my problem is usual/known or an exception!
MANY thanks for that!

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