[Q] Minfree and other memory freeing processes - HTC One X+

Is there any other system besides minfree, which frees up memory in android? Have strange behavior of FBReader, which I set to OOM -17 (both processes), chmod to r/o oom_adj files to force it to stick and still cant hold it in memory. It seems to me, that after some time when I dont use phone (hour or two) it is just released and starting again instead of just resuming from memory. If I try to force FBR from memory just by running many other programs, it sticks there no problem. I can run everything it never happened to me that FBR is released and starting again. But when I sleep phone ane leave it, then after some unpredictable time, FBR (and other apps) are just released and starting again. It seems to me, that there is running other process, which just releases apps in Empty app state. Or maybe there is some timeout for empty app, which is then automaticaly ended?
I'm using Nik3r EX8 kernel with 192mb swap enabled, latest viper rom.

Wlk said:
Is there any other system besides minfree, which frees up memory in android? Have strange behavior of FBReader, which I set to OOM -17 (both processes), chmod to r/o oom_adj files to force it to stick and still cant hold it in memory. It seems to me, that after some time when I dont use phone (hour or two) it is just released and starting again instead of just resuming from memory. If I try to force FBR from memory just by running many other programs, it sticks there no problem. I can run everything it never happened to me that FBR is released and starting again. But when I sleep phone ane leave it, then after some unpredictable time, FBR (and other apps) are just released and starting again. It seems to me, that there is running other process, which just releases apps in Empty app state. Or maybe there is some timeout for empty app, which is then automaticaly ended?
I'm using Nik3r EX8 kernel with 192mb swap enabled, latest viper rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You`ve probably already heard this but android will automatically free up ram by killing of the launcher/system processes as a user app draws more ram, if you run out, android will kill the app using the most ram, usually the app you are trying to use hence crashing/stopping. You can tell if something is using too much ram when the launcher/Htc Sense frequently reloads. If you experience this flash the 256mb swap. Leave minfrees as stock, that way multitasking will actually work (with swap mod). If that doesn`t work, ARHD 6.5 has an enhance multitasking tweak in aroma, download the rom, unzip and in the aroma or extra folder just extract the mod and copy to your phone using root explorer.

I use the ultimate minfree setting in Viper settings, you have to disable usb debugging in developer settings for this to work i read somewhere, restart once set.
-smc

ryanjsoo said:
You`ve probably already heard this but android will automatically free up ram by killing of the launcher/system processes as a user app draws more ram, if you run out, android will kill the app using the most ram, usually the app you are trying to use hence crashing/stopping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, this is Minfree proces, but my problem is bit different. It seems to me, that system has enough ram and allows me to run quite a lot of apps without forcing my FBReader out of memory - when I try in one session. I even set FBR to have OOM value -17, which should force Minfree to ignore this process completely, same as it should do for launcher. But as soon as I leave phone for some time in sleep mode, there seems to be some other mechanism besides Minfree. And this one kills my app - and I dunno why and what is it...

somemadcaaant said:
I use the ultimate minfree setting in Viper settings, you have to disable usb debugging in developer settings for this to work i read somewhere, restart once set.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to restart, because I set it without it before, but it didnt hold after phone wake up - already reported this in Viper thread. Lets see if it gets better with reboot - and it doesnt. You can easily check in adb shell by running
Code:
cat /sys/module/lowmemorykiller/parameters/minfree
Minfree is reset every time you sleep/wake up phone...

I confirm the problem.
Whichever ROM I use, I can hardly reply SMS/Whatsapp without loosing Browser or CoolReader.
Actually, I counted limit of 2 hot apps.
The scenario is:
1) I read a book or RSS-reader
2) I receive a text via SMS or WhatsApp
3) For answering I need a browsing for some fact-quoting. At the moment I open a browser, the first application (Book or RSS reader) is killed.
Scenario may vary, but when I open third app, the first one is killed for sure.
I tuned minfree as well, and detected that it is overwritten every reboot too. I usually have 160-200MB free of RAM, and minfree values, either mine (24MB) or default (80MB) are always lower than actual size of available memory.
I switched on "Developer mode" (touch 7 times something in About System. probably ROM version), and specified background limit "At most 4 apps" instead of "Standard limit" (unknown to me). It doesn't help either - third app kills the first.
And I never managed to obtain a solution.
Just adding my vote to the problem (thus bumping the topic).

Related

Best task killer..

Can anyone suggesr me which is the best task killer available in the market..m using task killer from rhythm software..
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
gupta.anurag08 said:
Can anyone suggesr me which is the best task killer available in the market..m using task killer from rhythm software..
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running on the Advanced Task Killer, I do not have any issues with them. What's your problem?
I tried 2 3 task killers and all were showing different 'available memory'
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Yeah, ATK is the best task killer app I've been using
gupta.anurag08 said:
I tried 2 3 task killers and all were showing different 'available memory'
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is because different task killer have different security policy, which allow them to show the system apps or not. So, in the lower security policy, you can see more running apps and gain more memory after kill them
i do have a question. why are you using a task killer?
I'm not having a dig at people that use them, but more trying to educate people that they are not required
"free memory" is not indicative of a healthy system in linux based machines.
please remember the way in which linux based OS's (which Android is) handles memory. Basically, if you have a heap of free memory it is simply wasted, the OS is not running any more efficiently. It is actually slower.
Here is a quick overview. Written for the desktop computer perspective, but translates over to a mobile phone OS quite well.
"Traditional Unix tools like 'top' often report a surprisingly small amount of free memory after a system has been running for a while. For instance, after about 3 hours of uptime, the machine I'm writing this on reports under 60 MB of free memory, even though I have 512 MB of RAM on the system. Where does it all go?
The biggest place it's being used is in the disk cache, which is currently over 290 MB. This is reported by top as "cached". Cached memory is essentially free, in that it can be replaced quickly if a running (or newly starting) program needs the memory.
The reason Linux uses so much memory for disk cache is because the RAM is wasted if it isn't used. Keeping the cache means that if something needs the same data again, there's a good chance it will still be in the cache in memory. Fetching the information from there is around 1,000 times quicker than getting it from the hard disk. If it's not found in the cache, the hard disk needs to be read anyway, but in that case nothing has been lost in time."
Read more here - http://www.linuxhowtos.org/System/Linux Memory Management.htm
So u mean to say that we shud not use task killers?
Wat if i exit a game in btw then wat happens..will it get automatically killed??
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
gupta.anurag08 said:
So u mean to say that we shud not use task killers?
Wat if i exit a game in btw then wat happens..will it get automatically killed??
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, that is the reason why i have to use task killer
For me, it help me save much of battery
Since I stopped using a task killer my battery is better.
Don't use a task killer for a week and watch the difference.
gupta.anurag08 said:
So u mean to say that we shud not use task killers?
Wat if i exit a game in btw then wat happens..will it get automatically killed??
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes and yes!
if your phone requires the resources, it will kill tasks that are no longer required. its all automatic. let it do it itself and you will have a much happier phone
AND better battery life, because the android OS is not continually restarting processes that your task killer deems unnecessary. I would trust the actual OS over a 3rd party app. It is designed that way for a reason (see my previous post).
mrtim123 said:
i do have a question. why are you using a task killer?
I'm not having a dig at people that use them, but more trying to educate people that they are not required
"free memory" is not indicative of a healthy system in linux based machines.
please remember the way in which linux based OS's (which Android is) handles memory. Basically, if you have a heap of free memory it is simply wasted, the OS is not running any more efficiently. It is actually slower.
Here is a quick overview. Written for the desktop computer perspective, but translates over to a mobile phone OS quite well.
"Traditional Unix tools like 'top' often report a surprisingly small amount of free memory after a system has been running for a while. For instance, after about 3 hours of uptime, the machine I'm writing this on reports under 60 MB of free memory, even though I have 512 MB of RAM on the system. Where does it all go?
The biggest place it's being used is in the disk cache, which is currently over 290 MB. This is reported by top as "cached". Cached memory is essentially free, in that it can be replaced quickly if a running (or newly starting) program needs the memory.
The reason Linux uses so much memory for disk cache is because the RAM is wasted if it isn't used. Keeping the cache means that if something needs the same data again, there's a good chance it will still be in the cache in memory. Fetching the information from there is around 1,000 times quicker than getting it from the hard disk. If it's not found in the cache, the hard disk needs to be read anyway, but in that case nothing has been lost in time."
Read more here - http://www.linuxhowtos.org/System/Linux Memory Management.htm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The idea is absolutely right if memory is being used for apps you are likely to open frequently. ATK allows you to unselect the apps you want to keep running. That way you can unselect the ones you use the most and then use the widget to kill everything else.
I notice when I press the home screen many apps don't kill them selfs and after a while I have loads of apps running and the system starts to lag, specially when I try to run something else.
There are advantages in both approaches and I find a mixed combination (available with ATK) makes it best, although the user need to use some common sense to do it right. Killing everything means the system will be more responsive but regularly used apps will take longer to start up. Not killing means the apps you use a lot "startup" faster when you use them repeatedly (as in fact they never stop running) but after a bit the system will lag when using other apps and may need to use pagefile/swap to atone for the lack of free RAM. That causes page faults which make the system even slower.
The iphone developers aren't complete idiots for killing every app. They have a priority for system responsiveness and they did achieve it at the cost of background running apps. I like the possibility to choose what I want to keep running and kill the apps I'm not likely to use again and it's one of the reasons I picked android.
A little Offtopic to both ifanboys and ihaters:
I never owned any apple product as I think of them as over priced. That said I think the iphone has great merit and I doubt very much we would have Android if the iphone didn't pave the way. Besides I jailbreak my brother's 3G and made it multitask enabled. Now it runs apps in background and there is little diference between it and my android. Except for the extra 200€ it cost, the lower hardware specs and expensive service provider contract my brother pays for a mandatory 24 months, while my X10 cost ~65% initially and came free of any contract.
well said, PCO
pco.vaz said:
I notice when I press the home screen many apps don't kill them selfs and after a while I have loads of apps running and the system starts to lag, specially when I try to run something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I and others have found, which is why some people choose to use one, myself included. Someone posted a link to an article last week with similar information posted here about the OS handling itself, but the comments section of the article were full of comments similar to what pco and myself have said, so it's all down to personal preference whether or not you choose to use one.
I did use a task killer for a while, then stopped. Personally my phone is better without. I have nothing except weather that updates automatically, I do it manually when I need it.
It is one of those things, just like on a laptop, everyone has different configurations and usage patterns that results will vary.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Don't apps exit when you keep hitting the back button? And for games doesn't hitting exit shut down the app?
I thought its a feature that apps don't close when you hit the home button?
gavriel18 said:
Don't apps exit when you keep hitting the back button? And for games doesn't hitting exit shut down the app?
I thought its a feature that apps don't close when you hit the home button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The browser for instance doesn't. Same with many other. I think it's up to each individual developer to program that behavior for his app.
I got Visual task switcher and I notice lots of apps just stay running forever.
Task killer caused probs for me. A daily switch off doesnt hurt, but have run mine for 7 days and been ok. Even a bberry cant do that!
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Guys, don't use home button to exit apps.
Will just send them in background.
Use the back button... this won't exit (most of) the apps but will put them in a "sleep" state so, next time when you will use it, it will load faster.
So, again, home button will put the app in background, still running.
Test it with an audio player for ex.
Or a browser... send it in background with home button and the player will still play or the browser will still have that page loaded.
With back button, after all views are "closed" the app will close too (well, put in sleep state).
I use ATK only to kill the apps i use once in a while ... the rest of the stuff, is always in memory.
My X10 has usually about 25Mb free
Actually I used ATK to kill application that need to connect to internet, and in my case there is extra charge payment. But after i used ATK I don't notice that the battery live is longer. So I ever ask someone in my thread about after ATK kill applications and so forth....
And somebody told me to quit using ATK and now I realize that the battery last longer than before.
But one thing still bother me is:
Setting - Wireless control - mobile network - mms & data (no checklist)
means: I can not access internet and receive or send mms either.
Actually I only need MMS, not internet.
May be somebody can help me solve this problem.
Thanks.
But my conclusion:
NO NEED ADVANCE TASK KILLER.
After I uninstall ATK, my phone still running smooth and the battery last longer.
May be we just need best Cache cleaner. But I still trying some of that.
@pco.vaz
I don't want to be mean, but you are wrong.
Even those iOS versions that are not multitasking enabled keep apps in memory. Leaving an app on an iPhone resets its UI state and halts its processes, but parts of the app are left in the memory. You can see the difference in loading speed if you decide to reopen it.
There were apps that could show memory usage and clean it on the App Store, but Apple removed them. You can still get them through Cydia and see for yourself how memory management on iTouch devices actually works. Basically the iPhone goes as low as 3-4 megs of free memory and handles it in smiliar way as Android.
On both Android and iOS, apps that are in background are paused after a while and do not use processor cycles. Memory they keep occupying is overwritten if needed by another process.
I do not recommend using task killer to people who do not know what they are doing exactly. Killing even simple processes often causes phone instability and drains battery faster, as others have already said.
If you feel your phone is stalled, perform a simple reboot. There are apps that run in background (in most cases you are warned about this) or are poorly coded that could cause this behavior. Other than that, inbuilt application manager is able to force close apps pretty well, if you need to kill a single app causing problems

Can someone explain me few things about running process (startup aps) on Mini Pro

I can't understand something on android system.
When I boot my mini pro, I can see in a (for example) Open Advanced Task Killer lot of aps.. (see attachment)
Now I see Skype in a list of active processes. I do not understand is it now skype active and loaded in system? I asked this because I'm not signed in to skype, and it is configured to not loaded when system boot.
If not in which state are now all this apps?
I have same questions for other few programs, for example Samba file sharing. It is disabled in his config. I mean apk is not freezed. But it is loaded in processes list!
I see that all those aps eat memory, so y question is, is there any solution to disable this aps and load it only when I want to use it, and when I closed them to stayed disable!
Thx for help.
this app are in background.. it dosent effect much your system.. usually it is automatically loaded.. just kill/forcekill the app if you need more memory...
Nothing wrong with it, these programs just autorun in background for functionality purposes.
When you actually start using an app, android will automatically free up memory to make that app work.
Carpe-Dimi said:
Nothing wrong with it, these programs just autorun in background for functionality purposes.
When you actually start using an app, android will automatically free up memory to make that app work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you didn't understand me..
These aps using my memory even they are not started and active..
That is the confusion at me!
like i said it just automatically loaded in background, if you want to free up memory you can just kill it...
if it is not being used at all you can just uninstall it.. but be perfectly sure if you uninstall a system app... it will free up memory and save battery life..
paradorx said:
like i said it just automatically loaded in background, if you want to free up memory you can just kill it...
if it is not being used at all you can just uninstall it.. but be perfectly sure if you uninstall a system app... it will free up memory and save battery life..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx..but, if they using my memory and "app's not running" then I do not understand the purpose why are loaded they?
Is there any solution to load they only when I need it, like in windows system?
I mean, when I close that app that it close fully and my memory freed up!
easyyu said:
I think you didn't understand me..
These aps using my memory even they are not started and active..
That is the confusion at me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely understood you
these apps are given memory by the android OS to run in background. there they do simple things such as syncing and checking for updates, or other things that i don't know of. this is functional, because when you open the app, it won't take forever to load and do what u want it to do.
However...
If you open an application (so it actively runs in the foreground) and it needs memory, the android OS will take the memory from your background apps and give it to the foreground app to use.
so, nothing to worry about as it has a functional purpose and won't interfere with your actual phone usage
if you don't want apps to use a lot of memory tho, you could try setting the vm heap size to something lower. (I believe 32M is standard) but this also limits the memory usage of the foreground app.
Carpe-Dimi said:
I completely understood you
these apps are given memory by the android OS to run in background. there they do simple things such as syncing and checking for updates, or other things that i don't know of. this is functional, because when you open the app, it won't take forever to load and do what u want it to do.
However...
If you open an application (so it actively runs in the foreground) and it needs memory, the android OS will take the memory from your background apps and give it to the foreground app to use.
so, nothing to worry about as it has a functional purpose and won't interfere with your actual phone usage
if you don't want apps to use a lot of memory tho, you could try setting the vm heap size to something lower. (I believe 32M is standard) but this also limits the memory usage of the foreground app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for answer..but this still no option for me.
I wanted to "stoped" apps at boot, and just then used it when I need it. And when I exit from some app to free memory and fully exit from android system like in windows systems.
easyyu said:
I can't understand something on android system.
When I boot my mini pro, I can see in a (for example) Open Advanced Task Killer lot of aps.. (see attachment)
Now I see Skype in a list of active processes. I do not understand is it now skype active and loaded in system? I asked this because I'm not signed in to skype, and it is configured to not loaded when system boot.
If not in which state are now all this apps?
I have same questions for other few programs, for example Samba file sharing. It is disabled in his config. I mean apk is not freezed. But it is loaded in processes list!
I see that all those aps eat memory, so y question is, is there any solution to disable this aps and load it only when I want to use it, and when I closed them to stayed disable!
Thx for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are running on background and are programmed to start when booting ur phone, some apps like IM+ has the option to disable it, try doing it...
Hope it helps
XxLordxX said:
They are running on background and are programmed to start when booting ur phone, some apps like IM+ has the option to disable it, try doing it...
Hope it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But most of them have not, and thats the problem!!
For example, skype and many other.

[Q] Though use swap it is always out of memory

I use 200MB swap file and 98 swappiness setting in Urukconfig.But it use RAM in most time and seldom use swap.Is this because the Swap file is in internal storage but not in a fast SD card ?I`ve got a micro SDHC (class10) 4GB and I want to format it into 2parts.One is used as swap partition.The other one is a FAT or NTFS filesystem.But I don`t know What is the name of the 2 parts in /dev.One more question,can swap partition be a EXT3 or EXT4?
Thank you for reply.My English is not good.Sorry~~
What did u use to "measure" the free memory? How does it affect u?
In general u have to know that android does not have the windows like "free memory" as it tries to keep as much apps in "background" as possible. To load em faster at next startup.
Many programs have the strange behaviour to have several listeners to startup every once a while or they even load at startup. You can check this with "Autorun Maganger"
With "Task Manager" you can see what apps are currently running. You will be surprised what apps are loaded right after startup - even u never started em
Anyway having "low" memory at runtime isn't to bad normaly - as android will kill unused apps to free memory if needed. Just if the value is permanent under about 35MB the system will get sluggish.
Regarding your swap: "I use 200MB swap file and 98 swappiness"
Sounds heavily wrong to me. As the CPU will be permanently use for swapping apps and will slow down your device meanwhile...
The problem of android and swap is that active processes (like widgets, services, the running program) can't be swapped. Swap just gets u the ability to hold inactive apps in memory to load up faster at next startup. (if u want to know more about it read about the "life cycle" of android apps on google) But since they are on a VERY slow memory compared to RAM the reload process actualy isn't that much faster...
Try reading the Tweak guide in my signature to learn more about memory management.
Before, I got the same issue like this so I used Autorun Manager to manage some auto startup and backround running apps but It didnt work. Now I find an other solution. That is TiTan Backup Pro. I use TiTan to freeze some apps that always appear in backruond running apps like Market, Fring, Textfree...
Although It takes more time but It may save the battery and ram. Dont worry about the next time when u need to use these freezed apps because every times u freeze an app, u can defrost it immediately. So that app will not run at backround until u run that app again.
That the way Im using to save battery and ram
kiemthu123 said:
Before, I got the same issue like this so I used Autorun Manager to manage some auto startup and backround running apps but It didnt work. Now I find an other solution. That is TiTan Backup Pro. I use TiTan to freeze some apps that always appear in backruond running apps like Market, Fring, Textfree...
Although It takes more time but It may save the battery and ram. Dont worry about the next time when u need to use these freezed apps because every times u freeze an app, u can defrost it immediately. So that app will not run at backround until u run that app again.
That the way Im using to save battery and ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thats what i use to do - but u have to check with autorun manager before to know wich apps to "frost"
Thank u very much
256MB RAM is too little.

Why is it pointless to use a task killer

It 'just a habit of many displaying applications in the background to go on the Android Market and install a task killer for fear that some application in the background throughout the battery consumption and slow down the phone memory consuming.
First Step
Android is the son of Linux and not Windows, Windows programs make sense that clean and optimize your memory, not in linux and behaves the same way if you have 10 or 100MB of free memory.
How to manage Android applications
Android applications and processes have defined 3 stages:
1) Running
2) Break In
3) Stopped
Each application runs in its own process when Android starts the process need to be made and ends when no longer needed, it lives in its own world and its code running is isolated from the rest with a Virtual own machine, it is assigned an ID whose permissions are visible to the user and 'application.
If an application needs to share files with another application creates a unique ID to save memory with a single Virtual Machine she shared.
Services are active as long as they need as well as activities that require the data connection and every process of Android. To understand whether an application or any process needs to connect and see if there are updates that it is active so that makes this operation.
It is not good or terminate these operations because the process will start all over again immediately active or when we are going to open an application it will take longer to open.
All processes are terminated when there is no longer needed or when the memory required by other processes.
If a user leaves a task for a long time, the system deletes all activities except the root, and when the user returns to the task it is like you had left.
An application is running when in fact you're running and is the first system plan
When it is no longer at the center of the 'attention but can still be visible is paused and can be killata by the system in case of need for extreme lack of memory
Finally, the application is blocked, but retains all the information is no longer visible on the screen and is in the background, can be killata from Android for any other activity that requires memory.
Summing Android is designed to kill the tasks when
You need more memory
They finished their work
Are not used for a long time
Kill process "by hand" can lead to side effects such as non-receipt of messages, slowdowns, crashes, etc. widget
The majority of applications closes with the BACK button and in any case by pressing the HOME Android close the task after it has been in the background for a certain period of time.
The majority of services running in the background using very little memory when they are not doing something so all other processes (reporting, etc.)
Domada: But why do I open google maps, facebook etc. mail.
These programs are not actually "open" if you notice are all programs that need a network connection, when you turn on the phone they do nothing but check for updates and notifications and then close.
If these activities killiamo happens that most of them will re-open to start all over again or take longer to open when we need them, or worse, will not give us accurate and up to date or will not work properly as well as make a lot more processor.
stempox said:
It 'just a habit of many displaying applications in the background to go on the Android Market and install a task killer for fear that some application in the background throughout the battery consumption and slow down the phone memory consuming.
First Step
Android is the son of Linux and not Windows, Windows programs make sense that clean and optimize your memory, not in linux and behaves the same way if you have 10 or 100MB of free memory.
How to manage Android applications
Android applications and processes have defined 3 stages:
1) Running
2) Break In
3) Stoppati
Each application runs in its own process when Android starts the process need to be made and ends when no longer needed, it lives in its own world and its code running is isolated from the rest with a Virtual own machine, it is assigned an ID whose permissions are visible to the user and 'application.
If an application needs to share files with another application creates a unique ID to save memory with a single Virtual Machine she shared.
Services are active as long as they need as well as activities that require the data connection and every process of Android. To understand whether an application or any process needs to connect and see if there are updates that it is active so that makes this operation.
It is not good or terminate these operations because the process will start all over again immediately active or when we are going to open an application it will take longer to open.
All processes are terminated when there is no longer needed or when the memory required by other processes.
If a user leaves a task for a long time, the system deletes all activities except the root, and when the user returns to the task it is like you had left.
An application is running when in fact you're running and is the first system plan
When it is no longer at the center of the 'attention but can still be visible is paused and can be killata by the system in case of need for extreme lack of memory
Finally, the application is blocked, but retains all the information is no longer visible on the screen and is in the background, can be killata from Android for any other activity that requires memory.
Summing Android is designed to kill the tasks when
You need more memory
They finished their work
Are not used for a long time
Kill process "by hand" can lead to side effects such as non-receipt of messages, slowdowns, crashes, etc. widget
The majority of applications closes with the BACK button and in any case by pressing the HOME Android close the task after it has been in the background for a certain period of time.
The majority of services running in the background using very little memory when they are not doing something so all other processes (reporting, etc.)
Domada: But why do I open google maps, facebook etc. mail.
These programs are not actually "open" if you notice are all programs that need a network connection, when you turn on the phone they do nothing but check for updates and notifications and then close.
If these activities killiamo happens that most of them will re-open to start all over again or take longer to open when we need them, or worse, will not give us accurate and up to date or will not work properly as well as make a lot more processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I'm likely to get criticised by some for saying this but some of us have to use task killers.
My phone has an average of 140 mb free after it boots up. Add to that apps that stay in ram even when you close them and you can have as little as thirty or fourty mb free.
I've seen apps such as facebook and tapatalk, and even some games, taking up ram even though I don't want them used once I exit from them...and when my phone gets to around fifty mb free or less it can get slow and unresponsive.
A quick kill of un needed apps makes the os perform as it should again.
It's nice to say android clears up ram as needed, and it does, but try playing a decent hd game when your ram is low and, unless you kill some apps first, you're left with a black frozen screen while it tries clearing some ram. In some cases your phone can be unusable for a while, on mine when this happens the capacitive buttons stop responding to keypresses.
Now on ics with 1 gb ram this isn't an issue but for those of us with less ram and / or an older os it is.
Ideally we could configure non system apps so that if we don't want them in ram when finished with them then they cannot auto restart.
It is a simple fact that two identical phones will perform differently if one has lots of free ram and one has most ram in use, I use an on demand task killer so that apps that stay around on exit can be stopped from eating ram and slowing my phone down so for me a task killer is not pointless specifically because it frees up ram so that something memory intensive can be run without slowing my system while android tries to make room for it.
So while I agree with the theory, in practice task killers can be useful or at least on demand ones can.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
I agree with how Linux handles its applications. I switch between WinXP and Ubuntu and the overall way tasks are utilized are similar, but linux does a better job at handling running applications. On windows i have Chrome open and with 9 tabs open im hitting 1.5 gb ram used. Same situation on linux i find myself hitting around 500mb of ram used. Im sure this applies to android as well.
On a side note i find that people who "Kill Tasks" are just running them because they can and are usually fixated on seeing a large amount of ram free. It just adds another reason to stay on their device. Just my opinion.
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
gruntparty said:
On a side note i find that people who "Kill Tasks" are just running them because they can and are usually fixated on seeing a large amount of ram free. It just adds another reason to stay on their device. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use one to make sure my phones already low ram does not drop so low my phone becomes slow, which it does when you get to even just fifty mb free ram left. And to kill those applications which do not exit properly.
On an android phone that has 512 mb ram if ram gets eaten up the phone goes slow, and I know it is not just me because other users with similar setups have same issues. So I think it is too general an assumption to say we all use task killers for say a cosmetic rather than practical reason though I'm sure some do.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
Markuzy said:
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately this only stops apps auto starting at boot and once you have used an app and exited it, a lot stay in ram.
Some restart when killed some don't but when your phone is on permanently as many are, having low ram can quickly be a problem.
I think part of that is the phone manufacturer as 512 mb ram, with just 140 mb free at boot, is rubbish on a dual core 3D phone but whatever the cause I find killing tasks helps make phone run better.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
I used to kill tasks when i was on Android 2.1 an 2.3, but since 4.0 i feel my phone gone strangely fast, and i don't need to use task killers anymore. Phone is LG GT540, so...
lewymaro said:
I used to kill tasks when i was on Android 2.1 an 2.3, but since 4.0 i feel my phone gone strangely fast, and i don't need to use task killers anymore. Phone is LG GT540, so...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to love my gt540. Didn't know you could run ics on it though, good phone for the price but didn't like the resistive screen though the phone itself can take some serious punishment and still keep working.
I love lg for their build quality, pretty hard to break them with dropping etc, but unfortunately they do bad with the software side.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
Good topic, I don't like the task killer!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
In general, yes task killers are bad. But occasionally it IS necessary to kill an app. Sometimes an app will freeze. Then it needs to be killed to be able to use it again. But you can easily just go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, find the app and then Force Stop it. So there's no real need to have a task killer. Although I do like to have Watchdog on my phone, as it shows the amount of available CPU cycles being taken up by each app, so you can make sure background apps aren't using too much CPU. (It does also show RAM usage, but it sorts apps by CPU usage, by default at least).
Linux has nothing to do with the management of an application, the applications under Android are sandboxed in java and there is this dalvik machine that takes care of everything.
I don't get why people keep mentioning this kernel over and over, also for the biggest part of its history Android did not use a real linux kernel with vanilla flavour, only recently the Android kernel was merged with the linux kernel mainline.
This is one of the very first Google video about Android http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6Ju0xhUW8
edit: In this series of videos there are also references to memory management and app management.
Markuzy said:
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right
I do the same thing
In cm9 you can enable auto close apps with long press back button
So I don't need a task killer
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

[Q] Free memory and apps starting again and gain

Not sure if it is wrong, just would like to get some explanation of this. Phone has bit less than 1GB ram available for apps and default behavior of Androuid should be to use it all for caching recently run proceses, because there is no difference if memory is free or taken - it uses same power.
I have Viper ROM 1.06 and using Nik3r kernel, tested with and without dataswap mod (128MB). Even tried to tweak Viper settings for minfree setting, using Multitasking ultimate profile. And still the same behavior. When I check available memory, it always sits around 750 used out of 980MB. Regardless what and how many apps I run.
Problem is, that when phone is not used for some time I see almost every time apps starting instead of fast switching from memory. Its mainly visible for me on FBReader, which I use to read ebooks every time I have little spare time. I pull phone from pocket, start FBReader and voila, it is starting from scratch loading book. Its 2-3s, but still. its relatively small app, shouldnt be killed most of the time thanks to system policies on free ram.
When I try to play with phone and run as many apps (start FBReader, home and run Chrome+load 2 tabs, run Camera, run Viber, run Tapatalk and back to FBReader) to force it to close my FBreader from memory, everything works fine and it swaps back in immediately. Even though checking Apps tab in settings shows memory usage about 750-800/980, not fully stuffed with cached apps (think its not showing correct numbers? Or not showing memory taken by apps in empty state?). But anyway. I give up, turn off my phone and let it be for some time. Then I check for example for SMS and would like to continue reading my book. And FBReader is loading as if it was closed. Why?
Seems to me like phone does cleaning of cached stuff in memory after some time when it is not used? Cant say precise when it happens, it just annoys me to see that system shows all the time around 750/980MB used and still is unable to keep my app in memory for longer period when it works fine if I test it directly.
Any ideas/tips/explanation?
Hi, I have the same issue with the fb messenger (chat heads)
I
Android still shut down and it doesn't restart...
Any idea ?
Sent from my ARCHOS 80 COBALT using xda app-developers app

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