ChromeOS has become a RAM hog

ChromeOS has become a RAM hog - Chromebooks

I have noticed over the last couple years that the resource usage of Chrome OS has continued to balloon beyond any common sense. I can't be the only one can I?
I have two fairly high performance Chromebooks. One, a Google Slate with the m3 and 8G of RAM and a Dell 7410 i5 with 16G RAM. When I first got the Slate, I could run Linux no problem with plenty of RAM to spare. It would startup with less than 3G in use. Now, it has become almost pointless. The Slate boots up to the Chrome OS desktop with less than 3G of free RAM so running Linux or anything that requires significant RAM just causes the OS to start allocating compressed ZRAM.
The Dell 7410 still performs reasonably well but only because it has 16G of physical RAM. Still, it now boots up with almost 8G of RAM in use before I launch a single thing!
Google seems to want power users to take ChromeOS seriously so they've added all kinds of great features like ARCVM and the ability to run multiple Linux VM's. Yet, they still seem to be developing the OS as though it's 10 years ago. Back then they could allocate all the system RAM as they chose because the Chrome browser was the only app the system could run.
Neither MacOS, Windows or various Linux distros go so far as to consume almost 50% of the memory on boot while operating on hardware with 16G or more RAM. What is Google thinking!? A good OS should prioritize resources for user applications and minimize resource consumption by the core OS.
I'm thinking about reflashing my Slate to make it useful again as there is no sign that Google is going to make ChromeOS lean again, anytime soon.

Arpman96 said:
I have noticed over the last couple years that the resource usage of Chrome OS has continued to balloon beyond any common sense. I can't be the only one can I?
I have two fairly high performance Chromebooks. One, a Google Slate with the m3 and 8G of RAM and a Dell 7410 i5 with 16G RAM. When I first got the Slate, I could run Linux no problem with plenty of RAM to spare. It would startup with less than 3G in use. Now, it has become almost pointless. The Slate boots up to the Chrome OS desktop with less than 3G of free RAM so running Linux or anything that requires significant RAM just causes the OS to start allocating compressed ZRAM.
The Dell 7410 still performs reasonably well but only because it has 16G of physical RAM. Still, it now boots up with almost 8G of RAM in use before I launch a single thing!
Google seems to want power users to take ChromeOS seriously so they've added all kinds of great features like ARCVM and the ability to run multiple Linux VM's. Yet, they still seem to be developing the OS as though it's 10 years ago. Back then they could allocate all the system RAM as they chose because the Chrome browser was the only app the system could run.
Neither MacOS, Windows or various Linux distros go so far as to consume almost 50% of the memory on boot while operating on hardware with 16G or more RAM. What is Google thinking!? A good OS should prioritize resources for user applications and minimize resource consumption by the core OS.
I'm thinking about reflashing my Slate to make it useful again as there is no sign that Google is going to make ChromeOS lean again, anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I say "Ditch Google!" That's ridiculous. I've heard that maybe you can install Linux instead.

You are correct. It's always an option to go into "Developer Mode" on Chromebooks and flash with a new OS image. The new image can be a Linux distro provided it has the right drivers. You still have to go into Developer Mode on every reboot to get past the BIOS but it works. Still, there's just no good reason for this if Google approached OS resource management like any other good OS.
At this point the 8G Slate boots with 2.5G free! That is appalling. Do these Google kiddies have a clue? One has to wonder if there is anybody at Google overseeing the architecture or if there are just 100's of little silos uninterested in how their combined drains on system resources may effect the actual usefulness of the OS.

Arpman96 said:
You are correct. It's always an option to go into "Developer Mode" on Chromebooks and flash with a new OS image. The new image can be a Linux distro provided it has the right drivers. You still have to go into Developer Mode on every reboot to get past the BIOS but it works. Still, there's just no good reason for this if Google approached OS resource management like any other good OS.
At this point the 8G Slate boots with 2.5G free! That is appalling. Do these Google kiddies have a clue? One has to wonder if there is anybody at Google overseeing the architecture or if there are just 100's of little silos uninterested in how their combined drains on system resources may effect the actual usefulness of the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Arpman96 said:
Still, there's just no good reason for this if Google approached OS resource management like any other good OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm honestly not sure why you would expect Google, a huge corporation that makes money by harvesting people's data and advertising, to actually care about making a lean and usable OS. Instead it is chock-full of spy-ware.
Arpman96 said:
At this point the 8G Slate boots with 2.5G free!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally I will never buy a Google or Apple product. This just assures me that I'm not missing out on anything!

Related

[Questionare] Android build/compile times

I wanted to put a list together to compare results of build times (PLEASE, no fan boys here!). The more info you can list, the better visibility is into the amount of time it takes. I'll start with my machine, what I built and how long it took.
The important parts are processor, ram, operating system, what android os you built, any tweaks you used, and if you have a ssd hdd. And, of course total time! I will list mine in a format for easy reading:
-Sony vaio vgn-nr110
-2gb of ram at 533mhz (upgraded )
-Intel pentium dual core t2310 processor
-running ubuntu at the time. I want to say it was version 10.04(been a while)
-no ssd. Regular laptop hdd
-built cm7 for Optimus s
-used the -j4 flag on make
=approx 4-6 hours (was cleaning while it ran because I knew it would take some time)
Mine was a full build/compile from scratch. Please state whether yours is or isn't, and if you used any special tweaks, etc. Do not include sync time in the total time as that is dependent on the Internet connection and not the machine itself (most people won't, but wanted to have it in here just in case)
My purpose behind this is to get a good idea of what type of system specs perform best with building android roms. If there are any tweaks or tricks that anyone would like to contribute, that would be great too! Please try to stick to the format that I have listed for my machine to make it easier for everyone to read.
As a treat: I will have more results for everyone in a week or two on a new machine.

Amd X2, 2 gb ram, 1tb hdd... Build time 4-5 hours, for cm9 for sprint sgs2, and 3-4 hours cm7
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Asus i5 normal HDD 8GB ram
cm9= 65 - 75 min _ simple mka bacon no -j
Cna = 75 - 90 min _ simple mka squish no -j
Aokp = 65-75 min _ simple mka bacon no -j
I try to not have anything else open not even file browser or chrome (usually it will add twenty to forty extra minutes if it's on) although these are my best estimate numbers, time results vary. I use cache and restart Ubuntu before building to let it take the lead over everything else. Building while the PC has been active for over a day seems to always take longer. Aokp has been the record holder for me. Slightly quicker than cm9.
Tcp!? Where you been hiding buddy?
We got you a cake for your birthday but it rusted. We made it out of old Android parts and waited to yell surprise but you never showed. Is you okay? Brb I gotta tweet that I found you on xda! Lol B) good to see you Partna...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Phenom II X6 2.7GHz, 4 GB RAM, dual 640GB Western Digital Caviar Black in RAID 0.
CM7 for LS670: 18 minutes, 38 seconds. Compile options: make -j12 bacon
Cannibal Open Touch recovery for LS670: 59 seconds. Compile options: make -j12 recoveryimage
HydroKernel for LS670/VM670: 1 minute, 13 seconds. Compile options: make -j12
CM10 for Nexus 7: 48 minutes. Compile options: make -j12 otapackage
Yes it is very important to not have any other programs open (I've even crashed my machine trying to do stuff while compiling with -j12), they will take up more RAM and more CPU time.

Thanks for the responses so far. I hope this can become a list that more people can use as a reference to tweaking their machine for building purposes. I haven't seen any sort of list around and when I do read about the amount of time it takes, I usually see an answer like "it takes however long it takes" which leads to no progress. And at the very least I believe it's cool to see what other's results are.
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

- Acer 5315
- Intel Celeron M 1,86 Ghz processor
- 1GB Ram
- 80GB HDD
on Ubuntu 10.04 it takes half an hour to compile a kernel with make command without any flag.
I will compile CM7 or ICS when i have free time just for fun to see the amount of time it takes, i guess it will take 22-24 hours
I am planning to change my laptop, this thread will be a good reference for me.

Core i3 2120 3.3ghz
Gigabyte Z68 mobo
8gb 1600 ram
Ubuntu 12 installed on a 100gb partition with 8gb swap on a Seagate Green (5900rpm) 1Tb DRIVE takes about 90 minutes to build CM9 for my Sensation.
I ordered a 120Gb OCZ Agility 3 SSD from tiger for $85 hopefully that will cut the time down significantly.
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium

AMD 3GHZ FX8120 Bulldozer Black Edition ;
16GB (1600) DDR3 ;
7200rpm 1TB HDD ;
Not Sure about the Motherboard without checking.
Linux Mint 13 ( 64 Bit )
EDIT: New build times.
aosp android-4.1.1_r4 ; removed previous out directory
full_panda-eng ; make -j12 49m6.429s
reboot
full_stingray-eng ; make -j16 32m47.270s
It came in around 38 minutes on a intial build of ICS time using make -j16.
Lately It's a little longer and I've been unable to get some fresh times because I don't have great cooling and it kept overheating and resetting because of hot whether.
It can be clocked to 5GHz with proper cooling and an SSD would bring the time down, I think, but given some reported times I am more than happy with that as it means I don't have to think twice about (re)building a rom.
In testing however I think this processor did fairly poor especially when up against similar Intel and looking at the couple of Intel times here I'd say they're the ones to go with.
Notes:
I always restart before building, I found it vital to restart after a repo sync as there seems to be a memoy leak in either repo or python, I don't know whether that has been fixed yet.
Incidentally I did Start a build on an Ubuntu VM which had 3 CPU Cores assigned and 4GB Ram, It was still going after 2 Days!

trevd said:
AMD 3GHZ FX8120 Bulldozer Black Edition ;
16GB (1600) DDR3 ;
7200rpm 1TB HDD ;
Not Sure about the Motherboard without checking.
Linux Mint 13 ( 64 Bit )
Incidentally I did Start a build on an Ubuntu VM which had 3 CPU Cores assigned and 4GB Ram, It was still going after 2 Days!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that doesnt seem right! lol.. really? not 2 whole days?

justlovejoy said:
that doesnt seem right! lol.. really? not 2 whole days?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, You read it right lol. I went out for the weekend and when I came back it was still going I forget to add it was a dynamically sizing virtual disk which probably will account for it.

trevd said:
Yep, You read it right lol. I went out for the weekend and when I came back it was still going I forget to add it was a dynamically sizing virtual disk which probably will account for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was with virtual machine right? Have u tried using ccache on an install of ubuntu yet?
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

basketthis said:
That was with virtual machine right? Have u tried using ccache on an install of ubuntu yet?
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, like I put the Ubuntu VM ( Virtual Machine ). That's the day I learned to build on proper hardware, I tried the VM because I was on a later Ubuntu at the time and had run into a couple of issues so I wanted to follow google's aosp instructions to the letter and rule any versioning issues out..... schrooting is a much eaiser way of using a previous disto versions binaries, this is a great article on how build android using schroot. Good If you've ever get an urge for a cupcake or a donut one day
I do use ccache, but thanks for asking. Set in the bash profile so I never forget . Not looked into whether it should be cleared down at any point, I am on a 500GB partition though so I've not hit any limits yet.

trevd said:
Yeah, like I put the Ubuntu VM ( Virtual Machine ). That's the day I learned to build on proper hardware, I tried the VM because I was on a later Ubuntu at the time and had run into a couple of issues so I wanted to follow google's aosp instructions to the letter and rule any versioning issues out..... schrooting is a much eaiser way of using a previous disto versions binaries, this is a great article on how build android using schroot. Good If you've ever get an urge for a cupcake or a donut one day
I do use ccache, but thanks for asking. Set in the bash profile so I never forget . Not looked into whether it should be cleared down at any point, I am on a 500GB partition though so I've not hit any limits yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting up a box with the same processor. I expected to see better than 30 min builds for ICS. I will see what I come up with.
I am guessing that you were on windows and that's why you chose to go with virtual machine?
I have also read that different file systems read i/o faster/slower than others. Reference
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

basketthis said:
Setting up a box with the same processor. I expected to see better than 30 min builds for ICS. I will see what I come up with.
I am guessing that you were on windows and that's why you chose to go with virtual machine?
I have also read that different file systems read i/o faster/slower than others. Reference
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe on JellyBean, On ICS i'm not so sure about, From my very casual observations JB seems to be use a lot less ram in it build process, ICS always just touched swap from a start of about 15GB .
Like I mentioned earlier, from the reviews I read the processor is out perfomed by similar intels and a bit a flop apparently. ( I reads these reviews long after I had bought the processor ). Although I'm happy enough with it. Also I've only got a generic kernel installed so there's probably some AMD optimization to be had there if I really wanted to get into it.
I wasn't on windows at the time. I was just young, foolish It was when I was just getting started with building the sources and really didn't know any better....I still am foolish, just not as young.
Right, I'll be back in ( just over ) 30 mins :laugh: I've got a full_grouper-eng to compile.
Thanks for the link, Phoronix are a really useful resource, It's one I stumble upon now and again but always forget the name of it when I want to remember.

Using virtual box on my laptop at the time I was solo boot on windows, longest cm9 ever took was about 3 hours with dynamically resizing and was using two cores with less than 2 GB ram. Still, many things differ, I shut the whole thing down so only virtual box was running. I noticed lag when I would go web browsing so figured, why waste ram and disk space.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

trevd said:
Maybe on JellyBean, On ICS i'm not so sure about, From my very casual observations JB seems to be use a lot less ram in it build process, ICS always just touched swap from a start of about 15GB .
Like I mentioned earlier, from the reviews I read the processor is out perfomed by similar intels and a bit a flop apparently. ( I reads these reviews long after I had bought the processor ). Although I'm happy enough with it. Also I've only got a generic kernel installed so there's probably some AMD optimization to be had there if I really wanted to get into it.
I wasn't on windows at the time. I was just young, foolish It was when I was just getting started with building the sources and really didn't know any better....I still am foolish, just not as young.
Right, I'll be back in ( just over ) 30 mins :laugh: I've got a full_grouper-eng to compile.
Thanks for the link, Phoronix are a really useful resource, It's one I stumble upon now and again but always forget the name of it when I want to remember.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Build a kernel
There are fx flags and optimizations....
Edit: If on ubuntu/Linux, you may want to check that your os is recognizing more than 3gb of ram also. I've been reading that anything newer than ubuntu 10.10 or Linux kernel 2.3.something are having issues with recognizing more than approx 3gb of ram. Also, there are issues with 10.04 and optimizations of ssd drives.
Also, I think it was 10.04 that is recognized as the better ubuntu version for building android. It is possible to use a newer (3.0+) kernel and back port it to the older ubuntu. This seems to give the best results...
Putting this info here for reference and to have it in a central location.
Lol, I've read many reviews. I am trying my hardest to keep any opinions out of here and keep it geared toward facts. It appears that Linux is better at multi-threading and we should expect to see gains when building a custom kernel (non-generic) and other things to come in the future. Whereas windows will need much more tweaking. Although I don't know why you would use windows to build android anyway....
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

Takes about 20m on my pc, i7-2600K, 12GB, 7.2K HDD
real 20m14.526s
user 74m51.913s
sys 4m53.774s
^full-eng from clobber, same for other targets.

cdesai said:
Takes about 20m on my pc, i7-2600K, 12GB, 7.2K HDD
real 20m14.526s
user 74m51.913s
sys 4m53.774s
^full-eng from clobber, same for other targets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really must be missing a trick here and clearly haven't spent enough time on my considering the finer details of my hardware / kernel configuration.
basketthis said:
Build a kernel
There are fx flags and optimizations....
.....
Edit: If on ubuntu/Linux, you may want to check that your os is recognizing more than 3gb of ram also. I've been reading that anything newer than ubuntu 10.10 or Linux kernel 2.3.something are having issues with recognizing more than approx 3gb of ram
...
Lol, I've read many reviews. I am trying my hardest to keep any opinions out of here and keep it geared toward facts. It appears that Linux is better at multi-threading and we should expect to see gains when building a custom kernel (non-generic)
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Current Config is Linux Mint 13 x64 which is based off Ubuntu 12.04 with 3.2.0.26 kernel the Ram is Present and correct, However I have come across the 3GB Ram Limit previously so I am familiar with it. I think I must have been I had an 11.04 32bit on my machine.
PAE Extensions is the feature which needs enabling to get your full quota of ram on 32bit. Here's is an Ubuntu Help Page which gives a good explaination if any one is interested
I think there is some research followed by a rebuild on my horizon Thanks for the suggestions and the thread It's proving educational. I'll let you know how I get on, at the very least post some new build times
EDIT / UPDATE
I did some research and made some tentative first steps with my Kernel Configuration.
I decided to get on the mainline and build a 3.6-rc1. I removed a number of options I know to be redundant In my case, e.g Laptop Support, Intel Support etc
My research did throw up this Gentoo Wiki With Some useful "copy/pasta" compiler optimization, they also have a more in depth guide here.
After building this new kernel and clobbering my aosp tree I did
full_grouper-eng for JRO03L and a
make -j10 which resulted in
real 49m32.493s
user 312m45.481s
sys 17m55.599s
While this is still high, it's a step in the right direction, The times are around the same length I was getting for a full_panda with -j12 previously. I'll do a direct comparison also, Kinda Makes sense
I got quiet a lot of room for Improvement and many options, Only Clock at 2.8Ghz at the Moment.
AMD Provide an FX Bulldozer Specific GCC Toolchain which Is going to be employed when the I Rebuild the Kernel again
I Plan to tweak a bit, test a bit and see If I can get the performance some where close and hopefully learn some tricks along the way If all else fails I'll Surmerge the lot in a fishtank full of cooking oil and clock it to 5GHz
UPDATE 2
Following on from the Build Above -
Full_panda-userdebug make -j16
real 32m16.986s
user 196m34.933s
sys 13m9.521s

full-eng
aosp jellybean
fx-8120, 8gb ram, 8gb swap
make -j16
real: 34m2.641s
EDIT: about to test some tweaks! will update.

Machine: Dell Inspiron 1565
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
Hard Drive: 320GB HDD
RAM: 4GB
OS: Ubuntu 11.04
Current Build Time: 2 1/2 +
Build: CM10 PA Source
Just added ccache. We will see on the next build if I shave some time.

[Q] ATT HOX+ Available Ram?

Loving my device so far figuring it all out for a first time Android user, very happy. Just one main concern besides little petty ones is the available ram? Even when i first booted this thing up out of the box with nothing installed by me the Available Ram was only like 300mb out of 1gb! Telling me a couple apps running stock (which is only like 20-30mb total anyways) and the Operating System and Sense eats up about 700mb of Ram upon a fresh Boot? Damn that's pretty sad, no wonder why the industry standard for these devices should be 2gb! My iphone 4 which i came from only had 256mb of total ram installed. With all my apps installed, using up about 15gb of hard drive space out of the 16gb model i had, i still had a solid 210-220mb of FREE Ram upon Boot Up! Apple is still very behind in this cell industry but at least they know how to create an operating system that doesn't kill your Ram.
Anyway to have more available Ram on this thing? Figured 1gb would be more then plenty when purchasing this device, after using it now i guessed wrong. Now with most of the basic apps installed i average about 250-270mb of Free Ram upon Boot Up. Still think that's pretty sad when it comes with 1gb of ram built in :fingers-crossed:

deeznuts said:
Loving my device so far figuring it all out for a first time Android user, very happy. Just one main concern besides little petty ones is the available ram? Even when i first booted this thing up out of the box with nothing installed by me the Available Ram was only like 300mb out of 1gb! Telling me a couple apps running stock (which is only like 20-30mb total anyways) and the Operating System and Sense eats up about 700mb of Ram upon a fresh Boot? Damn that's pretty sad, no wonder why the industry standard for these devices should be 2gb! My iphone 4 which i came from only had 256mb of total ram installed. With all my apps installed, using up about 15gb of hard drive space out of the 16gb model i had, i still had a solid 210-220mb of FREE Ram upon Boot Up! Apple is still very behind in this cell industry but at least they know how to create an operating system that doesn't kill your Ram.
Anyway to have more available Ram on this thing? Figured 1gb would be more then plenty when purchasing this device, after using it now i guessed wrong. Now with most of the basic apps installed i average about 250-270mb of Free Ram upon Boot Up. Still think that's pretty sad when it comes with 1gb of ram built in :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android takes apps out of memory when another app needs more ram
Trust me... 1gb is fine.. no need for another 1gb of ram
If you really want more ram either make an AOSP rom or desense your phone

bilibox said:
Android takes apps out of memory when another app needs more ram
Trust me... 1gb is fine.. no need for another 1gb of ram
If you really want more ram either make an AOSP rom or desense your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So basically don't even worry about what the task manager shows as free Ram because the OS will make it work basically? Makes sense but still seems pretty hungry to eat up so much. Really love the Stock JB 4.1 and Sense 4+ so really wouldn't want to get rid of any of that just to free up some Ram. Would just think factory though it wouldn't eat so much. I'm sure once i can get this device rooted though and flashing a custom rom should help?

deeznuts said:
Loving my device so far figuring it all out for a first time Android user, very happy. Just one main concern besides little petty ones is the available ram? Even when i first booted this thing up out of the box with nothing installed by me the Available Ram was only like 300mb out of 1gb! Telling me a couple apps running stock (which is only like 20-30mb total anyways) and the Operating System and Sense eats up about 700mb of Ram upon a fresh Boot? Damn that's pretty sad, no wonder why the industry standard for these devices should be 2gb! My iphone 4 which i came from only had 256mb of total ram installed. With all my apps installed, using up about 15gb of hard drive space out of the 16gb model i had, i still had a solid 210-220mb of FREE Ram upon Boot Up! Apple is still very behind in this cell industry but at least they know how to create an operating system that doesn't kill your Ram.
Anyway to have more available Ram on this thing? Figured 1gb would be more then plenty when purchasing this device, after using it now i guessed wrong. Now with most of the basic apps installed i average about 250-270mb of Free Ram upon Boot Up. Still think that's pretty sad when it comes with 1gb of ram built in :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android does not use ram like windows. In android, having low free ram is a good sign that android is working properly. Does your device lock up or feel laggy? Exactly so don't worry
---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 PM ----------
deeznuts said:
So basically don't even worry about what the task manager shows as free Ram because the OS will make it work basically? Makes sense but still seems pretty hungry to eat up so much. Really love the Stock JB 4.1 and Sense 4+ so really wouldn't want to get rid of any of that just to free up some Ram. Would just think factory though it wouldn't eat so much. I'm sure once i can get this device rooted though and flashing a custom rom should help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not eating the ram, the ram has been set aside for rapid access by apps. read this webpage, Its about task manager but explains how android utilizes ram. http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them

AndroHero said:
Android does not use ram like windows. In android, having low free ram is a good sign that android is working properly. Does your device lock up or feel laggy? Exactly so don't worry
---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 PM ----------
It's not eating the ram, the ram has been set aside for rapid access by apps. read this webpage, Its about task manager but explains how android utilizes ram. http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok, thank you. Learned something new today, really had no idea and makes perfect sense now. You're right though, no lag at all. I mean i don't know how to compare this device but running the game Bard's Tale with the HD download version on all High performance and having a few apps also on in the background, zero lag while playing the game! Really am impressed with this device thus far, just was worried about the Ram appearance as I wasn't aware of how Android utilizes it, thank you.

Is your phone lagging? Android does an amazing job at providing the RAM required to function properly.
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

Bump.
I'd like to know how much ram is available to the user. Can someone with an AT&T One X+ download Android System Info and share what the "max" is for ram? For example, on my 1GB GS2, it shows 836mb (user available).

It says I have 950 mb Ram on the android app management screen.
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

Linux Load Avg Meaningful on Android?

Hi,
I have experience with Linux servers but not so much with Android.
I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab E a couple months ago. It has started lagging plus occasionally the screen flashes blue.
The first idea I had was cpu temp or overload. Being Linux oriented, I opened a console and typed "top". The load average varies between 7 and 9. Which if it were a server I'd start hunting for problems.
Should I care what the Linux Load average is on android? If yes, how high should an android device's load Avg be if the device has not been used? Iow, say I close it for 15 minutes, open and check load Avg.... Should it be 5,6,7?
I realize every situation is different. I'm only asking for a ballpark idea.
My thinking is if the Linux load average is this high it could be causing the lag. I can't root this device until I can be sure the problems are not hardware related since I still have a valid warranty.
Any and all input is appreciated and thanks

Htop on android
Hi, the load avg on android are always high, higher than they should be anyways if you are talking server or x86 system.
Ignore them, your phone is running fine.
I personally think the difference is in the ARM architecture(anybody with a pi could find out) or the operating system itself.
When running nothing and cpu % under 15 I get load avg above 5. Nonsense, ignore it, at least that is my advice. I would love to know the technical reasons why this happens.
an old discussion on topic is here:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...ds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEPbDM4ZMV_JK-iwXvbFr1YJfsxKA

Is anyone trying to work on android go edition for nexus 9?

I have a nexus 9 wifi 16gb and its terrible. I mean, it can't run more than 1 app at a time! All I use it for is reading documents and browsing and most of the time I don't even do them simultaneously, but have to read multiple documents by switching and even for that it doesn't work! It reloads the other app every single time I switch!
I read a few people asking to try custom ROMs for RAM issues, and right now I'm on official lineage os 14.1. Its quite better than stock, but still terrible.
It takes 1.7gb RAM on average out of available 1.8 (for above mentioned usage).
So after reading all about android Oreo go edition and their stupid idea to bring back cheap phones with 1gb ram or less (seriously? To prove that your OS can run on it?), finally I think go edition can bring dead devices like this back to life. So "is it possible to run go edition on nexus 9 and if so, when?" is what I want to know.
And by the way, don't ask me to stop using chrome and other apps. Chrome hardly even takes 50mb of ram on average I also tried uninstalling it. Not much of a difference. I've already seen many ROM recommendations but still any highly recommended suggestions are entertained.

I would actually be willing to give this a try. May breathe new life into my old Nexus 9.

Until now the source code of Android go hasn't been released yet, so we will need to wait for that. When it's released I'm sure someone will give it a try

Go really isn't the issue. If you want to be faster, either run that ported 32bit kernel or run fire and ice or elemental x and change the settings. And no encryption. And perhaps most important, run pure Nexus as it runs better than anything I've tried.

sprockkets said:
Go really isn't the issue. If you want to be faster, either run that ported 32bit kernel or run fire and ice or elemental x and change the settings. And no encryption. And perhaps most important, run pure Nexus as it runs better than anything I've tried.
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OK I'll give it a try. By the way, do you know any other devices for which the 32 bit kernel is ported(maybe a thread link)? I need it for my redmi note 3 since I believe 32 bit software requires less resources to run overall, leaving more RAM for user apps. This is probably the reason why my oneplus one still works pretty well in RAM management section.

sprockkets said:
Go really isn't the issue. If you want to be faster, either run that ported 32bit kernel or run fire and ice or elemental x and change the settings. And no encryption. And perhaps most important, run pure Nexus as it runs better than anything I've tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you say that Go won't help? The whole point of Go is to run on crappy hardware like the Nexus 9.

KevlarTheGreat said:
Why do you say that Go won't help? The whole point of Go is to run on crappy hardware like the Nexus 9.
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Because the Nexus 9 isn't by definition typical crappy hardware. It has 2GB of RAM and it has a "fast" CPU.
The problem is, is that it has a fundamentally different architecture than normal android. You can watch it update and install apps very quickly then take forever to open up a normal app. That's due to how that ridiculous CPU works.
Heck, since all the apps can be installed without the OS you might as well try that.

KevlarTheGreat said:
Why do you say that Go won't help? The whole point of Go is to run on crappy hardware like the Nexus 9.
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Click to collapse
Since when does n9 have crappy hardware? Lol. We all know what the n9's performance issues stem from, and it's not "crappy" or "cheap" hardware. It's a programming language (or CPU language) issue.
Just like @sprockkets said.

Have you tried the 32bit AOSP build? It really helped with RAM management. I can switch to multiple tabs in chrome now without it having to reload every time. Too bad it hasn't been updated lately

madbat99 said:
Since when does n9 have crappy hardware? Lol. We all know what the n9's performance issues stem from, and it's not "crappy" or "cheap" hardware. It's a programming language (or CPU language) issue.
Just like @sprockkets said.
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Haha, what are you talking about? The programming language used for Android on the Nexus 9 is the same as the programming language for every other version of Android (mostly C, C++, and Java). It's just Android.
CPU language... do you mean the CPU instruction set? The NVIDIA Tegra K1 is a ARMv8-A CPU. ARMv8-A is a 64-bit architecture. It's true that when the Nexus 9 launched 64-bit devices were uncommon, so there were some compatibility issues. But that's far in the past. Every Android device from 2015 and on has a 64-bit CPU. The Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, and Pixel 2 all have ARMv8-A CPUs.
sprockkets said:
Because the Nexus 9 isn't by definition typical crappy hardware. It has 2GB of RAM and it has a "fast" CPU.
The problem is, is that it has a fundamentally different architecture than normal android. You can watch it update and install apps very quickly then take forever to open up a normal app. That's due to how that ridiculous CPU works.
Heck, since all the apps can be installed without the OS you might as well try that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android Go is not fundamentally different from Android. It's just a stripped down version of Android intended to run on less powerful hardware. Things like multi-tasking and animations are disabled. Android Go is a variation of Oreo. The official name is Android O (Go edition). There will be an Go edition of Android N as well. Google created it to encourage entry level devices to run Oreo rather than some old version of Android as is common in developing countries.
---------- Post added at 04:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:03 PM ----------
As sprockkets said, you can install the Google's (Gmail, YouTube, Maps, etc.) Android Go applications from the Play Store on non-Go devices. Additionally, you can flash this Low-RAM Property Patcher. It sets the flag that tells apps and the The Play Store that you have low RAM. I don't think many apps use this flag right now. But if Go devices become popular, developers may disable some the more memory intensive features (animations for example). Now if you are running Oreo, this will also cause the Android UI to use less RAM.
Although there is at least one Oreo ROM for the Nexus 9, I don't expect them ever to be stable. There are no Oreo drivers for the NVIDIA Tegra K1. And it's doubtful there ever will be. You could ask that developer to build a Go version of the ROM. It may make a difference.

benpage said:
Haha, what are you talking about? The programming language used for Android on the Nexus 9 is the same as the programming language for every other version of Android (mostly C, C++, and Java). It's just Android.
CPU language... do you mean the CPU instruction set? The NVIDIA Tegra K1 is a ARMv8-A CPU. ARMv8-A is a 64-bit architecture. It's true that when the Nexus 9 launched 64-bit devices were uncommon, so there were some compatibility issues. But that's far in the past. Every Android device from 2015 and on has a 64-bit CPU. The Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, and Pixel 2 all have ARMv8-A CPUs.]
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That is what I meant, ya got me being in a rush, lol.
I meant the difference in nvidia's. As opposed to Qualcomm.
Not between armv7 and armv8
Trying not to get too long winded but...
Perhaps the critical point in understanding Denver then is that it is non-traditional for a high-performance CPU due to its lack of OoOE hardware, and for that reason it’s a CPU unlike any of its contemporaries. We’ll get back to the software aspects of Denver in a bit, but for now it’s enough to understand why NVIDIA has not pursued an OoOE design and what they have pursued instead.

benpage said:
Haha, what are you talking about? The programming language used for Android on the Nexus 9 is the same as the programming language for every other version of Android (mostly C, C++, and Java). It's just Android.
CPU language... do you mean the CPU instruction set? The NVIDIA Tegra K1 is a ARMv8-A CPU. ARMv8-A is a 64-bit architecture. It's true that when the Nexus 9 launched 64-bit devices were uncommon, so there were some compatibility issues. But that's far in the past. Every Android device from 2015 and on has a 64-bit CPU. The Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, and Pixel 2 all have ARMv8-A CPUs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The K1 runs ARMv8 code but if you look at the history of that CPU, you'd realize it was originally made to run x86.
And I'm not really interested in posting the rest of the details - read it for yourself here.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/8701/the-google-nexus-9-review/4
And read pages 2 and 3 for more info, but page 4 has the biggest reason for its wonky performance.

Possible to compile Android 9.x Pie based ROM?

I was wondering if given the fact this phone was released with Android 10 and all custom ROM seem to be built from this I have also seen Android 11 build, and I wonder if it would be possible to compile a build of Android 9.0 Pie that would work well with the Moto G Power?
Or is there some kind of difference between the drivers and sources provided by Motorola to make this possible, if not what are the barriers to accomplishing this?
The reason I would like a 9 based ROM for my phone is it seems to have all the features I want and uses a lot less memory than Android 10.
I had a Moto G7 Power before this and it had 3gb of ram and ran Pie, the free memory I had to use for opening games and apps is about the same amount I have on my new 4gb device running Android 10. I also noticed the increase while testing an Android 10 based ROM on the G7 Power a while ago.

"free" RAM doesn't mean much. It certainly isn't a good indication of actual performance.
If you have RAM that's just sitting around unused then it's pretty much just wasted until you do something that's gonna use it.
The OS caches anything it can to help you have a smoother system with faster loading times. Any modern OS does that, and Android is no exception. I'm not sure if this changed in between android 9 and 10 tho, but I know there's a **** ton of nitty gritty settings and parameters for the cache behavior so that is possible, but it's pretty much reserved for the guy that makes the ROM.
have you tried lineageos on it yet? I use crdroid myself, which was my daily driver ROM back on my lg g3 lol. It feels pretty much just like home for me

dandu3 said:
"free" RAM doesn't mean much. It certainly isn't a good indication of actual performance.
If you have RAM that's just sitting around unused then it's pretty much just wasted until you do something that's gonna use it.
The OS caches anything it can to help you have a smoother system with faster loading times. Any modern OS does that, and Android is no exception. I'm not sure if this changed in between android 9 and 10 tho, but I know there's a **** ton of nitty gritty settings and parameters for the cache behavior so that is possible, but it's pretty much reserved for the guy that makes the ROM.
have you tried lineageos on it yet? I use crdroid myself, which was my daily driver ROM back on my lg g3 lol. It feels pretty much just like home for me
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Click to collapse
I understand that, but even still with 1 GB additional in my upgrade I should be able to switch between a game and an app or two more than before, but they still close even when set to disable battery optimzation off, the real world usage suggests there is less available ram and more taken up by the system.
Also does anyone have an answer to the actual question i am curious?

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