Ok so I have been looking for an answer for a little bit and have found very little so...
Is it better to load programs onto the phones memory or onto a SD card?
I would think it would take a lot more memory/power to pull files off of a SD card rather than from the device itself, but then you dont have a lot of memory on the phone?
pros and cons of each. THANKS
I put "device" programs (eg quick menu, oto etc) onto main memory and games, apps onto the sd card. That way I figure the apps which are in use alot will already be in memory and easier to open and the apps/games I don't always use can be pulled from storage card when I want to use them.
If you max out the Storage memory on your device, many programs won't be able to run (they still need room to store temp files, etc.), and you'll start getting warnings.
I've found the performance hit in using SD-base applications to be negligible...
You want as much room on your phone as possible. WM will run faster, and if you max out your phone memory, you'll notice a decrease in performance not to mention the low memory warnings you'll get.
The question is do you ever remove your microSD? If you do, you need to install the softwares that you use all the time into the phone memory. Otherwise, I found the performence different is very little between the 2 memory location.
EkS said:
You want as much room on your phone as possible. WM will run faster, and if you max out your phone memory, you'll notice a decrease in performance not to mention the low memory warnings you'll get.
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It used to be true with WM2003, but I don't think it applies to WM6. The storage and running memory areas are now separated.
I will try to keep the device memory as free as possible, because the phone will run faster, so only system program will be installed on the device, also programs like pocket cm and worldmate uses more power to startup, so I also put them in the phone and not memory card, as this will create less errors.
kms
I had apps2sd by lucidrem running on my phone and it was fine. I was out today and my sd card was 'removed' although I didn't touch it. This ended up bricking my phone, because the sd is removed and there is no data or delvik etc. Is there a method to use apps2sd without it being permanently affected when an sd is removed?
A reinstall of rom has fixed it however I have lost everything off the phone now
Thanks
Tucka
LucidRem's Apps2SD uses symlinks which I believe is now preferred over the one used by MarcusMaximus (forgot what its called ) only way to remove a sdcard safely without screwing up your phone is if the phone is turned off. No idea how the sdcard was 'removed' if you didn't touch it. Happened sometimes to me, but never found out what caused it. Hope this helps.
Best to apply Apps2SD again really or use a ROM that automatically enables it by default if a partition exists (Cyanogen/Dude).
Also a small sidenote... The term "brick" means your device would no longer be functional at all, I.E Unable to turn it on using any method. A more suitable term would probably be "crashed" instead.
I only mention this because the term bricked is being used far too loosely to describe the wrong symptoms.
Sorry for loosing brick loosly, just presumed that was what it was when the phone won't get past the G1 splash. So, say I want to watch a movie or something on a different memory card (won't be able to fit all my stuff on one) all I have to do is switch phone off, remove memory card, insert different one (preferably also with a2sd configured for meridian video?) and that will work?
I think the problem is with movement and sudden knocks that the card comes out. I was running through a storm when it said memory card was removed.
Thanks
No worries about the terms as there are an awful lot of them in the world of technology! Long as we're all learning then we can't argue ^_^
To be honest, hot swapping SD cards is a bit long winded... Its best to save up and invest in a larger memory card if possible (Class 6). Not sure what size your SD card is, but if it can't hold a movie then it could be time to buy a new one.
Also if you use the older Apps2SD program (1.1 I believe) it uses Symlinks as alritewhadeva mentioned and it shouldn't cause your phone to crash totally if the SD card is removed.
Best solution though is to buy a new SD card, you should be able to find one on the cheap on the net.
its an 8gb C4, however I am travelling and will be on a 10 hour flight later this month, and was wanting lots of films and tv shows etc. May just compress and squeeze them onto my 8GB.
Thanks a lot
Tucka
using a2sd and 2 memory cards doesnt work. All your app data and cache is on your sd card and the phone wont be able to boot without the right sd card in the phone (trust me i have tried). I suggest buying a new card maybe 16 gb.
Hope they have a charging point on your flight! It would kill your battery watching a movie for that long haha. Better off with an iPod/MP3 player I reckon.
But yeah, you can either add more compression or reduce the resolution/framerate to fit more on your SD card. Quality will drop but at least it will keep you entertained.
2 batteries plus a portable battery charger ftw
Haha, that should be sufficient then! Very well prepared ^_^ I was thinking about getting one of those wind up backup chargers for emergancy use once... No idea if its any good.
If everything is sorted tuka, could you please edit the title to add "[SOLVED]" so people know? Thanks!
Trying very hard to keep the Internal Storage on my Eris @ 50% . Wonder how low I can really go before I run into issues ???? Too bad I'm not rooted otherwise I would move/install some of my apps to my 16GB MSD card.
gemro311 said:
Trying very hard to keep the Internal Storage on my Eris @ 50% . Wonder how low I can really go before I run into issues ???? Too bad I'm not rooted otherwise I would move/install some of my apps to my 16GB MSD card.
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Just try to make sure you're only hanging on to apps you actually use versus something that was cool for like 10 minutes and then forgotten. I would also reccomend wiping dalvik cache every now and then. Also there's a cool little app called app monster that allows you to store apps on your sd card. you can't run them but if its something you dont want to get rid of then you can have a back up.
why does it matter if your internal storage is at 50%?
Maybe a bit of obsessive complusive (not saying this to be derogatory) mixed with hoping to keep his phone as fast as possible?
Don't know about the compulsive part, but yeah I am looking to keep my phone "mean and lean". I gather I can load up my phone with tons of Apps and not be concerned about how little storage space I wind up with. By the way I am a Windows person , and learned the hard way . Tis not the case with Android?
Yea, the system paths are set up a little different in that respect. What's holding you back from rooting? If you're leaked, I understand, and sympathize. If it's warranty issues, then you can always recover and go back to stock. If you aren't sure how to do it, well there are plenty of how-to's and helpful people here. Apps 2 SD is pretty nice, and that's just the beginning...muahaha.
I was leaked the day it came out in March ..just my luck . Just wondered about space. Saw/heard on another forum where someone ran out of space and ran into issues. To me this is the best forum to get positive answers
A lot of things are never explained. Its really easy to just flash a ROM but there is a lot more to the process that could help.
I have soo many questions its ridiculous.. Why not ask them all at once? Im not dumb, I would like to see someone find complete information on any of these things..
1. Nobody ever explained what we can do with Clockwork Recovery, I know that I can restore previous ROMS with it but what else? Could I easily just flash back to my original 2.1 out of the box modded phone ROM even though I am on 2.2 now?
2. When I flash these ROMS, should I be doing like a format of the internal SD card to make it all fresh and what not?
3. What about App2SD? Thought sounded way cool when I first heard about it. How can I get that working? Couldn't I just use that and never have to backup my apps between ROMS anymore? Maybe I don't get it but theres no info on it either.
4. What is Nandroid? Sounds cool.
5. What would be the best way to back everything up between flashes?
At the moment, I just use TB to back up my important apps and then restore them + data afterwards. And for contacts and stuff I just uses Google sync, easy enough. It seems pointless to back up though because the Titanium Backup folder still remains after flashing, why do things still remain? Is this a good thing?
6. What the heck is kernel swapping and more specifically, what does it do? I have a general idea what a kernel is but feel free to explain!
7. Anything else about the finesses of flashing would be awesome to read about. This is all that comes to mind but yeah, feel free to really lay on the details.
I don't really care how ridiculous this seems, its a forum. More specifically, the Q&A section. Any help would be awesome!
[Edit] Ha, go figure. No replies. Was worth a try.
Those are all very good questions.
I agree with you that so far there is not a good central repository of information to explain all this that I know of.
I recently flashed to Cognition 9.1 after reading bajillions of threads to try and piece together the proper procedure. You see people making suggestions left and right, but half the time they conflict with each other, and the other half are stated in terms that only someone that already knows how to do it would understand.
There are two wikis and a couple guides out there with good information, but they tend to be grander in scale. "How to make your Captivate take over the world" articles are great and useful. But it's very difficult to find information on the small specific bits contained in those guides.
To understand all those little bits requires lots of googling and taking notes. I can't tell you how many e-mails I've sent myself from work containing little snippets of "do this", "try this", "how to..." that I've slowly come across after scouring these forums for hours on end.
That's not to say I don't appreciate all the info given from the users here. I'm just saying it'll be nice when all that knowledge gets pooled into one central location like one of the wikis rather than scattered sentence by sentence amid thousands of pages of posts.
And the next response to me from some snarky person will undoubtedly be "Well if you want the wiki to have that info then do it yourself!". My response then would be, "I don't know that information which is why I'm saying it would be nice if..."
The next snarky response to expect would be "If you want to know stuff then search the forums you newb. That's how *I* did it!" And my response to that would be, "And wouldn't you have been incredibly overjoyed to have NOT spent hours of your free time trying to piece together knowledge out there? And why the heck didn't you then post a straight-forward guide of simple steps on how to do it. And why the heck aren't you being a good person and helping me out now rather than being snarky and telling me to figure it out myself??"
So here's my answers to your questions which won't be very good but maybe if enough of us clueless people discuss this kind of stuff we can start to hash out more specifics.
1. Clockwork Recovery? I really don't know. I've read so many cryptic discussions about Clockwork that I can't tell you what it does. I know it can be used in flashing ROMs, but in following the Cognition line it's easier to use the Odin One Click method.
The name of it however makes it seem like its purpose is to recover from something to something. I'd assume that means you can recover our phone to stock if we have problems, but I bet that assumption is wrong.
2. Flash internal SD when updating ROM? Funny story that... I found this thread because I was doing a search on that very thing. I have seen mentioned in a couple places people saying you should do it. However in most "How to flash a ROM" discussions I've read they don't have formatting the internal SD as part of the scenario. And nowhere (yet..) can I find instruction on how to do it properly. I'm assuming I shouldn't just hook it up in USB mode to my computer and having my computer run a format on it. So I won't.
I know that the Odin tool does a "Master Clear" which I assumed would wipe the internal SD. But when I look at my internal SD it still has all sorts of stuff on it from before still. So evidently to "Master Clear", which is suggested in many "How to flash a ROM" guides, doesn't format the internal SD but "clears" some other mystical information.
3. App2SD. Well when I look up App2SD at Appbrain the description says, "helps you to move apps to either external or internal storage thru' the system Settings." Ok... great... So if I have apps installed (which default to internal SD) then I should be able to run this to move those apps to my external SD.
What happens when I flash a new ROM though like you said? The apps are on my external SD, but can I instantly use the apps on the fresh ROM or do I have to use App2SD again to move them to internal SD or what?
4. Nandroid! It does sound cool doesn't it? In most "How to flash ROM" guides and just about every other guide people say "Make sure to make a Nandroid backup before proceeding". Ok, doing a search on Nandroid I find this in the G1 forums:
"* What is Nandroid Backup v2.0?
Nandroid Backup is a set of tools and a script that will enable anyone who has root on their G1 and has the engineering/dev spl bootloader [1] (or has a dev phone) + a recovery image with busybox and adbd running as root [2] to make full system backups. These can then be restored using the fastboot [3] commandline tool and your phone in SPL/bootloader mode (hold camera + power)."
Uh.. say what? Ok I get what its end result is. It backs up my system. But what's this engineering/dev spl bootloader? I remember from WinMo that a bootloader booted the phone into a state where you could load a ROM onto it. Doesn't seem to fit exactly in this context.
I don't think I have a dev phone and I know I don't have any sort of recovery image. Busybox I recognize because Titanium Backup makes you install it. Don't know what it is though. And "adbd" has to do with running the Android developer kit or terminal or something which allows you to interact directly with Android on your phone I think. I couldn't get it to work on my computer so haven't been able to play with it.
So yeah, when everyone one says "Make a Nandroid backup" like it's the most simple thing in the world that every newborn baby is born with instant knowledge of doing... I must be missing something...
5. Backup between flashes. Well, from all the discussions I've read it sounds like you're supposed to use Clockwork Recovery or Nandroid or maybe both. Possibly you're also supposed to hunt down an ostrich and ride it to your local gas station to pick up a pack of bubble gum and donate it to your local charity of choice in order to get it to work.
Titanium Backup appears to backup your Apps so you can then install them again (I wonder if using App2SD affects that?). You can also back up system stuff, but everyone says not to do that. I assume that means it backs up various system files that would just mess up your new ROM if you restored them.
6. Kernel swapping. I know in general computing terms a Kernel is the very core of an operating system. Since there's swapping going on I assume there are different versions of the Android kernel out there and each one must have something different about them or there wouldn't be any swapping going on. As to what those differences are I couldn't tell you. Personally I'm going to stick with premade bundles like Cognition. That way I don't have to worry about kernel swapping and sacrificing chickens since some awesome genius (like DesignGears) has already done all that. Minus the chicken sacrifice possibly.
7. Flashing finesse. Like I said I've recently flashed from stock to Cognition 9.1 and everything seems to work (except my battery seems to be draining faster, even though I flashed from 100% charge, and did "Master Clear". So next step will be clearing the battery stat file which is another thing I need to research and doing another full charging cycle to see if that helps).
I scoured the forums before doing the flash looking for the proper steps and I finally came upon a post from someone that actually listed each step very clearly on how to do it properly. Huzzah!
Here's what KewlRobD posted:
"- I was running 2.1.7 so I disabled voodoo lagfix
- I powered off my phone and waited for it to reach 100% battery
- I removed my SIM card
- I then used ODIN to flash back to JF6
- I then used ODIN to Master Clear
- I then used ODIN to flash Beta9
- I then used ODIN to Master Clear again.
- I then put my SIM back into my phone and began customizing"
How many hours did I spend reading thread after thread to slowly piece parts of this together into some confused possible instruction list?? Well here you go, KewlRobD was very awesome and actually listed very clearly the steps to take.
The disabling lagfix part he mentions didn't apply since I was on stock and never applied a lagfix. However this is something else I'll have to research if I decide to flash to a new ROM because all "How to..." guides tell you to disable lagfix. Because again, all newborns pop out of the womb with instant knowledge on the disabling of the lagfixes.
Now the only thing he didn't mention was formatting the internal SD, nor did he mention anything about recalibrating the battery, clearing the battery stats file, bump charging etc. (besides saying to charge to 100% first)
So I'm still searching for the formatting of the internal SD information, and I remember reading somewhere about clearing the battery. I think I actually e-mailed it to myself. Yep, here's what Demented71 says about clearing the battery:
"As far as the battery, I would:
Charge your phone while it's on to 100%
Turn it off and charge to 100%
Turn it on and let it fully boot and turn it off again, charging to 100%
Then, when you unplug it, put it into recovery mode first, use CWR (the green recovery) to 'wipe battery stats' in it's advanced menu.
Then use your phone completely until it won't turn on, trying not to connect it via USB or wall charger.
When charging it up after that for the first time, try and leave it off and charge it to 100%, but let it sit for a few hours past 100%, and then use it normally. It's best to do this when your sleeping if you don't need your phone during that time. Another option is to buy the 2x battery+charger from eBay. Works great to always have a full battery."
Again, very helpful post with nice clear instructions instead of "Ur battery sux? Then reset it... duh!" However, there's one spot in there where he says to use CWR. I can only assume that means Clockwork Recovery. KHAAAAAAAAAN!! So in the end I need to do more research to figure out what exactly CWR is and how it works. *sigh*
Clockwork Recovery is a very useful tool. With it you can do many system type things before the os proper (android) is loaded.
You can install "mods" which are modifications to the system, such as zmod, or replacing your battery icon. They are given to you in zip files that have the instructions in place as scripts and such that install the mod for you. No creeping around your internal file system wondering what goes where and I hope I get it right.
You can install roms the same way.
A nandroid back up is the backup (for us) that clockwork recovery provides. If you do a rom manager or clockwork backup, you just did a nandroid backup. It lets you rollback to a point of your chosing as long as you can root your phone and install rom manager.
rom manager downloads the clockwork recovery app to your phone. As long as it's the most recent version you can move the update.zip it puts on your phone to your computer, and then you can put it on your sdcard anytime you want. Once it's there, reboot into recovery, select reinstall packages, and you should be in the clockwork recovery program.
From there you can create or restore a backup, install a mod, or rom from sdcard and quite a few utiliy scripts like formating your sd, removing battery stats, and the like. Careful. Some of this will wipe your data and leave you without apps and such. Like new.
Titanium Backup is your friend. A nandroid backup is a fallback spot, or a relatively easy way to switch back and forth between roms, sort of. If you flash a new rom you don't want to do that. Titanium Backup allows you to backup all your apps and thier data. If you pay for it, and you'll want to, it allows you to do it all as a batch operation, instead of one app at a time.
While it's beyond my time constraint's AND expertise level to answer all your questions, I hope these helped some?
Edit: Before messing with this it's a good idea to be sure you can do the button combinations to get into recovery and/or download modes. DesignGears has a thread in development that explains this and offers a fix if you can't do it. Will help keep/get you out of reboot loops if something goes fubar.
Recovery: From power off, hold both volume buttons down and push power. Hold all three until you see the at&t white screen. Hold for a second or so then release the power button while still holding the volumes. You should boot into recover there. Blue text with some choices. Move with volume up and down, choose with power.
Download: From power off, hold both volume buttons and plug in your usb cable. You should get a big yellow graphic with "Don't turn target off." That's download mode. (If you are planning to use odin or odin one click then have that program running on your computer when you do this.
(Just in case ya didn't know. Don't mean to talk down to anyone.)
Awesome response, Sulphur4724. Thank you very much.
I had no clue Clockwork Recovery was capable of doing so much stuff. I'll definitely have to check it out now.
And that answers our question on how to format the internal SD. Now we just need to find out under what circumstances it's a good idea to do so.
Along the same lines I've also heard people mentioning repartitioning the SD. I'm assuming that's only to do with the various lag fixes out there?
And thanks for clearing up the Nandroid inquiry. I always thought when people said "Make a Nandroid backup..." that they were referring to a program called Nandroid. No wonder I couldn't find an app called that!
So to simplify a little:
1. What can I do with Clockword Recovery (CWR)?
CWR backs up your ROM to an update.zip file that you can store elsewhere in case you want to restore your ROM to saved state. It also allows you to install modifications to Android such as a new battery icon. And finally, it allows you to run system utilities such as formatting the SDCard, or clearing the battery stats. CWR also works in conjunction with an App called "Rom Manager" to perform some operations.
2. Should I format the internal SD when installing new ROMs?
Not sure yet. But in order to actually DO the formatting you would use Clockwork Recovery.
3. What is App2SD and how do I use it?
Not sure yet. The description sounds simple. Move apps to the external SD card. But earching the interwebs for information is giving descriptions involving repartitioning the system into 2 partitions, flashing things, running adb commands, etc. Maybe all that information is old and it's now a simple process? We need more info.
4. What is Nandroid and how do I do it?
Nandroid is basically backing up your ROM so you can use it to restore later. To do this you use Clockwork Recovery. See question 1.
5. What's the best way to back up everything between flashing ROMs?
Using Rom Manager and Clockwork Recovery you can make a backup (Nandroid) of your current ROM. See questions 1 and 4.
In order to back up applications you will want to use an app called Titanium Backup (often referred to as TiBu). With TiBu you can make backup copies of any apps you want. Along with that you can tell it to back up any data for those apps (which would be game saves, app settings, etc.). You can also back up system files and data, but this can often lead to ROM issues if you replace a new ROMs files with old backup files so do your research and be careful.
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Besides the formatting internal SD and App2SD questions, does that all sound right so far?
Does anyone know if all this is universal Android stuff, or if it only pertains to the Captivate?
By the way, thanks for asking these questions, Shival!
And that answers our question on how to format the internal SD. Now we just need to find out under what circumstances it's a good idea to do so.
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You can also format the SD card by settings/sdcard and phone storage.
Along the same lines I've also heard people mentioning repartitioning the SD. I'm assuming that's only to do with the various lag fixes out there?
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Lagfixes will take care of themselves. I'm not real sure how this works, tho I always do it and it ain't hosed me yet. From my days as a computer geek I seem to remember that when you make a partition you should make the blocks, where stuff actually gets written, as small as possible. When a file is written to a file system it is written to these blocks. On the last one it uses, if it doesn't fill it up that space is wasted. So smaller blocks = smaller waste = more free space. Not really expert about this (hell, about any of this) so someone else may be able to clarify better, but it's workin' for me so far.
And thanks for clearing up the Nandroid inquiry. I always thought when people said "Make a Nandroid backup..." that they were referring to a program called Nandroid. No wonder I couldn't find an app called that!
Click to expand...
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I spent a while lookin' for it too.
CWR backs up your ROM to an update.zip file that you can store elsewhere in case you want to restore your ROM to saved state
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An update.zip is a stored mod or rom before it's applied to your phone. Made by the developer with install scripts and such to automate the process. The actual backups you can find and inspect under clockworkmod/backup on your sdcard once you've run a backup. They are saved as img files that can be written back to your phone if you have an issue you can't recover from using cwm. But they are NOT the update.zip files. Those are the android format for installing stuff from recovery.
2. Should I format the internal SD when installing new ROMs?
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The jury is out on this. Some guys swear by it, some guys say "nah." What it will do is wipe all YOUR data and stuff off the phone, leaving it with just the OS ROM as created by the dev. cwm can do it, or you can do it from settings/sdcard and phone storage.
3. What is App2SD and how do I use it?
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Most phones have a finite amount of storage that the system can use. Most of them have a relatively small amount actually. As cappy owners we have a whopping 2 gb of that storage. But the other guys usually have considerably less. Applications get written to that space and it quickly runs out on other platforms. so app2sd moves apps to the external sd. Or the internal for us, since our total storage is 20 gb. (i think.) The unreserved space is formatted by the phone to look like an external SD card to the phone. anyway, it's not as big an issue for us as 2gb is a LOT of space that will take a while to fill up.
You can also back up system files and data, but this can often lead to ROM issues if you replace a new ROMs files with old backup files so do your research and be careful.
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For backups this is fine. If you flash a new rom do NOT restore system settings from an older backup. It will restore stuff that may not work with what your flashing and will gum it all up but good. FC hell. You are pretty safe restoring apps+data as that just restores the apps data itself and doesn't overwrite any system files.
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Does anyone know if all this is universal Android stuff, or if it only pertains to the Captivate?
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I dunno! This is my first android phone!
Sulphur4724 said:
You can also format the SD card by settings/sdcard and phone storage.
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Ah cool, thanks!
From my days as a computer geek I seem to remember that when you make a partition you should make the blocks, where stuff actually gets written, as small as possible. When a file is written to a file system it is written to these blocks. On the last one it uses, if it doesn't fill it up that space is wasted. So smaller blocks = smaller waste = more free space. Not really expert about this (hell, about any of this) so someone else may be able to clarify better, but it's workin' for me so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if I remember correctly small blocks mean less space wasted, but it also means more I/O which slows performance. And bigger blocks mean more potentially wasted space but faster performance since there is less I/O going on because you're writing bigger amounts of data at once rather than a bunch of tiny writes. In today's computers where space is cheap you want to make bigger blocks to enhance performance. Not sure what's suggested for NAND. And my memory could be faulty on all that, but that's what I remember from back in the day of tiny hard-drives.
An update.zip is a stored mod or rom before it's applied to your phone. Made by the developer with install scripts and such to automate the process. The actual backups you can find and inspect under clockworkmod/backup on your sdcard once you've run a backup. They are saved as img files that can be written back to your phone if you have an issue you can't recover from using cwm. But they are NOT the update.zip files. Those are the android format for installing stuff from recovery.
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Click to collapse
Ahhh, ok. So update.zip is literally the file Android uses to make updates with whether it's a mod or ROM. The backed up ROM then will be a .img file?
Yeah if I remember correctly small blocks mean less space wasted, but it also means more I/O which slows performance. And bigger blocks mean more potentially wasted space but faster performance since there is less I/O going on because you're writing bigger amounts of data at once rather than a bunch of tiny writes. In today's computers where space is cheap you want to make bigger blocks to enhance performance. Not sure what's suggested for NAND. And my memory could be faulty on all that, but that's what I remember from back in the day of tiny hard-drives.
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Never thought of it like that, touche'. Now I gotta try changing sizes.
Ahhh, ok. So update.zip is literally the file Android uses to make updates with whether it's a mod or ROM. The backed up ROM then will be a .img file?
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Click to collapse
Roger that. Now ya got it.
WOW!
This thread RULES! Sulphur4724 and sschrupp, many thanks, I learned a lot. If I have the time this weekend I'll try to edit this information into a backup / memory FAQ, if you think that would be useful.
sschrupp check out this guide if you haven't seen it before, it's pretty idiot proof; I had no trouble and I am an android n00b.
edit: nevermind the forum isn't letting me post links because I'm new here. It's a great guide though, so if you want, go to the website android police, and under the guides tab, read the guide called "complete guide how to fully back up and restore your android phone using nandroid backup and clockworkmod rom manager"
Glad I could help. I'd let this stand a few days and see if there are any corrections. I'm going by what I know which may or may not be 100% correct. I came to this phone from a Blackberry. Everything I'm trying to pass on I learned from reading the cognition thread and branching from there. Yes. All of it! Even before the 4k post cleansing it got a while back.
But see I can't code, and I wanna participate. So I'm doing what I can to be part of this community and if it takes some weight off the guys that DO code... well that's full of win.
/shrug
Sulphur4724 said:
But see I can't code, and I wanna participate. So I'm doing what I can to be part of this community and if it takes some weight off the guys that DO code... well that's full of win.
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Yeah that's how I see it too. Also I almost always buy the pay version of apps that really help me that independent devs here on XDA write.
Why does ROM manager run after startup? Is it okay if I disable this through autostarts? I don't run pre-scheduled backups so I can't think of any reason for it to be running in the background all of the time.
This thread is epic!
So worth it =]
I really hate that the phones storage is called internal SD, I get soo confused reading thing that say "do something to the SD" I am like, WHICH ONE!? and then I explode.
I tried to install a lagfix on a Cognition ROM once, it failed. Did it right after flashing, created the file system then I tried to do the lagfix and it failed. I never tried again. Don't know if its worth it anyways.
Battery has been a super drain! It is incredibly hard for me, a light user who is mildly OC, to let the battery get below 80% and yet, within ten minutes off the charger it starts going down lol. I keep it clean and everything, nothing is running and I always disable background data. I probably do need to redo the battery bin file. Wish I had time, either at work or I am in class.
Phone runs fine I think so I guess I'll just forget formating the internal SD. Maybe I'll try it someday though. I'd imagine the device would clog up eventually.
I just wish I was smart enough to make use of some of the more advanced facets of Android.
I guess there are just too many devices and technology moves so fast that its almost impossible to make a guide. Searching for the info is sort of fun and I do try.
I love it when you are searching for something specific but you learn so much more along the way and I, usually forget what I was searching for in the first place.
This CyanogenMod thing sounds cool. I want it, when its finished, I know barely anything about it though.
I cannot keep up at all with the Cognition releases. I barely know what the changelogs are even talking about when I do lol.
Do our phones work more efficiently with a linux distribution? I just use my Windows Vista partition mainly but I have Ubuntu. Screw windows 7, I am sticking with Vista lol. I'd imagine it would be super hard to find the same tools we use to mod our phones via windows, for Linux.
Komodo Rogue said:
Why does ROM manager run after startup? Is it okay if I disable this through autostarts? I don't run pre-scheduled backups so I can't think of any reason for it to be running in the background all of the time.
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Be careful in your thinking. Just because an app is loaded in memory does not mean it is actually doing anything. This is not windows with hundreds of processes going on. Android actually prefers to have things in memory to make accessing them faster and consuming LESS battery power as a result of not having to load them every time you want to access them. Each activity is assigned a number corresponding to its priority which determines what gets kicked out when you want to load something that is not already present and more memory is needed than what is available.
You can see this in action by utilizing a system monitor that tracks cpu activity for each process. Most apps that are in memory use ZERO cpu time unless/until you open them. For the ones that do, such as an email app, they will only use cpu time when retrieving messages which takes little energy. If you endlessly kill these with a task manager, you willuse MORE battery as a result of these having to be reloaded by the os instead of accessing them from ram, not to mention the battery drain caused by the task killer constantly polling to see what is in memory.
Sent telepathically using vulcan mind meld app.
newter55 said:
Be careful in your thinking. Just because an app is loaded in memory does not mean it is actually doing anything. This is not windows with hundreds of processes going on. Android actually prefers to have things in memory to make accessing them faster and consuming LESS battery power as a result of not having to load them every time you want to access them. Each activity is assigned a number corresponding to its priority which determines what gets kicked out when you want to load something that is not already present and more memory is needed than what is available.
You can see this in action by utilizing a system monitor that tracks cpu activity for each process. Most apps that are in memory use ZERO cpu time unless/until you open them. For the ones that do, such as an email app, they will only use cpu time when retrieving messages which takes little energy. If you endlessly kill these with a task manager, you willuse MORE battery as a result of these having to be reloaded by the os instead of accessing them from ram, not to mention the battery drain caused by the task killer constantly polling to see what is in memory.
Sent telepathically using vulcan mind meld app.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the response, that's helpful information to know. I don't use a task killer but I DO have quite a bit of apps disabled at boot through the app "autostarts" that I am going to turn back on now. Quickoffice comes to mind as an example; I use that maybe two or three times a week so I didn't see why I should have it "running" all of the time, but now I'm going to re-enable it.
Nevertheless, the only time I see myself using ROM Manager is before a system flash... and sadly if you read the thread I wrote about flashing to a new ROM, it turns out I may NEVER be flashing a new ROM. So in THIS case, shouldn't I just disable it from startup?
I tried to install a lagfix on a Cognition ROM once, it failed. Did it right after flashing, created the file system then I tried to do the lagfix and it failed. I never tried again. Don't know if its worth it anyways.
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The answer to this is... sometimes. The phone can get pretty laggy if there are a lot of os writes and reads. A lagfix helps out with this. It depends on your patience and how fast/cool you want to be. (I do it just for the geek factor! RAWR!)
Battery has been a super drain! It is incredibly hard for me, a light user who is mildly OC, to let the battery get below 80% and yet, within ten minutes off the charger it starts going down lol. I keep it clean and everything, nothing is running and I always disable background data. I probably do need to redo the battery bin file. Wish I had time, either at work or I am in class.
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Click to collapse
I have tried every thing I could find/read/think of and my battery life still sux. Why? It's not a phone, it's an ENTERTAINMENT CENTER! Seriously, the Amoled screen on this puppy is pretty as hell but it's also hell on a battery. When it's open, it's eating energy as fast as it can put it away. My philosophy after hours and hours of trying to figure this out is this: Enjoy the phone and keep a charger handy. Try this tho, next time you flash something rom wise pull your sim card. DG says that when the modem.bin file flashes with it in it can cause it to keep the modem open all the time causing massive battery drain. I tried this last flash and it does seem to make a difference. /shrug
Phone runs fine I think so I guess I'll just forget formating the internal SD. Maybe I'll try it someday though. I'd imagine the device would clog up eventually.
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I haven't done a master clear or format in several flashes and I've had no ill effects. I can imagine a point down the road where issues may ensue, but not recently.
I just wish I was smart enough to make use of some of the more advanced facets of Android.
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Don't we all!
I guess there are just too many devices and technology moves so fast that its almost impossible to make a guide. Searching for the info is sort of fun and I do try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some guys trying, they just aren't advertising well!
This CyanogenMod thing sounds cool. I want it, when its finished, I know barely anything about it though.
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Click to collapse
CDE is about as close to CyanogenMod as we have right now. Want a sneak peak? There's your huckleberry.
Do our phones work more efficiently with a linux distribution? I just use my Windows Vista partition mainly but I have Ubuntu. Screw windows 7, I am sticking with Vista lol. I'd imagine it would be super hard to find the same tools we use to mod our phones via windows, for Linux.
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Click to collapse
If you are coding or plan on coding i'd say yes. If not? nah. winders works just fine. Or as fine as it ever works.
I have read about Memory Leakage and I think that is the best way to describe what is going on with my Hero. I am Running Damage Controls last ROM and my memory keeps going away until I get the low memory icon. This has been going on for a few months now. Three months ago the problem first showed its head. So I start cleaning everything out. I do not store ANY email, texts, SMS or anything that I have control of on the phone. I do not sync with facebook, Gmail, Twitter or any of those other services. But my memory keeps "leaking" away. I got a cache cleaner, I have dumped all but three programs that I put on off the phone and while I first beat this back to 40mb to 30mb to 20mb and now I can't get it above 18mb. It's like every time there is a program up date from the Market it loads a whole new program and the old one stays. At least that is what it seemed like. I have been told to dump DC's rom and move on to something else but I like the phone and what it does when it works. I have the usual problems with slow dialing and bluetooth connection problems and that kind of stuff but all in all the phone works pretty good except for this memory problem. No I don't have apps2sd working but I don't think that would matter at this point as I have mentioned I have had this phone back up to 40mb and that memory over time just leaks away. Any idea's??? Is there another rom like Damages where the phone looks pretty stock? I am really used to the way it works and hate the idea of setting it up again. But if that is the recommendations I get from this forum I gather this is where I will have go.
Any help or idea's will be greatly appreciated. As I mentioned installing a new ROM is a last resort for me and if that is where I have to go then some suggestions would be appreciated too.............
Thanks so much.........
Lisa
That's not memory leakage, that's just from apps. Install apps2sd... then you won't have to deal with that problem.
Or use Firerat's custom partitions to free up a ton of space in data.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Okay, aps2sd is the way to go. Being I'm not a total computer wiz I have to study how to do this. So, Firerat was mentioned and how do I do the apps2sd thing? I realize I have to back up my sd card to my PC and that is no problem and the Damage Control Rom that I have has a toggle that I can check to move the apps to the SD card so I think I'm okay there. But I have to partition and reformat my SD card. I have never done that before. Could you give me a link that I can go to so I can read all the instructions on how to do this. I have Titanium so I am well backed up there and I have recent Nandroid backups but partitioning the SD card is the trick I haven't done yet. Can I take the card out of my phone and do it with a card reader on my PC or do I have to do it through the phone? You can see the kind of help I need here and while I have resisted doing any more to my phone I think if I can free up this internal memory ALL my issues with the HERO and Damage Controls last ROM will go away for me.
As usual I appreciate the links and all you help............
Lisa
To partition your SD card:
BACK UP SD CARD CONTENTS TO YOUR PC
boot into recovery
partition sdcard
partition sd
follow instructions
i personally set the data partition to 256 MB, but even with ~100 apps i still have like 100 MB free. there are many other size options.
i forgot the other numbers it asks for (like cache or dalvik partition), but you can leave them at zero.
back in the Partition sdcard menu, choose SD:ext2 to ext3
reboot
now you can enable a2sd and retransfer your backed up sdcard contents from your PC. you will probably need to reboot for a2sd to move your apps and take effect
Were you using Damage Controls ROM?
You're instructions are very straight forward and that is kind of the way I saw the process too. I'll back up everything before I start and I'll give it a go when I get a chance.........
I was not using DamageControl ROM, but I have a hunch that's how it will work.
Interesting thing, I was just looking through Damage Control's "control panel" and apps2sd is checked already. Looking at Titanium Backups "control panel on their latest version it shows memory or storage usage for Phone Memory, Apps2sd and SD card usage and it shows that I have stuff in there already even though I have NOT partitioned my SD card. How can that be??? I guess these are the kind of things that come up when you use a ROM that has been abandoned by the developer. I really like everything about this ROM But this memory thing has gotten to be a real problem. I guess if I partition the SD card I will get it working faster? Or working completely? But this is an interesting question I think..........
Any feed back on this discovery would be helpful too..............