I've searched in the forum but i cannot find anything about that.
Which are the main differences in having a program integrated in a ROM or to install it in the main memory after the ROM has been flashed in the device??
I mean, are there any benefits in integrating a software in ROM in terms of speed, memory footprint...or any others?
Thanks
integrated don't take up storage space
integrated can't be upgraded to a newer version without getting a new rom
application memory foodprint is the same
So with latest device that have a good amount of internal storage the integration doesn't have real benefits...
The possibility to upgrade a program to a newer version for me is more important than some more MB of free space in the internal storage...
Thanks for the explanation
it saves time installing random apps after flashing if they are already there for you.. certain usefull ones like total commander and such.. Ditto on the not being able to upgrade, some program are able to, but most arent, you just get errors. Someone here on XDA made an app that allows you to store cabs in a specific folder on a storage card and on first boot those cabs will be installed, thus making the issue of having your favorite preinstalled apps less of a hassle after a reflashing, or moving to a new device.
Related
Hi guys, i have recently flashed my uni with the awesome TML v8.81 Rom, I noticed there is a Flash Disk under My device. What's the purpose of that? Could anyone tell me what's the difference between installing software under my device and flash disk?
Many thanks
id like to know this too, as it seems the flash disk removes 15MB or so of much needed RAM, what is the purpose of it, so far I have installed everything on normal storage, should I be installing things like Opera on the flash disk because it runs faster?
types of memory
Ok, quick resume of memory:
There are four types of internal memory on the Universal (the quoted MB are from a 64MB G3 uni):
Code:
[B]Storage Memory[/B]
Type: Internal Storage
Size: Usually 43.72MB with 40MB free (depends on installation of full/vanilla ROM)
What: Your main storage for all installations on your device (including windows)
Use: This where the device ROM (eg WM6.x) and other device programs are stored (everything under \).
eh? : This can be considered much like your C: drive on a PC.
+info: Get a ROM that has just about everything you want.
Getting vanilla ROM and installing apps in Storage is likely to use more Storage than if you get ROM that has all apps you require.
I never install anything here unless I have no option, or it's a Today item.
Some programs will use this as cache or temp storage area.
[B]Program Memory[/B]
Type: Program (RAM)
Size: Usually 48-49MB with 30MB or less free (this figure lowers with the more Apps that are run, an initial 12MB is eaten by Windows)
What: This is your available memory for running programs. Program Memory is also for used by Boot and PagePool (usually 6MB).
Use: The more of this you have, the more programs you can run, and the faster memory hungry apps can run.
eh? : This can be considered much like your RAM on a PC
+info: The Today Screen items will also eat up this memory, so stay away from "bling" Today items if you want other memory hungry apps to run (like route navigators)
NB. This memory is NOT eaten up or reduced by any other medium (ie, FlashDisk). 30MB free is great, but 20MB is usual running for a 64MB Uni.
[B]FlashDisk[/B] (only available on G3 according to wiki [I]- someone clarify?[/I])
Type: Internal Storage
Size: Can be 10MB to 30MB - and is made available solely by what's left by the ROM and given to you by the cook
What: Extra storage which is retained through a soft-reset.
Use: Store programs you always want available (ie, not on SD), but don't want in your Storage Memory
eh?: This can be considered much like your second hard-drive on a PC.
+info: If important, choose cook and ROM wisely, otherwise install such stuff on approprate SD/Storage.
The FlashDisk is where I store my messages and attachments (and programs like music/video players if cook doesn't supply them).
NB. This doesn't take up any Program Memory. It's either made available by the cook, or if the cook doesn't make it available it's wasted space that you can't use.
[B]ExtendedROM[/B]
Type: Internal Storage
Size: Is usually 9.96MB
What: Extra memory which doesn't survive a soft-reset.
Use: Anything you don't mind losing :)
eh?: This could be considered as a RAMDrive on a PC (that is, in that it's volatile, but not that it takes up any Program Memory)
+info: I use this for all cache (eg PIExplorer, Opera etc)
NB. Again, this is either made available or wasted space you can't use (see FlashDisk NB).
[B]Storage Card[/B]
Type: External Storage
Size: Can be anything (I have seen up to 16GB)
What: Extra storage for programs, cache etc. Always slower than any of the above. (NB. If anyone really interested, I can get you some values here)
Use: Anything that doesn't fit into the Uni ;)
Install apps here that aren't required by the system (ie, non-Today items)
eh?: This could be considered as any removeable storage on a PC (even an SD card!!!)
+info: Don't put anything here that the system expects to exist (eg, Today items). I use it for maps, music, videos and all apps not supplied by ROM cook.
I only have use one huge SD card, so I install all my apps on it. You may want to reconsider your installations if you use more than one SD card.
However, Cotulla created a ROM for G3 that combined Storage (not program memory)
.
Nice answer that!
Now here is where it gets confusing I own a G4 with Tomals Rom on it and it has flash disk on it, I always thought it wasn't meant to. It does work too. I keep other small apps on it, it seems to load as fast as main memory. SD cads have a small time lag on a soft reset, so anything that needs to load on start up needs to be on board not SD. I'm not a cook so i'm sure there is a good answer but I often wondered why memory can't be repartitioned over to ram instead of flash disk or storage?
Jay
Yes, I think that wiki is wrong. I'm sure it's the ExtendedROM that's only on G3, whereas FD is down to the cook.
Hardware constraint on Uni means you can't partition Storage (or FD etc) over to Program Memory (RAM).
JonMorgan said:
Yes, I think that wiki is wrong. I'm sure it's the ExtendedROM that's only on G3, whereas FD is down to the cook.
Hardware constraint on Uni means you can't partition Storage (or FD etc) over to Program Memory (RAM).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I get extended rom now too. things have moved on since the WiKi was made I guess.
Jay
The iPhone allows apps to be stored anywhere on its memory but you cannot use the phone as a USB mass storage device or upgrade its memory. This isn't likely to change.
The WP7 allows apps to be stored anywhere on its memory but you cannot use the phone as a USB mass storage device. You can upgrade the memory on some phones with certain SD cards and in the future there will likely be more SD card options.
For Android, the current system is "internal" or "ROM" memory that houses the OS and apps--ranging from 512MB to 8GB--and media memory. You can generally upgrade the memory and use the media memory as a USB masss storage device. Some apps will allow you to Apps2SD and install a portion of the app on the SD card.
Other phones certainly have sacrifices but you can utilize 100% of their memory for whatever you like. On Android, you have part of your phone you can only utilize for apps and part of your phone you can only use for media. This results in wasted space--you may have multiple GBs free of media space but no more space for apps, or lots of free app space but no where to store more media.
Is this the future for Android? Hoping that your new phone comes with the same ratio of ROM/external as apps/media you want? Does Google have plans for Android's memory architecture?
I'd say yea rather waist of space but with fro yo developers can start code it to allow storage on device. This means that they see our issue and trying to solve it on further launched os updates.
If you can't wait for that I recommend installing titanium backup, to force apps over to your SD. This is a method I use and no I might be unable to use certain widgets but I don't find them THAT important anyhow.. Specially regarding you free up space!
So I guess it's a question of patience and what you would prefer at times, use of some widgets or not.
Example handcent hope spelled it properly. They disallow moving to SD, so I just force it over there and ignore that 1x1 widget showing unread text messages.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Refering to this post Apps to SD, I have some doubts.
1. Is this similar to the 2GB inaccessible partition on Nexus S ?
2. Is that partition ext3 ?
3. Do apps get installed directly on that and I don't have to install apps on sd as explained in that post ever ?
4. If no, will creating partition and installing apps on it slow down the phone ?
I installed lots of apps from market yesterday so thinking of these things as I have read that installing many apps may slow down the phone.
please clarify my doubts
Have you gone to Settings, Applications and checked how much of your internal memory you're actually using? There's a little bar graph at the bottom of the first screen.
I've got over 130 apps installed and still have almost 600mb free. For most users, on the NS, app storage space isn't going to be a concern. We've got 1gb internal for that.
Also, many apps can be pushed to your sdcard without any hacks required.
The old school apps2sd involves repartioning your sdcard, formatting part of it ext4, then creating symlinks to move apps to the sdcard.
Seems like a lot of work unless you're really short of space already.
All partitions on the internal storage space are ext4 or yaffs2...no ext3 on the NS stock,
Thanks. So I shouldnt be really about that
But will installing many apps slow down my phone ? How do I stop some apps from starting automatically in the background ?
suhas_sm said:
Thanks. So I shouldnt be really about that
But will installing many apps slow down my phone ? How do I stop some apps from starting automatically in the background ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't worry about it until it becomes a problem, if you know what I mean. If you install a lot of BIG game applications that don't let you move to sdcard from the Applications manager, you might start to run out of room, but I've only seen one person in this forum state that he was filling cramped, and he has 300+ apps, including large games if I recall correctly.
Having a bunch of apps installed should not slow down your phone just because they're installed.
If a bunch of them are active in the background either intentionally or not, that might cause some slow down, but it's just not a real problem on Android 2.2+ in my experience.
Android's memory intentionally loads apps up in advance so they're ready and waiting when you want to use them. They usually just sit there using zero cpu until you give them something to do. It is best to avoid TASK KILLERS, they will screw you up more than help you in general.
If you really feel the need to stop certain apps from being loaded automatically at the phone's discretion, there's an app called AutoStarts in the Market that lets you block apps from loading automatically. There are other apps like that one. They require you to be rooted to use them.
Hi Chacha's,
When i was searching internal memory solutions, i found an application called APPS2ROM
You can move applications to ROM Memory with this app in your rooted device. It means extra ~100MB.
But i have no idea about maybe it'll be harmful for you device stability.
Need to try
I'm trying it and waiting your feedbacks.
PS: Not moving apps that moved to SD via APP2SD. Only working on installed in internal memory.
I could not give url, but you can find it in Google Play.
its been a week now.any feedbacks on how safe it is? and i have a quick question. i read on some thread, where alex said that removing some apps from the stock rom (unused apps and widgets) doesn't give space.so why remove then? what can that be used for? (the removing of those apps/widgets) i was able gain around 10mb by removing many unused apps/widgets but then space drops down rapidly. in the recovery menu, i could partition my memory card,what is that used for? any feedbacks could help. thanks.
I uses this program to move apps to the system storage and it works fine. However you have to repeat the process from time to time if you update your software that you moved to the system memory.
I Just fonder where ROM's are installed to?
Is it installed to RAM or Phones own space...
Just help a noob. That's me when we are speaking about phones?
If it is installed to RAM, if i delete system files, can i free up RAM.
Any other ways to free up RAM? i already used ROM-Cleaner...
TheLnxDrd said:
I Just fonder where ROM's are installed to?
Is it installed to RAM or Phones own space...
Just help a noob. That's me when we are speaking about phones?
If it is installed to RAM, if i delete system files, can i free up RAM.
Any other ways to free up RAM? i already used ROM-Cleaner...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rom is installed in phone memory, and deleting system files will not free up ram.
If you are having trouble with ram, try installing a swap partition in your phone memory...what that does is uses part of your phone memory as ram (you will be unable to use it for storage then)
Search for swap on the Sensation android development forum, you will find atleast a couple...read the post well before installing.
TheLnxDrd said:
I Just fonder where ROM's are installed to?
Is it installed to RAM or Phones own space...
Just help a noob. That's me when we are speaking about phones?
If it is installed to RAM, if i delete system files, can i free up RAM.
Any other ways to free up RAM? i already used ROM-Cleaner...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a few basic terms you need to understand:
RAM- Random Access Memory - Where data used by the processor is stored (like variables of calculations), and that means - what your app uses while running.
ROM - Read Only Memory - And in our context - the OS.
The ROM and RAM are different memories, by that RAM is deleted when the computer (in this case - the phone) is shut down, while the ROM (and other data stored on the flash memory) is kept.
You can use the ROM to have more RAM, by making a SWAP space.
And for general knowledge - there are a couple of partitions on our phone. What interests us is (mainly) these three:
/data - That's the storage available to us - where we install apps etc.
/system - where system apps and the ROM itself is
/boot - the kernel - what makes the whole OS tick.
Basically, unless on very limited resources, android will handle RAM without you even knowing it. However, when the phone runs with heavy apps all the time, it could get full easily. There are task killers, and also, a reboot can clean your RAM (there could be "memory leaks", however, I do not know of it being an issue on android), and allow it to start fresh.
There are also RAM tweaks such as ZRAM etc. And also, some kernels offer even more optimization.