[Q] Is amt of ram OS keeps free adjustable? - General Questions and Answers

(I hope I'm asking this in the right place.)
I have a simple (I hope) question about the Android OS. I think I understand that it monitors the apps running and leaves enough spare ram so the device can operate well. It seems to try to keep about 30MB free in my device (T-mobile Comet, Huawei U8150, I think. Running 2.2) but my device is slow and acts kind of buggy unless I keep about 50MB free. I've used manual and automatic apps to free up memory (which partially defeats the purpose and is ironic to use memory to free up memory). If the amount of ram the OS tries to keep free could just be set by the user (increased from ~30MB to ~50MB), then I wouldn't have to run an app to make the OS work like I'd prefer it work, snappier. (Forgive me for being a lightweight chicken but I don't want to root or change the OS of my device.) Other than uninstalling resident apps (I really don't want to part with any more of what I've already pared down to that must be resident) is there a setting to make it keep more ram free? Thanks for your help!

You can edit the values of androids internal memory managment.
Here are some infos on this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622666
There are probably apps which can change those values too.

Related

[Idea]add memory to myTouch

Originally, a2sd was developed to allow installation of many apps on G1 as G1 has limited memory. The MT3G has more internal memory so it does not need a2sd.
My question is if we can enable a2sd on a MT3G and than use the additional memory for the system. This can improve performance so much ....
Is this possible? I'm a dev, but not on this kind of platform . I know shell scripting, Unix, C so I can help if needed, but don't know how to approach this thing.
Thx.
mr.tenuki said:
Originally, a2sd was developed to allow installation of many apps on G1 as G1 has limited memory. The MT3G has more internal memory so it does not need a2sd.
My question is if we can enable a2sd on a MT3G and than use the additional memory for the system. This can improve performance so much ....
Is this possible? I'm a dev, but not on this kind of platform . I know shell scripting, Unix, C so I can help if needed, but don't know how to approach this thing.
Thx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends. Now if you have a 32a board, this is pointless. Unless you have 300+apps installed it will not hurt performance.
I sugest App killer to kill off unused apps that never shut down, it helps so much/
Me really dont need Apsd for mytouch, especially the new 32a boards. Running from the sd card slows everythign down. To improve your performance..
1. Get CPU overclosk from market, set lowest to 386, high to 528 screen on, screen off 256/256.
2. Download swapper, set to size of yoru swap partition etc...
3. Get any free app killer ( ifully suggest Anvanced task killer) and every hour or so, go in and ignore what u use all the time, and kill everything else.
Also, get Cachemate from market or Clean up. this clears out all the garbage.
Doing this, on a good day, my battery lasts 17 hours with data going. and My Live wallpapers never lag
Hi,
Thanks - I already have all that set up. I was thinking on a MOD that will allow improvement of performance in a different way.
My Idea is to actually use the memory that becomes available under /data as we move the app to SD to be used by /system partition. Maybe we can also do a "reverse RAM hack" and increase the 3D RAM.
Again, as I'm not very familiar with the Linux system I don't know how exactly this should be done, or if it can be done at all.
Thanks for the reply though
storage memory in the phone is different then addressable ram.. therefore what your saying is not possible...if you really want something like this set up a swap partition on your sd card.
also task killers are not needed for android... its been well documented here and on other forums as android handles processes much differently than your standard windows box (so no need to have the mindset that background apps are slowing down your system). android itself does an excellent job of managing memory and kills tasks itself when more mem is needed. i used to run ATK myself, and found after removing it my phone actually ran better than killing processes all the time.
your likely just having a placebo affect if you think it speeds up your phone.. however killing process can increase battery life.. albeit only slightly...try it yourself and you will see what im talking about..
regarding task killers, just google it and you will see what im saying...
edit: most roms have cpu scaling in them, if you want an app i find set cpu to be the best, followed by overclock widget...
edit2: forgot to mention autostarts . a great program to edit which programs start up upon boot .. if your still worried about having things running in the background...
I was trying to get a swapfile on /Data (being a lot faster than sdcard, probably), but It didn't work :/

Memory leaks?

My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?
I'd get rid of Task Killer, you don't need it.
its not leaking memory...it handles memory differently than windows of yore....stop fretting about how much memory you have available and just reboot your phone once every few days....thats not needed, but if it makes you feel better to look at useless numbers...
Yeah you need to stop looking at this as either a windows pc or an old device (think g1). Get rid of the task killer and never look at how much free ram you have again. Its not important at all. I've had this phone for months and I literally have no idea how much ram it uses on average because I have never checked or cared. My phone has been running smooth since day one. Yours will too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?
Miami_Son said:
Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look at Window 7, there is a concept called pre-fetch. This allows the OS to load the programs into memory based on past usage, and frequency of usage. This lets us open the program much faster, than fetch when requested. This info is loaded to memory, and kept there, until some other program comes in that needs more memory.
And just 'cos a program is present in RAM doesn't mean it would use CPU.
And, based on my observation of android, I see that I have close to 180 MB free when the phone boots up. But this quickly reduces to around 120-150 in less than an hour based on what I use. After like a day this I see that free RAM is about 80-120 MB. And even after 3-4 days of no reboots, the free memory is still present at the same 80-120 levels. I am not sure what kind of memory management android uses, but its very effective, and never caused any noticeable lag in the system.
And, I do not use any task killers, not free up RAM in task manager.
Your concerns are flawed in the fact that the Linux kernel handles memory different than what you are used to. Simply speaking, Linux keeps memory used by applications on need to basis. It keeps it loaded until something else needs to use it. It will take from something else at the required time. A system actually performs faster when there is less memory available because that means that applications are able to be recalled quicker. It's not like it can only load from what is left available.
You will also notice that many applications take up memory but are using 0 CPU. This speaks to the fact that it simply loaded into memory and not taking up resources required for other operations.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I got my android phone, the first thing I did was put up things like task killer, start up auditor, etc. But as weeks passed, I realized these were more of deteriorating performance, than improve it. So got rid of them. Android can handle itself.
Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It started with the combination of old versions of android (think cupcake and doughnut) and phones like the G1. Older versions didn't handle ram as well as they do in eclair and up. If you combine this with the fact that those older phones had less ram, and likely didn't use any gpu acceleration (unsure of this though), then task killers and other programs were considered necessary to get a fluid feeling experience.
They are still in the market now for 2 reasons.
1. Because some people still have those old phones and still run old versions of android. (less likely)
2. Habit. If people are used to using them and tell others they are necessary because they've always worked, why would a developer pull his money making app from the market? (much more likely)
So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?
Miami_Son said:
My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Along with what everyone else said, remember that a memory leak is a LEAK, something that is continuously draining, not a one-time thing. So, if memory goes to 80MB free and holds, that's not a leak, that's simply memory that is being used. If free memory drops to 75, then 60, then 55, 50, 45, and so on, then you have a true leak to worry about.
Well, what we Windows Mobile users often also refer to as leaks is the bad habit of some apps to not release their memory when closed. For instance, a program that carves out 25mb of RAM when started and returns less then half of that when closed.
jaju123 said:
Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone else know much about "Autokiller"?
i used to use a task killer with my G1, and continued to do so with my captivate but i saw a few things like this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ and decided to get rid of my task killers and my phone seemed actually a little faster and seemed my battery life increased.
matt310 said:
So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is useful in those situations but realistically when people give that argument they are just looking for a reason to keep it. Android has the ability to kill tasks built in. If you're on 2.1 then yeah it's buried deeper in the menu but not a big deal. I can't imagine an app freezing enough to warrant having a task killer for. If you're on 2.2 it's much more easily accessible.
When we talk about task killers we're talking about people using them to kill open tasks that aren't causing issues simply to see more free ram available.

Whats Best way to free up the ram???

Whats best way to free up the more ram? I have root and froze the safe stuff. The lowest I can get free is about 185MB / 328MB.
Rooting and freezing apps doesn't give you more RAM, since there is only 512MB of RAM and the OS takes part of that to run.
You can free up internal app storage space, by deleting bloatware, or cut/paste the bloatware into a folder on the SDcard (I call mine VZWBloat) and that will save you space.
You can run a task killer to kill off apps that you don't need but you have to be careful, Android does need certain apps to be available in the background and it will just reopen automatically and that will put them into a cycle and drain the battery.
rcb929 said:
Whats best way to free up the more ram? I have root and froze the safe stuff. The lowest I can get free is about 185MB / 328MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please do not post Questions or problems in Android Development
Moving to General
RaptorMD said:
Rooting and freezing apps doesn't give you more RAM, since there is only 512MB of RAM and the OS takes part of that to run.
You can free up internal app storage space, by deleting bloatware, or cut/paste the bloatware into a folder on the SDcard (I call mine VZWBloat) and that will save you space.
You can run a task killer to kill off apps that you don't need but you have to be careful, Android does need certain apps to be available in the background and it will just reopen automatically and that will put them into a cycle and drain the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey im using root explorer when im in system/app/ how do i single out the bloatware apps?
rcb929 said:
Whats best way to free up the more ram? I have root and froze the safe stuff. The lowest I can get free is about 185MB / 328MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Freeing up that much RAM is probably detrimental to the overall efficacy of the memory management system, I've never seen mine at 185MB, and if I did I'd worry something was wrong.
If you really want to free up more RAM, for no benefit whatsoever, use something like Advanced Task Killer and set it to allow killing of the lowest level processes it can, then kill everything. Bam, tons of free'd up RAM. Again, this has pretty much no benefit whatsoever and for a short time will probably make your phone more sluggish and slow.
In Android (Linux) free memory is considered wasted memory.
That said, I remember on my galaxy S that the phone ran snappier when I tweaked the memory management of the phone.
Task killers are generally considered a bad idea on android, so I would avoid using one of them to free up memory. However, there is a poorly named app called auto killer that is actually just an interface to tweaking androids built and memory management. I recommend giving it a try, here's a link: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.rs.autokiller
Note that it is not a task killer per se, it is just a tweak for android phone memory management schemes.
I haven't used it on my droid charge yet, but play with the settings maybe starting with aggressive. Good luck and let us know how it works for you.
Sent from Thunderbolt
I don't have my phone with me right now, but you need to make the folder read/write and then hit menu and multi-select or select multiple. This thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1082588 shows what is ok to freeze, but I am not familiar enough with those to say you can remove all of them. Typically I would look for the Verizon specific apps, games like lets gold, guitar hero etc. If you remove anything related to touch wiz (widgets) you need to remove both of the associated files. I am pulling this from memory on my previous TB.
These are the ones I recognize, but the others in that long list I would like to see better clarification of what they are and how they are tied into the TouchWiz UI so we don't get errors. Please exercise caution when doing this.
• Bitbop 1.0
• Blockbuster 0.6
• City ID 1.1.4
• Lets Golf 2 3.2.2
• Rhapsody 1.0
• Rock Band 4.4.3
• Slacker 2.1.170
• TuneWiki 2.2
• VCAST Media Manager 4.2.96.3
• VVMService 1.0.30
• VZ Navigator 7.1.2.87
• WeatherBug Clock 11.04.07.01
rcb929 said:
Whats best way to free up the more ram? I have root and froze the safe stuff. The lowest I can get free is about 185MB / 328MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BY FAR.... BAR NONE.... The best way to free up memory and keep it free without messing with task killers is to use a program called startup auditor. This app prevents apps from starting up automatically on startup and throughtout the day without interfering with normal app processes. You can shut down or enable any app you want.
Even cooler, if you select the option menu and hit disable all, it only disables programs that won't interfere with the phone operation so it knows which apk's are critical for phone integrity. PRETTY COOL!!!
burningembers said:
Freeing up that much RAM is probably detrimental to the overall efficacy of the memory management system, I've never seen mine at 185MB, and if I did I'd worry something was wrong.
If you really want to free up more RAM, for no benefit whatsoever, use something like Advanced Task Killer and set it to allow killing of the lowest level processes it can, then kill everything. Bam, tons of free'd up RAM. Again, this has pretty much no benefit whatsoever and for a short time will probably make your phone more sluggish and slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NEVER USE ADVANCE TASK KILLER... See other post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1106265
RaptorMD said:
Rooting and freezing apps doesn't give you more RAM, since there is only 512MB of RAM and the OS takes part of that to run.
You can free up internal app storage space, by deleting bloatware, or cut/paste the bloatware into a folder on the SDcard (I call mine VZWBloat) and that will save you space.
You can run a task killer to kill off apps that you don't need but you have to be careful, Android does need certain apps to be available in the background and it will just reopen automatically and that will put them into a cycle and drain the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DON"T USE A TASK KILLER ON ANY SAMSUNG DEVICE. See other post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1106265
I wasn't really condoning the use of task killers. I disagree with them 99% of the time (there are some edge cases). I just gave the OP an option if he really, really wanted to for no reason whatsoever.
@OP: I would recommend leaving the pasture gate open.
rcb929 said:
Whats best way to free up the more ram? I have root and froze the safe stuff. The lowest I can get free is about 185MB / 328MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an app called Greenify. Its available on Play store.
Just check it out.
It also helps to maintain the juice of the battery.. !!
To Free Ram
A more easy way to delete a minimum of 1gb of space which by doing so also frees up ram is to delete the dump state log cat. See every time your device has an error or force close issue, date is collected / written to the log file and this can take up ane enormous amount of space which when space is low also means your device user more ram. To do this go to your dial pad and type in *#9900#
This will automatically brings up options and then just choose to delete the dump state/log cat. Let it clear for a few minutes and that's it's. Try seeing how much space you have before and after and you'll realise this is a blessing.

[Q] strange ram available

Hello everyone
i have noticed something strange about the RAM available, if I go into settings-applications-services running: ram, 211 MB used 80MB free.
If you instead use Android system info I see: 37 MB free RAM
Why this? I have 2.3.4 stock
sorry my bad engish
try terminating cached programs. also, remove unnecessary apps. dont use task killers/managers etc. they are unnecessary. linux is smarter than us. dont use security services unless you frequently visit suspect sites and dl apps w/out research. see which programs are consuming ram and search for solutions. last resort, hard reset. if it persists or low ram issues arise when stock, time for a new one. good luck.
The nexus S has 345MB for the OS and apps, rest is used by the hardware (mostly by the GPU), you will never have access to it.
Your situation is perfectly fine, the biggest memory hog is the browser. I recommend auto memory manager (free on market) and set the empty application line to 80mb.
The services are killed automaticly by android, no need for task managers, but the limit is set to 80mb instead of 24mb. You will still run into memory leaks eventually, but not really at 30mb left.
Thanks to all
I do not use task killer, using linux for 4 years , i try Auto Memory Manager. see if the situation improves.

[Q] How to make Swap Partition For Galaxy Tab Plus

Hi
How can i create Swap Partition for increase RAM on Galaxy tab plus?
I find guide for other device, can`t find for Gt 6200
Thanks for help...
hmr007 said:
Hi
How can i create Swap Partition for increase RAM on Galaxy tab plus?
I find guide for other device, can`t find for Gt 6200
Thanks for help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can;t and should never need to.
You have 1 GB of RAM more than enough for any application.
Swap has not been used since Froyo I think . Since OG phones with 300 mb RAM.
Not used not needed
DigitalMD said:
you can;t and should never need to.
You have 1 GB of RAM more than enough for any application.
Swap has not been used since Froyo I think . Since OG phones with 300 mb RAM.
Not used not needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replay
but this 1GB (830 MB Actually) full after open 4-5 program or 2 game And Android close automatically other Application And last States!
I Want to save last States of other program Anyway until i Close program manually
For example Chrome close tabs after open 4-5 program and when i visit old tabs , it reloaded again!
hmr007 said:
Hi
How can i create Swap Partition for increase RAM on Galaxy tab plus?
I find guide for other device, can`t find for Gt 6200
Thanks for help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. Easiest way is to download Swapper2 from the PlayStore.
viper001 said:
Hi. Easiest way is to download Swapper2 from the PlayStore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if you want to slow your tablet to a crawl.
Why would you want to swap very fast RAM with very slow SD memory? No need and a really bad idea.
DigitalMD said:
Only if you want to slow your tablet to a crawl.
Why would you want to swap very fast RAM with very slow SD memory? No need and a really bad idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agree. but, it looks like he's more concerned with multitasking.
it always depends on the user. let him try it first and let him decide what's acceptable for him.
Besides, "slow your tablet to a crawl" is an exaggeration.
viper001 said:
agree. but, it looks like he's more concerned with multitasking.
it always depends on the user. let him try it first and let him decide what's acceptable for him.
Besides, "slow your tablet to a crawl" is an exaggeration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That won't help multitasking , Android already has an efficient memory management system. That OG swap app was for Froyo phones that only had about 300 mb to run the OS and apps. No longer applies. And since there are no true multi=tasking apps. IE you can;t run two foregrounds apps. ..... , you can never fill up RAM
DigitalMD said:
That won't help multitasking , Android already has an efficient memory management system. That OG swap app was for Froyo phones that only had about 300 mb to run the OS and apps. No longer applies. And since there are no true multi=tasking apps. IE you can;t run two foregrounds apps. ..... , you can never fill up RAM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. "Task-Switching" then .
Agree that android memory management is "efficient". the problem is that when it runs out of memory the app at the "back" of the stack gets "killed". data is saved for that app so when it's called back up, it "seems" like it was running all the while.
So, as per the OP question, since his problem was that his web pages keep reloading, ie app was killed due to memory constraints, his idea is to increase the RAM or in this case adding virtual RAM via swap.
It's not a bad Idea, since the amount of RAM is virtually increased, then the amount of apps that can be in RAM at the same time is also increased.
FYI, not only for froyo, i use swap for my NEO V running ICS. made DEAD SPACE run better than without swap. :good:
Haven't encountered a need on the P6200 though. Ofcourse, there must be a reason why 2GB RAM devices are now available.
there is not reason that swapping would make your tablet run better, none.
Because as of ICS , and with 1gb+ ram, you are emulating and interfering with what Android (linux) already does .
you have one foreground task and whatever idle tasks and then unused apps that are retained in RAM until they are needed or another apps needs space and they are removed from RAM. Then they reside on SD memory so what advantage does swapping to SD memory give you, none, in fact it adds a extra useless step .
SO Android attempts to keep RAM 80% used.at all times. If you look at the process logically, I do not believe can lay out a scenario by which the swapper apps beings any benefit to current Android systems.
DigitalMD said:
there is not reason that swapping would make your tablet run better, none.
Because as of ICS , and with 1gb+ ram, you are emulating and interfering with what Android (linux) already does .
you have one foreground task and whatever idle tasks and then unused apps that are retained in RAM until they are needed or another apps needs space and they are removed from RAM. Then they reside on SD memory so what advantage does swapping to SD memory give you, none, in fact it adds a extra useless step .
SO Android attempts to keep RAM 80% used.at all times. If you look at the process logically, I do not believe can lay out a scenario by which the swapper apps beings any benefit to current Android systems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You actually pointed out the reason why the Original Poster wanted to use swap. he wanted his currently "unused" browser app to reside in ram, and not get killed. in this case it will be in virtual ram.
I agree with all your points. and I don't use swap on my tablet (P6200) haven't had a need, but i do use it on my phone(Neo V, 512 RAM, 384 useable).
All i'm saying is let him try. it's possible that he is hitting the limit on his Tablet. I know, cause it's easy to hit the limit on my phone that i'm very sure swapping works. e.g i can now switch between, Chrome, Facebook, Email, What'sUp, answer a phone call, send a text message and come back to Chrome (which has three open tabs BTW) without Chrome "reloading" those same three tabs. i wasn't able to do this before i starter using swap.
and yes, there's a bit lag but it's better than incurring cost of reloading a page each time, esp if your on a limited data plan.
One other thing that was not considered yet also are the OOM groups and Minfree. another option is Compcache.
The use of Swap really depends on the user and the way he uses his device. You can only see a benefit from swap if you consistently use up all your RAM. Which, if i understand the OP's problem correctly, is the case.

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