21/Dec 1.91 - Teknologist kernel with tun.ko, ext4, cifs, and compache ramzswap for GSM Hero

[Guest keyra74]

played around a bit with your kernel and it's indeed faster, i hope for you and paul to keep working together and bring us more :D

[Guest GodsDevil]

Hi Teknologist

Love your work. :D

Quick question though...

With all the debugging tools that you are removing, will there be a way to reinstall them if one needs them in the future???

D

[Guest GodsDevil]

Sorry for sounding such a n00b, but can someone give me a bit of info on exactly what this kernel update is please?

There's nothing on the FAQ section of the web site and I can't seem to find much info on here.

Can someone tell me why its needed, what it'll do and what affect it will have on my current installation?

Also, 'Get rid of all your swap partitions', does this mean the phone will go back to using internal memory for cache/apps?

FYI, I'm running MoDaCo 2.8, Cache2SD, Davlik2SD, Apps2SD and Swapper.

---

Thanks in advance everyone! :D

If you read his site it clearly states that it adds more functionality (as in adding support for more file systems etc.) and it speeds up the system even more. :P

D

[Guest kendon]

Sorry for sounding such a n00b, but can someone give me a bit of info on exactly what this kernel update is please?

There's nothing on the FAQ section of the web site and I can't seem to find much info on here. 

Can someone tell me why its needed, what it'll do and what affect it will have on my current installation?

Also, 'Get rid of all your swap partitions', does this mean the phone will go back to using internal memory for cache/apps?

FYI, I'm running MoDaCo 2.8, Cache2SD, Davlik2SD, Apps2SD and Swapper.

---

Thanks in advance everyone!  :D

this is the kernel sources from htc, modified with (most relevant) ext4 and compcache (and others, see changelog, not gonna explain what cifs is). this enables us to use ext4 as filesystem for apps partition and compcache for compressing the ram and therefore "make more of it".

it is needed for speed, features and convinience. for the noob it mainly means: you can run a sack full of applications on your hero without making it laggy and unresponsive. also bootup time went from 2 minutes to 1:30...

the swap partition has nothing to with the apps. find out what a swap is, and then you'll know what is meant when it is stated that "your swap will reside compressed in your ram".

[Guest kendon]

The graphs on Teknologist's site are nice, but they are flawed.

The 80MB size is not what Compcache is allowed to use, but the size of the actual swap. The Linux kernel cannot cope with a swap device that changes its size, so the 80MB is what Compcache tells the kernel what its size is.

So, using the conservative ratio of 2.4 we get:

The Compcache will use 80/2.4 = 33.333 MB.

Therefore, total memory will be (196-33.333) + 80 = 242.667 or a gain of 46.667 MB

Using the optimistic ratio of 3 we get:

The Compcache will use 80/3 = 26.666 MB.

Therefore, total memory will be (196-26.666) + 80 = 249.334 or a gain of 53.334 MB

Not quite like the nice numbers on the site, but still a good thing :P

well thanks for the explanation, so the real size of the swapfile (pool) varies according to the size of the compressed cache, and the kernel is told the swap is 80mb in size. sounds reasonable so far, but still no explanation WHY tek decided to use size of 80mb... :D

[Guest masterpfa]

Teknologist special thanks for the icing on the cake :D

Managed to install your latest kernel 1.8 after flashing the latest radio 63.18.55.06IU_6.35.08.22 just one question though

How would I apply the ramzswap-signed.zip, just wanted to experiment with a few settings, I'm getting an error message when I try to use the update route via the RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3 method of applying update.zip

[Guest jutley]

Teknologist special thanks for the icing on the cake :D

Managed to install your latest kernel 1.8 after flashing the latest radio 63.18.55.06IU_6.35.08.22 just one question though

How would I apply the ramzswap-signed.zip, just wanted to experiment with a few settings, I'm getting an error message when I try to use the update route via the RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3 method of applying update.zip

same here

[Guest agent-5]

Thanks everyone.

[Guest ippoP]

One word only: great!

And I presume it should also consume less battery!

[Guest kendon]

Teknologist special thanks for the icing on the cake :D

Managed to install your latest kernel 1.8 after flashing the latest radio 63.18.55.06IU_6.35.08.22 just one question though

How would I apply the ramzswap-signed.zip, just wanted to experiment with a few settings, I'm getting an error message when I try to use the update route via the RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3 method of applying update.zip

you need to resign it...

[Guest justbabu]

well thanks for the explanation, so the real size of the swapfile (pool) varies according to the size of the compressed cache, and the kernel is told the swap is 80mb in size. sounds reasonable so far, but still no explanation WHY tek decided to use size of 80mb... :D

He tried several different sizes from 64Mb to 144Mb. 80Mb seems to give the best trade off speed and 'extra' RAM.

[Guest masterpfa]

you need to resign it...

Hi kendon thanks for the response, noob moment coming on, what do you mean by resign it? :D

[Guest masterpfa]

Hi kendon thanks for the response, noob moment coming on, what do you mean by resign it? :D

The Error message I recieve in RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3

Writing BOOT:...

E:Missing file boot.img

E:Failure at line 6:

write_raw_image PACKAGE:boot.img

BOOT:

Installation aborted.

[Guest Paul]

Version 2.9 of MCR is now up which includes Teknologists Custom Kernel 1.8!

P

[Guest kendon]

The Error message I recieve in RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3

Writing BOOT:...

E:Missing file boot.img

E:Failure at line 6:

write_raw_image PACKAGE:boot.img

BOOT:

Installation aborted.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551711

this explains how to build update.zips, the process for signing is the same. basically it is installing sdk & java, downloading the testsign.jar and then executing it on the .apk (or zip, which is the same file with different extension). as for modifying updates or applications you can just extract it, modify, repack and sign, there is no need to manually create the folder structure as it is done when extracting the .apk.

you don't happen to be using linux, best case ubuntu?

[Guest masterpfa]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551711

this explains how to build update.zips, the process for signing is the same. basically it is installing sdk & java, downloading the testsign.jar and then executing it on the .apk (or zip, which is the same file with different extension). as for modifying updates or applications you can just extract it, modify, repack and sign, there is no need to manually create the folder structure as it is done when extracting the .apk.

you don't happen to be using linux, best case ubuntu?

Thanks again for the reply

No I must admit I wasn't using Ubuntu or Linux for this I assumed that the to apply the ramzswap-signed.zip I would just update as per 1.8 kernel, but having seen the size (3kb) thought that would not be the correct method. I will have a look at the link you provided and will give it a shot.

OK where did I put that Ubuntu Boot CD?.....

:D

[Guest teknologist]

well thanks for the explanation, so the real size of the swapfile (pool) varies according to the size of the compressed cache, and the kernel is told the swap is 80mb in size. sounds reasonable so far, but still no explanation WHY tek decided to use size of 80mb... :D

I tested all settings found on my website and found that 80Mb was the best balance between extra available RAM size and responsiveness...

There are extra update.zip files on my website so you can apply to test other sizes of memlimit.

[Guest teknologist]

The graphs on Teknologist's site are nice, but they are flawed.

The 80MB size is not what Compcache is allowed to use, but the size of the actual swap. The Linux kernel cannot cope with a swap device that changes its size, so the 80MB is what Compcache tells the kernel what its size is.

So, using the conservative ratio of 2.4 we get:

The Compcache will use 80/2.4 = 33.333 MB.

Therefore, total memory will be (196-33.333) + 80 = 242.667 or a gain of 46.667 MB

Using the optimistic ratio of 3 we get:

The Compcache will use 80/3 = 26.666 MB.

Therefore, total memory will be (196-26.666) + 80 = 249.334 or a gain of 53.334 MB

Not quite like the nice numbers on the site, but still a good thing :D

You are right, the thing is that even when you type 'free'' you don't get the right information.

Thanks for pointing that! I got a bit tired.. ;-) I corrected the compcache theory page !

As per the numbers, theyr are not as sweet but the experience on Hero is sweeter than numbers! ;-)

totally changes the device! ;-) Gives it the RAM it should have had in the first place when HTC built it!

Thanks again for the correction!

Edited November 4, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest teknologist]

The Error message I recieve in RA-Hero-Recovery-v1.2.3

Writing BOOT:...

E:Missing file boot.img

E:Failure at line 6:

write_raw_image PACKAGE:boot.img

BOOT:

Installation aborted.

Sorry I f*cked up ! Files updated on the website...Please report if you have any issues...

Edited November 4, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest kendon]

I tested all settings found on my website and found that 80Mb was the best balance between extra available RAM size and responsiveness...

There are extra update.zip files on my website so you can apply to test other sizes of memlimit.

ok thanks. i know my way around a regular linux, so i am able to edit the init file without using an update.zip :D but good to know.

[Guest teknologist]

Sorry I f*cked up ! Files updated on the website...Please report if you have any issues...

Just ignore the boot.img file error.

The update is still applied...

[Guest kendon]

Thanks again for the reply

No I must admit I wasn't using Ubuntu or Linux for this I assumed that the to apply the ramzswap-signed.zip I would just update as per 1.8 kernel, but having seen the size (3kb) thought that would not be the correct method. I will have a look at the link you provided and will give it a shot.

OK where did I put that Ubuntu Boot CD?.....

:D

i am pretty sure there is a way to do it in windows, and there are also a lot of tutorials out there for windows. check also the general and dream sections here and on xda-devs, as java and the sdk are general purpose and not hero-specific. the time when you have to pay attention is when you are downloading images/roms/updates whatever, make sure they are for hero. there are a lot of roms out there that have hero in the name, as they are based on hero roms but are for dream aka g1 etc.

btw i don't see any point in installing ubuntu just for the android modding, as it would take you too much time to setup and get used to the system if you aren't already...

[Guest teknologist]

I just uploaded the teknologist 1.8 kernel source/config to GitHub here.

Guess will make everyone happy and also demonstrate I didn't change anything in the sources (apart from patching with compcache swap notify callback, ext4 etc.)

No custom teknologist C code in there...it's all about the config! ;-)

[Guest masterpfa]

Sorry I f*cked up ! Files updated on the website...Please report if you have any issues...

Not at all Teknologist, awesome work as always and the website you have set up is exactly what we all needed

All the links in one place, well laid out instructions.

:D

[Guest masterpfa]

i am pretty sure there is a way to do it in windows, and there are also a lot of tutorials out there for windows. check also the general and dream sections here and on xda-devs, as java and the sdk are general purpose and not hero-specific. the time when you have to pay attention is when you are downloading images/roms/updates whatever, make sure they are for hero. there are a lot of roms out there that have hero in the name, as they are based on hero roms but are for dream aka g1 etc.

btw i don't see any point in installing ubuntu just for the android modding, as it would take you too much time to setup and get used to the system if you aren't already...

I've always had a Ubuntu Installation disk handy for a few years, but never really delved into this OS, my only real experience was while on holiday in Madrid last year, they had a laptop in the room running on Ubuntu.

I had, when first trying to create an ext4 partition, first used the Ubuntu route and gparted. Worked for me but preferred the adb shell route when I redid the partitions. In the meanwhile Teknologist has reposted the ramzswap-signed.zip as an update.zip.

That said I will have a look at linux/ubuntu and adding another string to the bow.

I too have noticed all the ROMS out there but as you've pointed out are based on Hero ROMS.

Looking forward to what MoDaCo et al can do with eclair 2.0 once released.

Thanks for all your help.

:D