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

[Guest kendon]

Just released a "performance tweak" update package for Teknologist kernel 1.8 and newer and all MCR based on Teknologist kernel (2.8/2.9/3.0)

It improves the responsiveness of the device , especially on wake-up after sleep...

Details here / Downloads Here

with my ubuntu 9.04 notebook i had the problem that the ondemand governor didn't scale good. the solution was a script:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice_load

echo 40 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold

have ypu tried this? i am not sure about the first command (and if is necessary at all), but the second command is pretty straigt forward. it defines the cpu utilisation in % at which the cpu frequency is scaled up one step. in mcr3.0 (and probably all roms) this value is set to 80, i'm gonna try 40 now on my hero.

i somehow think this might be a better approach, as the ondemand governor should save some battery compared to performance.

[Guest stevenz]

If I make a nandroid backup and then restore, will this Tweak stay on the phone? Just wondering where I can see, if I still have it or not? Cause I did a restore, but can`t say if there is difference, than before the Tweak.

Nandroid is a complete dump of everything on the phone. If it was on there when it was backed up, it'll be there once it's restored.

[Guest JuW]

Ok. Was just wondering, cause the Radio update doesn`t come back in restore, it will be the same you have at the moment.

Edited December 14, 2009 by JuW

[Guest teknologist]

with my ubuntu 9.04 notebook i had the problem that the ondemand governor didn't scale good. the solution was a script:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice_load

echo 40 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold

have ypu tried this? i am not sure about the first command (and if is necessary at all), but the second command is pretty straigt forward. it defines the cpu utilisation in % at which the cpu frequency is scaled up one step. in mcr3.0 (and probably all roms) this value is set to 80, i'm gonna try 40 now on my hero.

i somehow think this might be a better approach, as the ondemand governor should save some battery compared to performance.

Haven't tried that because the battery results with performance governor seem very good. Except for a few guys, most of the people report same ore better battery with performance...why ?

Maybe because when the device is asleep, whatever process runs (google sync etc.) it always stay at low freq...

I haven't notice any abnormal battery usage and perf is great for me !

Anyway, let me know how it goes for you !

[Guest Dan Mullen]

Nandroid is a complete dump of everything on the phone. If it was on there when it was backed up, it'll be there once it's restored.

I don't think that's right. Your ext partition isn't backed up by nandroid, although the new option in the last recovery image "nadroid + ext" will also backup your apps, (as will a BART backup).

I'm prepared to be corrected on this though - I'm still fairly new to this ;)

[Guest kendon]

I don't think that's right. Your ext partition isn't backed up by nandroid, although the new option in the last recovery image "nadroid + ext" will also backup your apps, (as will a BART backup).

I'm prepared to be corrected on this though - I'm still fairly new to this ;)

basically you both are correct, the ext partition is not backed up by nandroid. but on the other hand stevenz said "everything on the phone", which does not necessarily include the sdcard.

[Guest stevenz]

basically you both are correct, the ext partition is not backed up by nandroid. but on the other hand stevenz said "everything on the phone", which does not necessarily include the sdcard.

Exactly.

It may also just be an issue with the filesystem on my card, but the nand+ext option doesn't seem to like ext4 partitions (regular backup works, nand+ext fails). I backed all my data up via adb and repartitioned the card as ext3/fat32 instead and it backs it up fine though. ext4 should be backwardly compatible with ext3, but doing an "cat /proc/filesystems" from the recovery adb shell doesn't list support for an ext4 filesystem, whereas it's there in a shell running on tek's kernel. Not a biggy, but if it is in fact a filesystem mount issue, others may come across it.

[Guest Dan Mullen]

Exactly.

It may also just be an issue with the filesystem on my card, but the nand+ext option doesn't seem to like ext4 partitions (regular backup works, nand+ext fails). I backed all my data up via adb and repartitioned the card as ext3/fat32 instead and it backs it up fine though. ext4 should be backwardly compatible with ext3, but doing an "cat /proc/filesystems" from the recovery adb shell doesn't list support for an ext4 filesystem, whereas it's there in a shell running on tek's kernel. Not a biggy, but if it is in fact a filesystem mount issue, others may come across it.

What version of the recovery image are you on? 1.5.2 fixes a bug with nadroid+ext.

[Guest kendon]

Exactly.

It may also just be an issue with the filesystem on my card, but the nand+ext option doesn't seem to like ext4 partitions (regular backup works, nand+ext fails). I backed all my data up via adb and repartitioned the card as ext3/fat32 instead and it backs it up fine though. ext4 should be backwardly compatible with ext3, but doing an "cat /proc/filesystems" from the recovery adb shell doesn't list support for an ext4 filesystem, whereas it's there in a shell running on tek's kernel. Not a biggy, but if it is in fact a filesystem mount issue, others may come across it.

check the recovery image thread at xda-dev, the recovery only support ext4 with the dev flag set.

[Guest Paul]

Yeah, I applied the full EXT4 support (not ext4-dev) to the base kernel.

P

[Guest kendon]

Yeah, I applied the full EXT4 support (not ext4-dev) to the base kernel.

P

you applied it to your kernel, but amon_ra or better packetlss AFAIK only implemented ext4_dev into the kernel that the recovery image is using. please correct me if i am wrong, but i could solve my issues with nand + ext by flagging my filesystem as dev. see this output from amon_ra 1.5.2, no ext4 support:

kendon@nx:~$ adb shell cat /proc/filesystems | grep ext

	ext3

	ext4dev

	ext2

kendon@nx:~$

[Guest packetlss]

you applied it to your kernel, but amon_ra or better packetlss AFAIK only implemented ext4_dev into the kernel that the recovery image is using. please correct me if i am wrong, but i could solve my issues with nand + ext by flagging my filesystem as dev. see this output from amon_ra 1.5.2, no ext4 support:

kendon@nx:~$ adb shell cat /proc/filesystems | grep ext

	   ext3

	   ext4dev

	   ext2

   kendon@nx:~$

You're correct, the kernel in the recovery is the stock hero kernel with the stock ext4 options enabled, and a small patch to msm-nand driver to allow future backups of splash images if needed.

However, I urge you guys to stick to ext2 (or yaffs2) as filesystem for your extra partition. The new features of ext3/ext4 brings you no real benefits on such a small partition with very limited directory structure, while it degrades the lifetime of your cards due to the excess journal writes.

[Guest kendon]

You're correct, the kernel in the recovery is the stock hero kernel with the stock ext4 options enabled, and a small patch to msm-nand driver to allow future backups of splash images if needed.

However, I urge you guys to stick to ext2 (or yaffs2) as filesystem for your extra partition. The new features of ext3/ext4 brings you no real benefits on such a small partition with very limited directory structure, while it degrades the lifetime of your cards due to the excess journal writes.

do you know a way to use the partition on the sdcard with a yaffs2 filesystem? if so please give me a hint how to, i've been searching for this but nothing came up.

[Guest teknologist]

Yeah, I applied the full EXT4 support (not ext4-dev) to the base kernel.

P

Yep TCK uses full ext4 as it is based on Paul's early work with MCK-1.2.

Anyway I do agree that ext2 is the best choice for A2SD partition, the rest is of no need on a flash card....

What really will determine performance is the card itself! I have a sandisk Class6 16Gb and it flies ! Don't see a real difference in perf wether the app is on ROM or on SDCard...

By the way, I am preparing a 1.91 kernel with perflocks disabled for the use of SetCPU app (should even be better than my CPU governor change aka the Perf tweak)

Will test it through the weekend and release asap if everything goes well! ;-)

[Guest Paul]

EXT2 isn't the best choice for A2SD partitions, we're seeing lots of issues with corrupted partitions on the Pulse for example!

P

[Guest packetlss]

EXT2 isn't the best choice for A2SD partitions, we're seeing lots of issues with corrupted partitions on the Pulse for example!

P

Strange.

There really shouldn't be any opportunity to get a corrupted fs except for getting incomplete writes, which should be quite hard if the only stuff you have on it is /data/app, since it's only written on app install.

I've run ext2 on my hero for months without any issues whatsoever. Maybe it's Pulse specific.

[Guest Dan Mullen]

Strange.

There really shouldn't be any opportunity to get a corrupted fs except for getting incomplete writes, which should be quite hard if the only stuff you have on it is /data/app, since it's only written on app install.

I've run ext2 on my hero for months without any issues whatsoever. Maybe it's Pulse specific.

I'm also ext2, no issues here after 3 months of being on MCR.

[Guest Loxley]

EXT2 isn't the best choice for A2SD partitions, we're seeing lots of issues with corrupted partitions on the Pulse for example!

If you've got issues with ext2 you have the same issues with ext3, they may be masked by the journalling, but they are there.

[Guest ptruman]

One for Tek here maybe...

I'm running 1.9 with the perf update (on 3.0) and have been seeing some slowdowns.

I have TasKiller (Full) which I've been using since I got my Hero, but I've been avoiding using it to see how well the new kernel copes.

On boot, I wind up with between 77 and 81 MB RAM free - but after various loads and a half day/full day of use, I get down to about 21 - at which point I've had the browser "lock up" twice, and I've needed TasKiller to free up RAM to get it going again. When RAM is down that low, Rosie is also a bit laggy until I've "loaded up" all five screens again.

Anything I could/should be doing differently? (or any logs which might show something useful up?)

[Guest teknologist]

One for Tek here maybe...

I'm running 1.9 with the perf update (on 3.0) and have been seeing some slowdowns.

I have TasKiller (Full) which I've been using since I got my Hero, but I've been avoiding using it to see how well the new kernel copes.

On boot, I wind up with between 77 and 81 MB RAM free - but after various loads and a half day/full day of use, I get down to about 21 - at which point I've had the browser "lock up" twice, and I've needed TasKiller to free up RAM to get it going again. When RAM is down that low, Rosie is also a bit laggy until I've "loaded up" all five screens again.

Anything I could/should be doing differently? (or any logs which might show something useful up?)

Experience the same here...but overall perf is good and I reboot he phone once a day...no browser lockup on my though but the occasional slowdowns...(very rare)

Nothing can be done on my side. Kernel is not magic and it doesn't solve everything and I guess it's down to HTC / Rosie android etc. to fix the slow downs...You could try changing ramzswap disksize_kb to fit your needs and find the best value depending on what you run on your Hero...

I have noticed though that having the taskiller widget (which polls every 30 secs for task list) seems to slowdown the phone. I don't use it myself and when I launch taskiller I make sure I kill it after using it.

Also, found that the new version has feature called "AutoKill on screen off", might help turning it on...

Edited December 20, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest ptruman]

Experience the same here...but overall perf is good and I reboot he phone once a day...no browser lockup on my though but the occasional slowdowns...(very rare)

Nothing can be done on my side. Kernel is not magic and it doesn't solve everything and I guess it's down to HTC / Rosie android etc. to fix the slow downs...You could try changing ramzswap disksize_kb to fit your needs and find the best value depending on what you run on your Hero...

I have noticed though that having the taskiller widget (which polls every 30 secs for task list) seems to slowdown the phone. I don't use it myself and when I launch taskiller I make sure I kill it after using it.

Also, found that the new version has feature called "AutoKill on screen off", might help turning it on...

I'll try killing TasKiller and seeing what happens - AutoKill on screen off seems a bit of a double edged sword to me - yes it might free up memory, but there are some apps I like to leave running and don't have in the ignore list (yet) - and with the browser, once killed, it takes longer to reload than to just leave it running :\

[Guest teknologist]

I'll try killing TasKiller and seeing what happens - AutoKill on screen off seems a bit of a double edged sword to me - yes it might free up memory, but there are some apps I like to leave running and don't have in the ignore list (yet) - and with the browser, once killed, it takes longer to reload than to just leave it running :\

I am currently testing a config with a 128MB disksize Ramzswap on my Hero...seems great so far. I'll let you know how it goes...

[Guest kendon]

I am currently testing a config with a 128MB disksize Ramzswap on my Hero...seems great so far. I'll let you know how it goes...

i never accepted your decision to change it to 80mb ;)

running with 128mb from the beginning, works great for me.

[Guest teknologist]

i never accepted your decision to change it to 80mb ;)

running with 128mb from the beginning, works great for me.

Yep after a full night seems to work great !

I guess it depends on the usage you make of the phone.

Maybe I'll release a small update to the init script to set it up to 128MB and a kernel with perf governor as default...maybe a 1.91...

What do you think guys ?

Edited December 21, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest flipper203]

Yep after a full night seems to work great !

I guess it depends on the usage you make of the phone.

Maybe I'll release a small update to the init script to set it up to 128MB and a kernel with perf governor as default...maybe a 1.91...

What do you think guys ?

yeah!!!!! I agree