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

[Guest teknologist]

Followed this guide:

http://androidandme.com/2009/08/news/how-t...ndroid-apps2sd/

Step 8

When I mounts the SD-card FAT32 is fine but my EXT4 partition is read-only.

I am using Ubuntu 9.10

On Ubuntu, if you remount rw what does it say ?

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdbX /mountpoint

[Guest plun]

On Ubuntu, if you remount rw what does it say ?

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdbX /mountpoint

It works with

# mount -o remount,rw

rootfs on / type rootfs (ro)

tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=600)

proc on /proc type proc (rw)

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)

tmpfs on /sqlite_stmt_journals type tmpfs (rw,size=4096k)

/dev/block/mtdblock3 on /system type yaffs2 (ro)

/dev/block/mtdblock5 on /data type yaffs2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)

/dev/block/mtdblock4 on /cache type yaffs2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 on /system/sd type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered)

/dev/block//vold/179:1 on /sdcard type vfat (rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,allow_ut

me=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8)

#

Hmmmm ??

[Guest teknologist]

It works with

# mount -o remount,rw

rootfs on / type rootfs (ro)

tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=600)

proc on /proc type proc (rw)

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)

tmpfs on /sqlite_stmt_journals type tmpfs (rw,size=4096k)

/dev/block/mtdblock3 on /system type yaffs2 (ro)

/dev/block/mtdblock5 on /data type yaffs2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)

/dev/block/mtdblock4 on /cache type yaffs2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 on /system/sd type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered)

/dev/block//vold/179:1 on /sdcard type vfat (rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,allow_ut

me=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8)

#

Hmmmm ??

I told you to run mount on your Ubuntu PC.

Anyway, when I see your mount output from the android, seems ext4 is working for /sd.

I don't understand, what is your problem exactly ???

[Guest plun]

I told you to run mount on your Ubuntu PC.

Anyway, when I see your mount output from the android, seems ext4 is working for /sd.

I don't understand, what is your problem exactly ???

My problem is a read-only EXT4 partition.

The problem is gone from adb shell and this command.

mount -o remount,rw

I cannot mount the partition with your command.

[Guest teknologist]

My problem is a read-only EXT4 partition.

The problem is gone from adb shell and this command.

mount -o remount,rw

I cannot mount the partition with your command.

What do you mean "The problem is gone from adb shell and this command." ?

You don't make any sense.

If you type mount in adb shell and it ouputs what you printed, you are fine and a2sd works with ext4 on your Hero !

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 on /system/sd type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered)

This means everything is ok on you Hero

If you require support on using your Ubuntu GNU/Linux PC, please refer to ubuntu forums man !

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't make any sense.

Edited November 1, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest holywood]

i'm curious, Didn't you notice a performance boost ???

I did, when i have changed from regular modaco 2.8 kernel to 1.4, for sure :D from 1.4 to 1.7 not really, so i was wondering if maybe some further optimizations did not offset performance gains from ramzswap in 1.4... however i did not test the phone extensively after 1.7 upgade, checked /proc/ramzswap and logs, and got confused by the message :lol: still, the performance boost compared to kernel in mcr 2.8 is there, no doubt about it :P thanks for great work and help with my doubts ;)

[Guest jutley]

Hi quick question i have 2.8 instaled pauls rom and going to flash new 1.7 kernell today before i do i just want to make sure my sd card is as follows

i have

512mb ext4

32mb linux swap v1

14gb+ primary fat32 is this setup on my card ok to flash the new 1.7 kernell thanks in advance.

[Guest clarkEEE1]

Hi quick question i have 2.8 instaled pauls rom and going to flash new 1.7 kernell today before i do i just want to make sure my sd card is as follows

i have

512mb ext4

32mb linux swap v1

14gb+ primary fat32 is this setup on my card ok to flash the new 1.7 kernell thanks in advance.

Yeah the setup will work fine but you dont really need swap its just taking up abit of extra room don't really matter if your using a 16gb card though I suppose.

[Guest naTTan]

Teknologist, i have my Sd card setup as the following.

1GB ext3

7GB primary fat32.

to apply you kernal to i have to have a swap partition? If so how big? I only see a minimum level but not a recommended level. I actually don't like using swap so is it necessary?

is there a big advantage of ext3 over ext4?

[Guest teknologist]

I did, when i have changed from regular modaco 2.8 kernel to 1.4, for sure :D from 1.4 to 1.7 not really, so i was wondering if maybe some further optimizations did not offset performance gains from ramzswap in 1.4... however i did not test the phone extensively after 1.7 upgade, checked /proc/ramzswap and logs, and got confused by the message :lol: still, the performance boost compared to kernel in mcr 2.8 is there, no doubt about it :P thanks for great work and help with my doubts ;)

The fact you don't see a difference is what I like.

Basically backing swap makes no difference in perfs.

1.4 was using an sdcard backing swap partition.

From 1.5 and on I started using only memory and no backing swap. Made the one-click install possible...!

Not everyone wants to use partition and i tend to think that it's more for geeks.

My goal was to make this usable by almost everyone !

I'm glad you are happy! ;-)

Edited November 2, 2009 by teknologist

[Guest teknologist]

Yeah the setup will work fine but you dont really need swap its just taking up abit of extra room don't really matter if your using a 16gb card though I suppose.

Things got confusing, people still think they need a swap partition.

Hopefully the website will be up soon and clear the misunderstandings...

[Guest teknologist]

Teknologist, i have my Sd card setup as the following.

1GB ext3

7GB primary fat32.

to apply you kernal to i have to have a swap partition? If so how big? I only see a minimum level but not a recommended level. I actually don't like using swap so is it necessary?

is there a big advantage of ext3 over ext4?

You don't need/want a swap partition.

ext3 vs ext4 not sure....just love living on the edge! ;-)

Seriously, I have read that "delayed allocation feature" in ext4 gives some extra benefit...needs to be proven still...

[Guest squirreleater]

The fact you don't see a difference is what I like.

Basically backing swap makes no difference in perfs.

1.4 was using an sdcard backing swap partition.

From 1.5 and on I started using only memory and no backing swap. Made the one-click install possible...!

Not everyone wants to use partition and i tend to think that it's more for geeks.

My goal was to make this usable by almost everyone !

I'm glad you are happy! ;-)

Indeed, I've not got round to partitioning my SD card, so was a happy bunny when you released the update as a straight install.

Thanks.

[Guest phillevy]

Only improvement is responsiveness/speed.

You don't need to moved to ext4 if you don't want. Ext3/Ext2 work fine too.

Don't you see a performance boost ?

What does it say in Settings/About/kernel ?

What does cat /proc/ramzswap output ?

In settings I have confirmation of your kernel - to determine cat /proc/ramzswap output do I use ADB as I couldn't find any instructions how to do it?

I have noticed one thing - I no longer get any noticeable slowdown as RAM is used up by apps (I would previously need to task-kill earlier) - I would like to try the cat /proc/ramzswap output though.

[Guest sibbor]

@teknologist: I flashed to MoDaCo 2.8 (from 2.7.1) and your 1.7 kernel. My phone kept on rebooting. Plugged in my USB cable and the phone stops to reboot. I've now disconnected my device from the USB cable and it seems to be stable, but I don't notice any big speed improvement..?

About phone says it's OK. And this is what I get with cat /proc/ramzswap:

cat /proc/ramzswap

DiskSize:		  94208 kB

NumReads:		   4850

NumWrites:		  5083

FailedReads:		   0

FailedWrites:		  0

InvalidIO:			 0

NotifyFree:		 2316

ZeroPages:		   127

GoodCompress:		 78 %

NoCompress:			4 %

PagesStored:		2669

PagesUsed:		  1321

OrigDataSize:	  10676 kB

ComprDataSize:	  3564 kB

MemUsedTotal:	   5284 kB

[Guest mjt1978]

Hi,

Many thanks for all the hard work both you and Paul have put into this project. My Hero is now running excellently, though I have to keep an eye on my task list and kill a bunch of tasks every so often to prevent swap-lag (I run a lot of apps! :-)). Has anybody else experienced this?

I'm experimenting with the autostarts apk to fix things that start more often than I want them too, and also I'm trying out a setting of 10 for /proc/sys/vm/swappiness (rather than the default 60) to see if that helps the situation. My other thought is that 92MB may be just too much compressed RAM to have available. I'm not quite certain how I'd go about tweaking this figure - if there are any clues that can be offered, I'd be happy to test some different numbers out and report back on what I find to be best.

And, as a final request, is it possible that you could add the fuse module to the next release of the kernel please? Alternatively, I'm happy to roll my own if you could provide some hints as to the environment you have set up to cross-compile the kernel with the configuration your are using. I think fuse could open the door to some very interesting possibilities!

Again, I'm very much appreciative of all the time and effort you have put in to this, and would like to congratulate you on doing such a fantastic job for the Hero community! Props to you! :-D

[Guest jutley]

Ok for all you speed freaks out there here is another speed boost this actually turns the htc sense off but still keeps most the other cool stuff there so your homescreen will look like the original android

operating system hence a speed increase and free program memory.

I like it this way and maybe others do and this actually flys with 2.8 rom and 1.7 kernell try if you dare instructions below.

1) open settings.

2) Go to Application.

3) Open Manage Applications (this can be rather slow so if it seems like it's stopped responding, give it a while).

4) Scroll down the list of applications and click on HTC Sense.

5) Finally in the HTC Sense screen scroll down and Launch by default section and press Clear defaults. This will remove the default option and ask you which you want to see again.

(If the generic app has been set as default look for Home on step 4 instead of HTC Sense)

[Guest teknologist]

In settings I have confirmation of your kernel - to determine cat /proc/ramzswap output do I use ADB as I couldn't find any instructions how to do it?

I have noticed one thing - I no longer get any noticeable slowdown as RAM is used up by apps (I would previously need to task-kill earlier) - I would like to try the cat /proc/ramzswap output though.

You can use the adb shell.

Command is:

./adb shell cat /proc/ramzswap

you can also use the app called "Better terminal"

and just type:

cat /proc/ramzswap at the terminal prompt.

[Guest teknologist]

@teknologist: I flashed to MoDaCo 2.8 (from 2.7.1) and your 1.7 kernel. My phone kept on rebooting. Plugged in my USB cable and the phone stops to reboot. I've now disconnected my device from the USB cable and it seems to be stable, but I don't notice any big speed improvement..?

About phone says it's OK. And this is what I get with cat /proc/ramzswap:

cat /proc/ramzswap

 DiskSize:		  94208 kB

 NumReads:		   4850

 NumWrites:		  5083

 FailedReads:		   0

 FailedWrites:		  0

 InvalidIO:			 0

 NotifyFree:		 2316

 ZeroPages:		   127

 GoodCompress:		 78 %

 NoCompress:			4 %

 PagesStored:		2669

 PagesUsed:		  1321

 OrigDataSize:	  10676 kB

 ComprDataSize:	  3564 kB

 MemUsedTotal:	   5284 kB

Form your output,Compcache works.

really weird, you are the first one here not seeing improvements.

Sorry mate! can't do much about that...

Maybe you got some app installed that is killing the perfs...

[Guest teknologist]

Hi,

Many thanks for all the hard work both you and Paul have put into this project. My Hero is now running excellently, though I have to keep an eye on my task list and kill a bunch of tasks every so often to prevent swap-lag (I run a lot of apps! :-)). Has anybody else experienced this?

I'm experimenting with the autostarts apk to fix things that start more often than I want them too, and also I'm trying out a setting of 10 for /proc/sys/vm/swappiness (rather than the default 60) to see if that helps the situation. My other thought is that 92MB may be just too much compressed RAM to have available. I'm not quite certain how I'd go about tweaking this figure - if there are any clues that can be offered, I'd be happy to test some different numbers out and report back on what I find to be best.

And, as a final request, is it possible that you could add the fuse module to the next release of the kernel please? Alternatively, I'm happy to roll my own if you could provide some hints as to the environment you have set up to cross-compile the kernel with the configuration your are using. I think fuse could open the door to some very interesting possibilities!

Again, I'm very much appreciative of all the time and effort you have put in to this, and would like to congratulate you on doing such a fantastic job for the Hero community! Props to you! :-D

Fuse, good idea, will definitely try to put it in 1.8.

If you feel brave enough it is very easy to change the amount of compressed pool. You can change it in /data/ramzswap.sh

I am currently testing with 144Mb compressed pool...

For the figures (very simple as it is just linear math) you can have a look at my website (the compache theory page).

As far as I can see, ramzswap memory doesn't seem to be slower or a lot more cpu intensive than plain RAM. I have also lots of apps running in // (around 20+) and having around 400Mb of available RAM instead of the stock 196Mb really changes everything.

As per the amount of running programs, android starts killing stale apps when it needs memory, so I'll keep an eye on any side effects of the compcache size increase.

That is why I haven't release anything new yet...still testing.

Seems we have the beginning of a changelog for 1.8. Fuse module.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Cheers,

-Eric

PS: let me know about your experiences with different compcache sizes.

[Guest teknologist]

Anyone willing to beta test next updated hero kernel v1.8 ? Check here: http://ow.ly/yFRH . Thanks in advance for the help/suggestions !

[Guest phillevy]

You can use the adb shell.

Command is:

./adb shell cat /proc/ramzswap

you can also use the app called "Better terminal"

and just type:

cat /proc/ramzswap at the terminal prompt.

Here goes:# cat /proc/ramzswap

cat /proc/ramzswap

DiskSize: 94208 kB

NumReads: 12371

NumWrites: 15223

FailedReads: 0

FailedWrites: 0

InvalidIO: 0

NotifyFree: 3403

ZeroPages: 585

GoodCompress: 75 %

NoCompress: 5 %

PagesStored: 10581

PagesUsed: 3776

OrigDataSize: 42324 kB

ComprDataSize: 14885 kB

MemUsedTotal: 15104 kB

Does this look ok? Thanks!

[Guest kendon]

Does this look ok? Thanks!

that looks great.

@teknologist: i'm gonna try 128mb as pool size, or shouldn't i? (some limitations that the pool size has to multiple of x or something?)

[Guest jutley]

You can use the adb shell.

Command is:

./adb shell cat /proc/ramzswap

you can also use the app called "Better terminal"

and just type:

cat /proc/ramzswap at the terminal prompt.

HERE ARE MY RESULTS BELOW DO I HAVE A PROBLEM IT LOOKS LIKE I USED BETTER TERMINAL IN SU MODE

$ su#cat /proc/ramzswap

DiskSize: 94208 kB

NumReads: 1

NumWrites: 0

FailedReads: 0

FailedWrites: 0

InvalidIO: 0

NotifyFree: 0

ZeroPages: 0

GoodCompress: 0 %

NoCompress: 0 %

PagesStored: 0

PagesUsed: 0

OrigDataSize: 0 kB

ComprDataSize: 0 kB

MemUsedTotal: 0 kB

#cat /proc/meminfo

MemTotal: 196152 kB

MemFree: 18840 kB

Buffers: 280 kB

Cached: 91004 kB

SwapCached: 0 kB

Active: 124204 kB

Inactive: 38288 kB

SwapTotal: 94200 kB

SwapFree: 94200 kB

Dirty: 0 kB

Writeback: 0 kB

AnonPages: 71232 kB

Mapped: 39388 kB

Slab: 5440 kB

SReclaimable: 1260 kB

SUnreclaim: 4180 kB

PageTables: 4948 kB

NFS_Unstable: 0 kB

Bounce: 0 kB

WritebackTmp: 0 kB

CommitLimit: 192276 kB

Committed_AS: 1430308 kB

VmallocTotal: 319488 kB

VmallocUsed: 68228 kB

VmallocChunk: 207868 kB

#

OK I TRIED AGAIN WITH LOTS OF APPS OPEN ATLEAST 10 TO 13 APPS AND I GOT THIS RESULT BELOW

$ export PATH=/data/local/bin:$PATH

$su

# cat /proc/ramzswap

DiskSize: 94208 kB

NumReads: 10768

NumWrites: 14950

FailedReads: 0

FailedWrites: 0

InvalidIO: 0

NotifyFree: 2413

ZeroPages: 648

GoodCompress: 80 %

NoCompress: 2 %

PagesStored: 11868

PagesUsed: 3943

OrigDataSize: 47472 kB

ComprDataSize: 15072 kB

MemUsedTotal: 15772 kB

#

SO IF THIS IS OK I THINK I WAS KILLING ALL MY APPS WITH ADVANCED TAK KILLER BEFORE I TOOK RAMZSWAP READINGS CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THIS IS ALL WORKING WELL THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Edited November 2, 2009 by jutley

[Guest ptruman]

I installed the 1.7 kernel today, on top of Paul's 2.8 ROM - and also partitioned my 8GB Class 6 SD card (thus enabling A2SD)

All seems good, although I'm noticing a (distinct) lag when "waking up" via a hard key. Scrolling left/right on the home screens or opening the apps menu seems quite stuttery for 4-5 seconds coming out of sleep, then is fine - is this 'normal' as the device wakes up/reads the SD card?

(other than that, all seems hunkydory and ace) :D