Swap issues

[Guest Totyasrác]

If Swapper2 says my swap partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 then I assume this is the swap partition I've created with AmonRa, right?

I found an option at Swapper2 settings: "Run Swapper at startup". I assume this is what it says, isn't it?

Okay, I hope someone will confirm whether or not my bad experience with apps2sd-swap is caused by the apps2sd version (rc2 vs final) :lol:

[Guest SonMauri]

Using swap on SD will kill the card very quickly right?

[Guest Totyasrác]

Using swap on SD will kill the card very quickly right?

Depends on how you define "quickly" :lol:

My idea is when the swap partition dies, we can just leave it as is and create another one, somewhere else... :)

(One point for partition against file, huh :( That is, of course, if I'm not wrong on that one :) )

[Guest igor_anta]

Using swap on SD will kill the card very quickly right?

Very quickly = 1- 2 years at least. So really not that quickly, I plan to use a Class 999 card by then :lol:

Edited September 15, 2010 by igor_anta

[Guest AJV]

with just clockworkd recovery can I make a swap partition?

Yes, I did this yesterday (read my earlier post) and it caused a lot of problems. In fact it made the phone a lot worse. Swapper 2 seems to work best.

[Guest Totyasrác]

Yes, I did this yesterday (read my earlier post) and it caused a lot of problems. In fact it made the phone a lot worse. Swapper 2 seems to work best.

You're talking about two different issues.

You can use your swap partition also with Swapper2!

(Just make sure to disable apps2sd swap handling (from Terminal Emulator: su then a2sd noswap!!!) Then start Swapper2, settings/advanced preferences/use swap partition, and there go. For me it has found the partition so I didn't have to specify :lol:)

Edited September 15, 2010 by Totyasrác

[Guest menno2]

Yup. But it'll erase EVERYTHING on your SD card. Any apps for A2SD, all your Nandroids, songs etc. Back it all up.

Thats not what I meant,

Imagine that the only thing i can do now is get into Clockwork recovery

and i abd into it, i see our roms dont come with parted

and clockwise doesnt offer to format partitions at least not a swap partition.

Or am i Wrong here?

I am trying it now through standard linux commands

[Guest Krinyo]

Please also mention in your posts:

- what ROM are you using

- what version of apps2sd is used (if any) -> <in terminal emulator type the following commands to figure out> su and the a2sd check

- are you using Swapper2 or apps2sd's swap functionality

- what are the settings (file or partiton, size, swappiness factor).

rom: flb 1.5

a2sd: rc2, which come with 1.5

swappiness: stock 60

partition size: 128 mb, created with amonra earlier (since then i updated to clockwork), converted to ext3

everything working well.

tried swapper/2, working too, same performance, no differences.

which make HUGE difference: what lowmem setting do you use with app2sd. Default results almost everything installed apps loading to memory on boot, make more than 60 mb swap used. strange. i using now lowmem-moderate, this seems to me optimal.

[Guest Spoke]

Just installed FLB 1.6a and Swapper 2 but I seem to be unable to get it to create the swap file. Go to menu - Swap - Create & it just sits there saying Please wait...

Does it take a long time or have I done something wrong?

UPDATE: - Well I exited from the please wait, pressed On & all seems OK now. False alarm - sorry.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Spoke

[Guest Azurren]

I've added SWAP to The Ultimate Pulse Owners Guide

After a lot of testing:

Swapper2 causes more issues, more lag and actually uses quite alot of RAM itself. Also it takes an age to start swap after boot.

A2SD Swap is your best option

Turning Off A2SD itself will really decrease lag (Note that you still need an EXT partition to enable swap though)

64mb is an ideal size for a swap partition

using the "a2sd lowmem-moderate" command (Auto killer without the laggy app) really speeds up swap (But sacrifices some of the extra ram)

Edited September 16, 2010 by Azurren

[Guest Totyasrác]

I've added SWAP to The Ultimate Pulse Owners Guide

After a lot of testing:

Swapper2 causes more issues, more lag and actually uses quite alot of RAM itself. Also it takes an age to start swap after boot.

A2SD Swap is your best option

Turning Off A2SD itself will really decrease lag (Note that you still need an EXT partition to enable swap though)

64mb is an ideal size for a swap partition

using the "a2sd lowmem-moderate" command (Auto killer without the laggy app) really speeds up swap (But sacrifices some of the extra ram)

And which version of the apps2sd are you using? Will give it a shot tonight, I guess...

[Guest Azurren]

And which version of the apps2sd are you using? Will give it a shot tonight, I guess...

Darktremor A2SD updated to 2.7.5 rc2?

The one that comes default with FLB mod 1 - 1.6

[Guest twrock]

Darktremor A2SD updated to 2.7.5 rc2?

The one that comes default with FLB mod 1 - 1.6

With FLB1.6a, rebooting after creating a 32mb swap file (gparted) was disaster. The phone went to almost a standstill. Everything barely crawled along. It was all I could do to get to the terminal emulator to try to turn it off. I finally gave up, shut down, and deleted the swap partition.

I don't know what's going on, but there seems to be a lot of inconsistency between phones on this one.

[Guest Totyasrác]

With FLB1.6a, rebooting after creating a 32mb swap file (gparted) was disaster. The phone went to almost a standstill. Everything barely crawled along. It was all I could do to get to the terminal emulator to try to turn it off. I finally gave up, shut down, and deleted the swap partition.

I don't know what's going on, but there seems to be a lot of inconsistency between phones on this one.

I've had the same experience (with FLBv1.5 + new kernel from zip), RC2 version of apps2sd.

That is exactly why I've started this thread...

So I guess it's only Azurren so far that reported it working (at least with Darktremor A2SD 2.7.5 RC2).

[Guest ogiogi]

FROYO 0.5.1 with swap kernel and dtapps2sd-2.7.5-rc3c-signed. 32MB swap partition created in recovery. My Pulse goes with warp10 now :lol:. No slowdowns at all.

[Guest Azurren]

With FLB1.6a, rebooting after creating a 32mb swap file (gparted) was disaster. The phone went to almost a standstill. Everything barely crawled along. It was all I could do to get to the terminal emulator to try to turn it off. I finally gave up, shut down, and deleted the swap partition.

I don't know what's going on, but there seems to be a lot of inconsistency between phones on this one.

I've had the same experience (with FLBv1.5 + new kernel from zip), RC2 version of apps2sd.

That is exactly why I've started this thread...

So I guess it's only Azurren so far that reported it working (at least with Darktremor A2SD 2.7.5 RC2).

The first boot is chaotic with SWAP + A2SD

All you can do is wait for the SD card to mount (No swap until it has) and disabling A2SD really increases performance (If you have a class 4 or below card) and set-up the auto kill values (written on the a2sp / swap section of the Ultimate Pulse Owners Guide)

After a hell of a lot of testing the only reason why Swapper2 seems faster is because most of the fist-boot lag is gone before you actually use it. Side-by-side it is slower than A2SD

Give A2SD a fighting chance to get it right. With the above tweaks it runs like a charm :lol:

[Guest smudgeroo]

Give A2SD a fighting chance to get it right. With the above tweaks it runs like a charm :lol:

Oh Azurren, with your words so persuasive and confident.

After a total 32MB A2SD swap disaster, and a complete Swapper 2 failure, I decided to take the plunge, extend my Swap partition to 64MB, re-enable A2SD swap and change the lowmem setting thing...

...and so far, so very good! Thanks and kudos to yoooo... and the Flibblemeister et al. Stunning.

[Guest thisweb]

Can someone clear this up for me. I don't want to use a SWAP partition but want to use a swap file using swapper2.

So if I still want to use A2SD and also swapper2 (not a2sd swap) when my phone accesses the apps data on the EXT partition this will slow down the SWAP data (it can't access both the app data and the swap file data at the same time - so I assume there is some performance loss) So my question is a) is the data partition on the phone used to store apps faster than the EXT A2SD partition. :lol: can I have my swap on Data partition whilst using just A2SD on the sd card or C) can I have swap file on sd card whilst installing apps on data (can swapper still work without any a2sd app?)

What is the best combination and is it possible.

[Guest Azurren]

Can someone clear this up for me. I don't want to use a SWAP partition but want to use a swap file using swapper2.

So if I still want to use A2SD and also swapper2 (not a2sd swap) when my phone accesses the apps data on the EXT partition this will slow down the SWAP data (it can't access both the app data and the swap file data at the same time - so I assume there is some performance loss) So my question is a) is the data partition on the phone used to store apps faster than the EXT A2SD partition. :lol: can I have my swap on Data partition whilst using just A2SD on the sd card or C) can I have swap file on sd card whilst installing apps on data (can swapper still work without any a2sd app?)

What is the best combination and is it possible.

C. The Ultimate pulse owners guide has details on how to Run swap off the SD and Apps off the Internal storage (The best combo to balance speed / performance)

(My advice would be to keep away from Swapper2)

Edited September 16, 2010 by Azurren

[Guest Trebor Rude]

Has anyone given any thought to the longevity of the SD card with swap on it? Will using a file instead of a partition allow the SD card's wear-leveling algorithms to function better (by giving them a larger area to move written blocks to)? Setting the swappiness relatively low should result in both less wear-and-tear on the SD card too.

[Guest redribo]

if i make a swap file to sd , i have to make also ap2sd with partition or not?

i want to download apps from the market without problems of space..

which is the better size of swap file?

[Guest thisweb]

C. The Ultimate pulse owners guide has details on how to Run swap off the SD and Apps off the Internal storage (The best combo to balance speed / performance)

(My advice would be to keep away from Swapper2)

'You can install A2SD without SWAP and SWAP without A2SD. If your SD card is below a "Class 6" then it is highly recommended that you install SWAP without A2SD.'

Thanks. This has cleared some things up:

The reason I was interested in using swapper2 rather than swap partition was if I could put the swap file on the phone DATA partition (which is faster than the sd card/swap partition, plus then I could still use a2sd without interfering/reducing performance with the swap as that would be on physically different memory (internal)

So does anyone know at least in theory, if its possible to use DATA partition as swap (with swap file on it). Also am I correct in thinking phone memory (not ram!) is faster than SD class 6?

[Guest thisweb]

Has anyone given any thought to the longevity of the SD card with swap on it? Will using a file instead of a partition allow the SD card's wear-leveling algorithms to function better (by giving them a larger area to move written blocks to)? Setting the swappiness relatively low should result in both less wear-and-tear on the SD card too.

Interesting point. I really don't think we need to worry about the sd life too much. You are still going to get a couple of years of life out of it minimum and they are so cheap, and if anyone is still using this pulse forum in 2 years to tweak their pulse well, its a beautiful thought and we can hope theres more to come, but given android 3 is on its way (and definately not pulseable!) its unlikely. Of course you will have to back up once in a while just incase the card snuffs it.

[Guest cagster]

I have a couple of questions which i hope someone can clear up (I have read the SWAP threads and Ultimate guides several times but Im still unsure)

1. In the Ultimate pulse guide it says "Pulse SWAP starts to really lag your phone as the apps aren't killed-off at the correct time. Auto-killer can help cure this!"

Does this mean there is a problem with lag just after you enable it only - i.e. after using the emulator to set a2sd lowmem-moderate ? Or does this lag all of the time - in which case i dont undertake why SWAP would be worth using.

2. I already have FLP 1.5 up and working with A2SD on a class 2 4GB sandisc SDHC card. It works ok but some times the core andrioid programs struggle and i get the force close/wait options, and returning to home screen is sometimes slow to refresh (15 secs for icons to be drawn) and somtime browser pages take a long while to render - this i understand as "normal!" on the pulse and low memory related.

I want to keep my apps on the SD card So will ALSO enabling SWAP help with the above delays ?

3. If so is there a simple way to enable keep what i have on the phone and the SD and somehow just enable SWAP I.E. without re-flashing - or repartioning the whole of my SD card.

I have 1GB ext2 partion and 3GB Fat32. I have also already have a Nandriod backup of phone and EXT2 and titantium backup.

Just looking for best and quickiest way to keep what I have but enable swap. Sorry in advance to some of you - i reliase these are probably basic questions for many of you. Hope someone can help.

Edited September 16, 2010 by cagster

[Guest Fusion0306]

I have a couple of questions which i hope someone can clear up (I have read the SWAP threads and Ultimate guides several times but Im still unsure)

1. In the Ultimate pulse guide it says "Pulse SWAP starts to really lag your phone as the apps aren't killed-off at the correct time. Auto-killer can help cure this!"

Does this mean there is a problem with lag just after you enable it only - i.e.after using the emulator to set a2sd lowmem-moderate ? Or this lag all of the time - in which case i dont undertake why SWAP would be worth using.

2. I already have FLP 1.5 up and working with A2SD on a class 2 4GB sandisc SDHC card. I works ok but some times the core andrioid programes stuggle and i get the force close/wait options, and returning to home screen is sometimes slow to refresh (15 secs for icons to be drawn - this i understand as "normal!" on the pulse.

I want to keep my apps on the SD card. Will ALSO enabling SWAP help with the above delays ?

3. If so is there a simple way to enable keep what i have on the phone and t the SD and somehow just enable swap I.E. without re-flashing - or repartioning the whole of my SD card.

I have 1GB ext2 partion and 3GB Fat32. I have also already have a Nandriod backup of phone and EXT2 and titantium backup.

Just looking for best and quickiest way to keep what I have but enable swap. Sorry in advance to some of you - i reliase these are probably basic questions for many of you.

Try it with swapper 2 and if you're dissapointed, then create swap partition on the sd card