maemo.org - Talk - RootFS again.. I don't understand!

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- - RootFS again.. I don't understand! (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=53020)

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

How much rootfs space do you have after you disable all your repositories?

I think that the rootfs area is memory that is particularly fast and expensive, which is why it is limited (correct me if I'm wrong, someone).

I was running out of rootfs myself, and with the leaked version of 1.2 I have 82.1 megs left after installing every program I can think of that I want.

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingoddball (Post 665091)

I'm not even sure why you would have programs running from there.. Seem's very weird. I thought that rootfs is a firmware partition. Like iPhone's firmware partition.

There is a bad mixing of terms here. The rootfs is where the kernel and all Maemo core software is stored, and runs from. This rootfs is little different from any other Linux root filesystem, and -is- the Maemo "firmware."

As far as Maemo (and Linux) is concerned, it's just another disk.

The physical size limitation is due to it being stored on a high speed chip that is only 256MB in size, which was the biggest available when the N900 was designed. So there is a reason for it.

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

I might actually take the risk and installed the leaked!

I thought/think the rootfs is just a partition of the main 32GB ssd....

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

In case nobody has mensioned this, the 256MB rootfs is on a separate, fast (expensive) flash disk to the 32GB emmc flash. Having the most commonly used parts of the OS on the faster disk speeds the OS up considerably.

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingoddball (Post 665007)

Whats the damn story with this tiny problematic RootFS!?!?

My phone has hardly been used and the rootfs has 4mb of so left.
I uninstalled just about everything and tried apt-get clean and in the end I had 10.8mb left..

I smell a lie.....

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

A little comparison:
40MB write to
rootfs; 1-2sec
/home/usr; 5-7sec

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by haj (Post 665638)

A little comparison:
40MB write to
rootfs; 1-2sec
/home/usr; 5-7sec

So check my logic here -- if you want to maximize speed, you want to use as much of the rootfs as possible, not leave it empty, right?
Or do things write to the rootfs and so it's wise to leave 20 megs or so empty?

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by geneven (Post 665656)

exactly. but the logic is a bit wrong: what use does it have to have your app in faster partition if it slows the os at the same by reading/writing to same partition and keeping os waiting for its turn in line to read/write?

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by haj (Post 665638)

A little comparison:
40MB write to
rootfs; 1-2sec
/home/usr; 5-7sec

can you also test to read it?

because most of the time rootfs is read from not that much written too..

about apps from extra's or devel, it is almost never the app itself that is the problem as far as i noticed it. It is most of the time support libs like QT or Python and so on.

Re: RootFS again.. I don't understand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pantera1989 (Post 665029)

My tip is after every install check the rootfs space. If an app takes too much uninstall it and hope that it will be someday optified. In the meantime here are a few tips: http://wiki.maemo.org/Free_up_rootfs_space

Good Point : This is what I do to check on space after every install/de-install. Not sure, if this could be useful to others, but I have one small script to check this space usage before and after any install/de-install.

Few Screenshot:
1 ) After enabling the testing and extra repo. It shows that around 15mb has been used in rootfs after enabling them.

2) To make it more quick accessible I have put it in desktop shortcut. And after that its shows something like this.

You may have already got the point but jut to say that GREEN says space has been released and RED means more space is utilized.

How to use:
Run the script, it will take the pre snapshot and wait for your input. Leave this window open and then do your install/de-install. After that come back to this screen and press Enter and it will give the report.

Files attached.
chk_fs.sh Copy it to /home/user/scripts
As root
spacex.desktop Copy it to /usr/share/applications/hildon
spacex.png Copy it to /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/hildon