Re: additional swap file
 

I made more advanded tutorial howto enable the unused mtd partition as swap. With this method you can freely still use the mass-storage mode.

Disclaimer: you can brick your device if you don't have opensh and don't follow instructions carefully.

RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# devel-su
RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# opensh
RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# accli -I |grep tcb-sign
aegis-enabler::tcb-sign <--- If grep doesn't find this line then you have to STOP and not go further.
RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 1008648 803080 205568 0 33580
-/+ buffers: 769500 239148
Swap: 262136 54012 208124
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# cp /etc/init/enable-swap.conf /tmp/enable-swap.conf
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# vi /tmp/enable-swap.conf
# make editions on 2 lines that is mentioned in my earlier patch that I posted here. http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=8rS81vUX
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# cp /tmp/enable-swap.conf /etc/init/enable-swap.conf
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# export A=`sha1sum /tmp/enable-swap.conf |cut -b1-40`;
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# perl -pi -w -e 's#40 (.*) A(.*)enable-swap#40 $ENV{A} A$2enable-swap#smg' /var/lib/aegis/refhashlist
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# accli -c tcb-sign -F /var/lib/aegis/refhashlist -i /var/lib/aegis/refhashlist
RM696-21-3_PR_001:/# /usr/sbin/validator-init; aegis-loader;echo 1 > /sys/kernel/security/validator/flush
RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# reboot
# wait system to reboot and login again:
RM696-21-3_PR_001:~# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 1008648 478264 530384 0 24040
-/+ buffers: 454224 554424
Swap: 444664 0 444664


As you can see after reboot you have about 530MB free ram which is 256MB more than before, and swap file is now the 450MB mtd partiotion which was previously unused by the device.

I'm not going to make comparision if onenand mtd partition is faster than mass storage flash partition. If pages are cached in either flash its going to be a bit slower than ramz.

Performance benefit of this is that you have 256MB more ram to play with, and if your not running over 15 apps simultaneously then most likely this increased amount of ram will make your device faster, since its more unlikely that system needs to page your background apps in swap :)

Re: additional swap file
 

To avoid bricking the phone, is it possible to explain "make editions on 2 lines that is mentioned in my earlier patch that I posted here."?
And after applying this tweak, how is possible to return to ramz?

Re: additional swap file
 

rainisto,

Thanks for your method! I just did a re-flash so switched over to using the mtd block for swap...Since I'm in open mode I had to make the 2 editions and it was done...

However, I would like to know what happens to the ramzswap0 that existed before? It doesn't look to be added into the RAM as my RAM memory usage is quite similar to what it was before...death_jax has also confirmed he got the same...



Thanks!

Re: additional swap file
 

bumping to get rainisto's attention :D

Re: additional swap file
 

if you applied patch successfully after reboot there is no ramzswap0 anymore, if nothing has changed then most likely you didn't follow the steps right. (and if you want things to work without reboot, you actually need to patch 3 lines)

If you want to return to ramzswap0 just reverse apply the patch.

Re: additional swap file
 

my output of free:


So swap has certainly changed as I mentioned earlier...I just meant that the free RAM you had after doing the same is it due to doing this or due to you rebooting your phone...


When I use drop cache to free all, my free increases to:


So the only difference between your total output compared to mine is:

you have additional 22528kB swap and 540kB RAM...

I understand what you mean on ramzswap0...

Re: additional swap file
 

Well it is what it should be, maybe I should explain a bit more if people don't understand the change:

N9 has 1024MB RAM in the device which is valid in both cases.

By default if you don't edit the script, when device boots up, it reserves 256MB of it as ramzswap0, so effectively your device has 768MB of RAM for your application pages and 256MB of swap for compressed pages.

With the edited script you have 1024MB of RAM for your application pages and 422MB of swap for encrypted compressed pages.

You do the math.

PS. running dropcache makes your fileaccess operations slower, so you shouldn't really use that one unless you want to slow your device down.

Re: additional swap file
 

Thanks for explanation; but with the above you mean that if before the tweak I had about 500MB of free RAM and after the tweak (and reboot) I always had about 500MB, is it normal and makes it sense?

PS: Why (and how) DropCache can slow down the device?

Re: additional swap file
 

Yes it is normal. It just means that linux system uses more of the free ram in filecache, ie making your load times faster (it automaticly uses less ram for files if free amount drops to certain levels).

Linux holds the most recently used files in the ram cache so subsequential loads of the same files are really fast, if you use dropcache it drops the recently used files out of the ram, and thus if apps loads some files, it needs to access the flash vs ram to load the file, ie it makes loading slower (also affects application startup times). So in short people using dropcache are just newbies :)

For further reading you should read this: http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

Re: additional swap file
 

Ok I know it, I thought there was other reasons.. however, I use DropCache, for example, after a game, because with this one the ram fills up fastly :D, and also because I would not do again that game immediately (therefore it is useless to remain in ram)