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#31
Originally Posted by nkirk View Post
v. buy a fast microsd and enable swapping , use swapset for mounting and setting swap priorities.
I am only getting sluggish performance from my N900 when switching between 2+ big apps ie. classic swapfile situation. Would a microSD help here and is it because we can buy faster flash than that internal to the N900? If so, what speed/size should I get?
 

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#32
Originally Posted by _David_ View Post
I am only getting sluggish performance from my N900 when switching between 2+ big apps ie. classic swapfile situation. Would a microSD help here and is it because we can buy faster flash than that internal to the N900? If so, what speed/size should I get?
The tests I have done about the speed of the N900 internal memory report that it is sligtly faster than the faster available microSD card (class 10). Indeed, I have a 32 GB microSD card in my N900 and I will not put the swap on it because I don't think I can get any advantage but many other problems.
 

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#33
@ikerrg,

For random-access (including swap), class 2 or 4 is generally better than higher-rated cards (the rating is about continuous, sequential, writing).

Many people around here (including me) have swap only on a uSD card with class 2 or 4 (I think mine is 2), and most (again, including me) find that responsiveness is generally better like that.

But AFAIK no "true" experiment has been done. Nor needs to be done anyway. I guess no two N900s have the exact same settings anyway
 

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#34
Originally Posted by reinob View Post
@ikerrg,

For random-access (including swap), class 2 or 4 is generally better than higher-rated cards (the rating is about continuous, sequential, writing).

Many people around here (including me) have swap only on a uSD card with class 2 or 4 (I think mine is 2), and most (again, including me) find that responsiveness is generally better like that.

But AFAIK no "true" experiment has been done. Nor needs to be done anyway. I guess no two N900s have the exact same settings anyway
Really? I did not know that! Class rating is related with sequential reading/writting, that is true, but I did not know that the random access could be worse in high-rated cards than in older, low-rated cards. I will try to find information about that.
 

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#35
Originally Posted by reinob View Post
For random-access (including swap), class 2 or 4 is generally better than higher-rated cards (the rating is about continuous, sequential, writing).
Higher class cards also tend to be higher capacity. This comes at a price, because the block size also increases. Note this is block size at hardware level and has nothing to do with the file system block size. Overwriting anything within the block is a four step process: read block, overwrite the relevant bit in memory, erase block, write block (or, more frequently, mark the old block invalid, write new content in a new block, reuse marked blocks when you run out of unused blocks).

I would even argue that for swap you need not only a lower class card, but also a lower capacity one, to minimize the block size impact. Please note that partitioning the card is not a solution as the problem is at the hardware level.
 

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#36
I have a question for you guys now: I tried installing Kernel Power 50/51 and CSSU_Thumb and got massive instability--am I to assume they're incompatible? I really want to have KP 51 because of the new, improved USB OTG subsystem (and related stuff)...
 

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#37
@storkus,

Off-topic here. CSSU thumb comes with its own kernel, unless you have kp51r1 (notice the "r1", i.e. not kp51, not kp50).

Previous kernels don't fully support programs using the thumb2 instruction set, so your N900 becomes essentially a time bomb.
 

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#38
Thank you VERY much reinob! As I (sort of) said, I'm rather familiar with the "time bomb" you speak of--only the "time" for me was pretty much the time to first reboot after install!
 

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#39
What about using the N900 in 2012 with Nemo OS?

I am using it. I was dumb enough to install it on internal memory.
It's painfull and slow.. but it has so much potential.

The UI is beautiful and smart. let's hope each Nemo update makes it more usable

: )
 

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#40
Originally Posted by reinob View Post
For random-access (including swap), class 2 or 4 is generally better than higher-rated cards (the rating is about continuous, sequential, writing).
According to fakeplastic in this Pi thread some microSD cards are 200x faster for writes than others.

It seems that the fastest microSDs are Sandisk, but not all Sandisk are fast. The fastest for random 4k writes happens to be a class 6.

Also, might it be worth putting swap on microSD to avoid wearing out the irreplaceable flash on the N900?
 

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