[Gen8 General] FrEcP:
Hi,

recently i came upon a thread with someone asking :

how to optimize the archos to be quicker ?

As this is propably a question many people might ask (even I still do ;) ) I thought about creating a thread about. This is not just to answer his question but also for all u nerds out there to corrent me - as I might be wrong in some points AND to gather new options to speed up the device. This is what i have learned yet...

Anyway all of the things I list here require root as far as I know. So get your device rooted or abandon the Thread :p

ALL THINGS IN THIS THREAD ARE WITHOUT WARRENTY - SO IF YOUR DEVICE STARTS MUTATING INTO A DOG HUNTING YOUR ASS FOR NEW FLESH - BE WARNED

Memory Management:

Introduction: HAVING FREE UNUSED MEMORY ON ANDROID HAS (nearly) NO ADVANTAGE (exception having 0 memory also fu**s up the device -> 1. )

All of those methods wont make your device faster in the meaning of really getting faster in speed... as android already has a quite good memory management.

BUT if u get more space in memory your device can keep more of the apps U LIKE in memory (being inactive according to app lifecycle). This will make them get called faster next time u use them and your device will "feel" faster and more responsive.

1. What should work on all roms are the "minfree" settings -> meaning when android really kills apps - depending on free memory (if u don't know what is mean by - search for the "App Lifecycle" of android)

You can try setting those to the values mentioned by sibere (scroll down) or try finding your own settings. There for u can use any app like "AutoKiller Memory Optimizer" just serach "memory optimizer" in the market.

KEEP IN MIND - you may play a bit with those settings - BUT still u should know what u are doing if u use it!

LOW: If u set the values to low the device will kill apps very late keeping much of them in memory this might make you device get slow. If there is too less Memor fo a "new" app or another process just need more memory while running it has to close down other processes before memory can be allocated.

HIGH: If u set em too high u kill most apps instantly - and your device will get problems and might get unstable as far as i understood.

2. Try gettign more "free" memory by disabeling services - as those got the highest priority they wont get killed that fast by the memory management. For checking u might get an app like "TaskManager" wich lists all running processes.

Just check out what takes your memory and disable those u dont need.U can disaable them by using "Titanium Backup" disable app / uninstall em / or just uncheck their autorun by using a programm like "Autorun Manager". Remember if u just disable the autorun they might (re)start later still.

3. Use a low sceen count in your launcher and keep the widget count low. This is related to 2.) as most widgets run a "background service" to update itself / pulling information (e.g. a waether widget getting latest conditions, a calendar widget keeping connection to your calendar app,...) - each widget took at least 8MB memory when i checked with TaskManager - "greater" widgets like "Fancy Widget (sense like clock and weather widget)" sometimes take up to 25MB

4. DONT USE A LIVE WALLPAPER (live wallpapers use MUCH memory most 20MB-40MB - either they get closed down all the time - or they just reside in memory taking the memory u wanted to use for keeping other apps active)

I also noticed that the App Drawer got "much/noticeable" slower in every Laucher I tested while a live wallpaper was active

5. DO NOT USE A TASK KILLER (remeber the introduction!!! - and think about it yourself - if at least 20 ppl ask why - i write this down here ;) )

6. SWAP / COMPCACHE (can be activated through UD config) - this is a really hard question - those methods extend your memory but the memory u gain is MUCH slower then the internal memory. So again u have to decide and try out if it helps u or it doesn't (I used em long time but never realy felt a big advantage of. Compcache even made my device feel slower and i got more FC's most time - also I tried to figure out how the memory management uses this "memory". But i din't find a clear answer yet - as some ppl mentioned that "inactve apps" wont get swapped - need some clear source... Anway in general those 2 should increase Multitasking capability at cost of speed.

7. FUDGESWAP

- noting yet - its GINGERBREAD only - so we have to wait...

FINALY: u have to decide on your own what u really NEED to run "simultaniously" (I personaly rather have less widgets and run background services like growl, eventghost, tasker) but u can count it yourself by checking back with taskmanager and having in mind your archos (GEN8) just has 256MB of internal memory.

CPU Manaagement:

8. (UD) If u got Urukdroid u can try setting your CPU Governor to another value like:

"Interactive" is more reactive than "on demand" (-> SIBERE)

9. Try an OC (OverClocked) Kernel -> get it in the Urukdroid Dev Thread (I wont link any here as u should know what u do and wich u choose!)

BEWARE not all devices can use an OC Kernel (sadly mine can't) but try it out...

10. Try overclocking your device with the Milestone Overclock Utility. This overclock method is based on a module insert. Again this just works with root.

OVERCLOCKING:

Each CPU is different -> each device is different and can handle different maximum speeds - this is related to the former position of the CPU on its waver while production...

So u have to try out what your CPU can handle safely - so it might happen your device will refuse to boot after u flashed a kernel or set some permanen OC values. Keep a BACKUP or reflash old kernel...

In general u normaly can't brick your device by overclocking as the CPU overheats -> safety function of the CPU stops it -> the device resets itself before the CPU get "burned" (hope this also aplies to ARM processors ;) )

Other:

11. The Launcher: I tested out much lauchers already: ADW, ADW EX, VTL, Laucher PRO, Zeam Laucher, GO Laucher - most of them seem to be eaqual in speed and more differ in features (event Laucher PRO is still the fastest on my Wildfire [but development stopped some time ago], GO seemed to be a bit slower imho) - take any of those but avoid taking some over exagerated 3D'ish laucher like Regina, SPB Shell, Claystone...

12. Apps like "AutoKiller Memory Optimizer" have additionaly features to "optimise" the speed,... u might test those out but I didnt notice a difference most time. Still keep in mind - u should know what u are doing ;)

13. Ok - u may want to hit me for that:

It's more a cosmetic thing - but I recently used UOT Kitchen for theming my framework and used the fly-in animations - and they feel much faster then the default animations ;) just try it out... keep a backup of your original framework for reverting.

All the following Tweaks are mentioned by sibere (credits go to him and propably some other people)

Will ask him to comment on "cgroups, ioscheduler, and sqlite" as im not sure if they work with all rom versions / neither how they work exactly.

THANKS Sibere

EDIT:

aditional threads with tweaks

- Supercharger

- http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1227269

BEWARE I HAVEN'T HAD THE TIME TO CHECK THEM OUT YET AND DIDN'T TEST THEM

SOME OF THEM MIGHT NOT WORK AND PEOPLEARGUE ABOUT THEM (e.g. the "debug.sf.hw =1" is heavily discussed)

IF ANYONE KNOWS MORE ABOUT THOSE OR CAN HELP TESTING IM HAPPY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT :D