Auto Memory Manager (Root Required)

[JonKyu]

link please?

How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller - xda-developers

[DroidxRage]

Okay, so I read up a little bit about this app in that thread and the functionality it provides, and can happily report that I understand it better now, and think it's something I will probably replace my taskiller with.

Here's to explain what I learned from that thread in lamen's terms:

Android has a task killing system in place where it groups processes into 1 of 6 types. The type that is assigned depends on how important that process is to what the phone is actively running. Here are the 6 classes Android uses with definitions, which neatly correspond to the sliders in this application:



FOREGROUND_APP: // This is the process running the current foreground app. We'd really rather not kill it! Value set in system/rootdir/init.rc on startup.

VISIBLE_APP: // This is a process only hosting activities that are visible to the user, so we'd prefer they don't disappear. Value set in system/rootdir/init.rc on startup.

SECONDARY_SERVER: // This is a process holding a secondary server -- killing it will not have much of an impact as far as the user is concerned. Value set in system/rootdir/init.rc on startup.

HIDDEN_APP: // This is a process only hosting activities that are not visible, so it can be killed without any disruption. Value set in system/rootdir/init.rc on startup.

CONTENT_PROVIDER: // This is a process with a content provider that does not have any clients attached to it. If it did have any clients, its adjustment would be the one for the highest-priority of those processes.

EMPTY_APP: // This is a process without anything currently running in it. Definitely the first to go! Value set in system/rootdir/init.rc on startup. This value is initalized in the constructor, careful when refering to this static variable externally.



So what happens is when the free memory (ie: what your taskiller reports) gets below a certain predetermined value, it starts killing the least important processes off, starting with the bottom of that list. What this application does, is lets you change the predetermined values that Android starts killing off process types.

So for example, if you wanted to make it so whenever it got below 70MB, it would kill off all the empty processes, in the application, you would simply drag the Empty Applications slider to 70MB.

Also, it doesn't change the values permanently, as it requires the values be reset on reboot (not built into the application at this time). But you also don't have to worry about permanent changes to the system if you decided to uninstall or anything.

I will definitely be using this application and playing around with the sliders for a while, but I think I will get rid of taskiller and keep this, along with Memory Usage Plus, another GREAT memory monitoring app I found, because that app reports way more memory statistics than any task killer, and it also allows me to manually end processes if needed.

[FlipBack]

Wow thanks a lot for that write up, it explained a lot.

[JayCizzo]

So I just installed this yesterday and put it on the aggressive profile. Anyone seen a noticable speed increase or extra battery life? Too early to tell for me.

[hookbill]

So I just installed this yesterday and put it on the aggressive profile. Anyone seen a noticable speed increase or extra battery life? Too early to tell for me.

Been running mine on aggressive for like two days now and I see no difference what so ever. I'm still keeping it but I don't know how effective it actually is.

[DroidxRage]

I think it keeps some of the useless process from putting you into a state where you don't have enough memory to keep the phone snappy. Ie: if I hadn't had this, I would've needed my taskiller to kill some 3rd party apps when I got to under 30MB free.

With this, I'm hovering at 35-50MB free at all times. Settings from top to bottom (AutoMemMan)

Foreground 6
Visible 12
2ndary 25
Hidden 82
Content 89
Empty 97

I think if you really want to hover around the 50-70MB free level, you would need to move the secondary server to something like 35-40. I'm gonna run those same settings, but with the secondary slider set to 35 and see how that works. It's tough to say exactly how effective it's been though seeing I've been jumping ROM's and Kernels so much lately.

[nphil]

New version of the app adds OOM priority lists, very handy in my opinion!

[Chief Wahoo]

Getting a FC when trying to select "Running Processes". . . anyone seeing something similar?

[vaio6]

same problem, FC when try to access running process on Milestone 2.1

[bemymonkey]

No Force Close here on a 2.1 Milestone, but after setting IM+ to "always keep alive", the application hangs at "refreshing applications"... -edit- Works if you select "List" instead of "group by OOM"... However, the "always keep alive" function seems to be as permanent as the "Decrease OOM" function on Auto Killer App: Not at all. The function sets the OOM value to -17 for about 5 seconds... it then switches back.