Original Droid on 2.2. Launchers insanely slow

[dberthia]

Lifehacker posted a task killer article yesterday:
Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

Synopsis: Don't use them, but Watchdog might be useful.

 

[DigiK]

The real issue here, Everyone, is the additional memory overhead associated with having JIT enabled with 2.2. For JIT to function properly, it has to store application bite code in memory for quick retrieval. This means less memory for everything else.

If you disable JIT and reboot with a custom ROM like CM, you'll see free memory return to 2.1 levels (upwards of 100MB). The 256MB system memory in original Droid was always its known Achilles heal; and as such, it's manifesting itself: when you're in a memory intensive application like browser or maps, the homescreen becomes an easy kill target since it's essentially a background app at that point.

Task Managers only secondarily contribute to this issue by taking up memory. They don't plant gremlins in your Droid but just use resources. In the case of Autokiller, you're looking at 23MB of resource suck.


Cut the bloat:
I wouldn't recommend permanently shutting off JIT if you are a heavy Flash user, so this really becomes an issue of conserving memory. Most of you know the drill on removing unneeded apps, etc.

For Root Users:
-Prevent applications from OS startup load with Autostarts.
-Enabling compcache for memory compression will do the most to assuage launcher restart/redraw as it increases virtual memory available to the system.
-Increase your heap size to 32MB. Heap size won't necessarily prevent Launcher restarts/redraw issues, but will improve performance/prevent some force quits associated with memory intensive applications.

For Everyone:
-Kill recalcitrant services from Setttings>Applications>Running Services

If you're not using a custom ROM with your Droid at this point, you should seriously consider doing so, because it will help prolong the life of your hardware by giving you more advanced performance/memory optimization options.

 

[DigiK]

Actually, I'm going to recommend just shutting off JIT based on my own real-world and synthetic tests and also CM's excellent summary of the shortfalls of JIT. In many cases, you're going to notice performance improvements and GUI smoothness improvements on D1 thank to having more available memory.

Just for reference, Qudrant benchmarks at 1616 WITHOUT JIT @ 1.2Ghz:
http://i.imgur.com/Rp493.png

 

[Darkseider]

Actually, I'm going to recommend just shutting off JIT based on my own real-world and synthetic tests and also CM's excellent summary of the shortfalls of JIT. In many cases, you're going to notice performance improvements and GUI smoothness improvements on D1 thank to having more available memory.

Just for reference, Qudrant benchmarks at 1616 WITHOUT JIT @ 1.2Ghz:
http://i.imgur.com/Rp493.png

and? I am scoring low 1300's @ 900 mhz running bb v0.5 with slayhers kernel and compcache and jit enabled.

 

[Eddog4DROID]

I had MAJOR redraw issues with 2.0 2.1 and 2.2 and my DROID 1.

I fixed this when I was unrooted by using ADW and checking the Keep in Memory option. Fixed this problem. I am now Rooted using ADW, 7 screens 100 apps (no task killers or anti virus apps installed), 10-12 widgets, and NO redraws. If I go back Launcher Pro, Stock, or un check Keep in memory option in ADW, Redraws are back in 5 minutes.

 

[DigiK]

It's a memory overhead limitation issue caused by JIT in conjunction with hardware that has barely sufficient RAM. Shut JIT off, and you won't have issues with any of the launchers unless your system is overloaded with apps resident in memory and/or you're not using tweaked memory settings for earlier kill, i.e.: Autokiller or Minfree. Remember that apps usually suffer from feature creep over time, resulting in most apps taking up more memory than when D1 was new last year.

Real-world performance gains with JIT are unnoticeable in most cases. If you're addicted to high Linpack scores, by all means, keep JIT enabled. I'm merely offering a solution that works for people with D1s. This provides system-wide benefits by eliminating the JIT memory 'leak' and having more available system memory at all times, resulting in better overall user experience IMHO.

 

[Eddog4DROID]

* By the way, I said Keep in Memory option in ADW; it is actually System Persistence.

Random Question: Is this an issue in newer Higher End Android phones too?

 

[bolka787]

I'm using motorola milestone, european version of the droid. It is still on 2.1, but I have recently tried beta version of the official 2.2 update. I believe the key reason for redraws isn't JIT, but the way how froyo manages memory. According to Dan Bornstein, tech lead for the Dalvik team at Google, JIT only adds about 100kB per process which means that JIT consumes about 10MB of memory.

Another thing which I think is more significant is LauncherPro feature "keep in memory" which works perfectly when running 2.1, but hasn't got any effect whatsoever when running 2.2. Maybe stock launcher used the same technique to prevent restarts prior 2.2, but can't use it anymore because of changes brought by froyo?