Autokiller can tweak the parameters that Android uses to shut down apps running in the background, etc. It can make the phone feel less laggy, as it can keep fewer apps active in the background.
I am trying to maximize the battery life of my phone.
I keep coming across an app refered to as AUTOKILLER?
Just what is this app, and what are the benefits?
If I am running SetCPU, do I need to run both? Do I need Advanced Task Killer too?
Help! (FYI, I am running Cyanogen Tazz 1.0, and besided not having the trackball light up, I am loving it. I just want to get optimized battery life)
iamtooproud,
First, “AutoKiller fine tunes android’s inner memory manager to keep your device fast. Process manager included.” (taken from FAQ: How do I use AutoKiller?) and purportedly works very well, especially if you are low on memory.
Android has a unique method of process trimming which is built in. This process trimmer uses a "threshold" system which examines "free memory" (RAM memory, not file storage memory such as system flash). There are a variety of thresholds used to determine when a process should be "reaped" (or killed, if you like); the threshold used depend on the running class of the process (foreground, background, active, idle, et cetera).
The purpose of having a process trimmer is so that your phone won't freeze up if you try to run too many apps at the same time - but also allow apps to sit idle if there is enough free memory.
Under normal circumstances, the parameters which set these various thresholds are set at bootup time in files which are part of the boot image's ramdisk. So, they are essentially read only, as you would have to replace the boot image in order to modify them. On the other hand, they can be injected into the running kernel - and that's what Autokiller is for:
It merely allows a convenient way for a root-privileged app to change those values from the defaults. This allows user - tuning of the built-in Android process harvesting mechanism.
If you set them to a high value, your phone will be be really snappy, but you won't be able to do much multitasking, and you will find things happening such as having your launcher/home application having to start up every time you go back to a home page; but on the other hand, if you set them too low, there will be very little "free memory" available for the kernel to perform file caching activity, and your phone will slow down to a crawl.
To first order, it has nothing to do with battery life.
SetCPU is very useful for preserving battery life - look at other threads for suggestions.
Task killers no longer work correctly in Android 2.2 - the APIs which were present in Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair were removed by Google, and so task killers are very limited in what they can do in Froyo-based ROMs; they barely have a purpose any longer in a 2.2 context. (Other than maybe using them as a task switcher).
If you think your phone runs sluggishly without a Task Killer on Froyo, you can up the Autokiller thresholds a little bit at a time to see if you see an improvement. Note that the built-in Android process reaper is a little bit smarter than "task killers", too. So, if task killers were questionable in 1.5, 1.6, 2.01, and 2.1 - they are entirely unneeded in 2.2 - especially because you can tune the built-in process reaper using Autokiller.
eu1
[ Edit ] Dang. scary alien beat me to the punch - again.
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I usually wait a bit before doing any replies since I know you are "out there" and your responses are so well thought-out and considered that I look forward to and learn something from each of your replies.
I was thinking that I was doing something wrong with the ATK, becuase it seemed that everything was always open, I guess that is one app that I can delete.
I have been reading the XDA thread, but it gets so confusing. Most of the responses there, the people tend to be on KAOS v30, and I don't fully understand the SetCPU settings.... But, I will keep reading.
I was thinking that I was doing something wrong with the ATK, becuase it seemed that everything was always open, I guess that is one app that I can delete.
I have been reading the XDA thread, but it gets so confusing. Most of the responses there, the people tend to be on KAOS v30, and I don't fully understand the SetCPU settings.... But, I will keep reading.
Thanks for the input you three.
most of the settings for KaosFroyo can be used on all the froyo roms, the Froyo roms at this point are pretty closely related as they are all using CM6 as a base
I actually run AutoKiller on xtrrom 4.0.6.1 and have it set to Strict. Been running it about a week and it seems to work quite well. I haven't disabled to the OC on the ROM yet, but I'm thinking as soon as I do, I probably wont notice much difference in speed. AutoKill does a good job of keeping things smooth
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Wow!! I've got Autokiller set to Optimum and my phone is screaming compared to before. I'm still OC'd at 710, but may bring that down to see if I can notice any difference.
Has anyone tried autokiller on XTR 3.0.3? I have run it for almost a day. It seems really snappy but XTR has always been lightning fast for me so it is hard to tell. I have autokiller set for strict.
Has anyone tried autokiller on XTR 3.0.3? I have run it for almost a day. It seems really snappy but XTR has always been lightning fast for me so it is hard to tell. I have autokiller set for strict.
I started out using it on 3.0.3. I backed it up and restored it when I moved to 4.0.6.1 earlier this week. It seemed to make a slight difference, but like you said, that rom is really fast already.
I mentioned this in another thread, but for 4.0.6.1 I had to install Autokiller and set the parameters lower than what was baked into the ROM. I've been using the bet Tweetdeck app, which doesn't have a server component to check for updates to your streams, and every time I ran it and hit home, my phone was immediately setting the app to cached-inactive. I set the parameters to optimum and now things are much better.
Without the tweaks my phone wasn't much different from a single-tasking iPhone OS 3.
Given there is no fact behind this I think autokiller helps the phone run smoother longer between reboots. I normally reboot my phone about every three days and by the third day I can see the slightest hesitations here and there. With autokiller I am not seeing anything after having my phone on for more than three days now without a reboot. Could be in my head but maybe that could be the difference? I am still running 3.0.3 XTR since I really don't see a benefit to 4.0.6.
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Autokiller Vs. SetCPU?
and your responses are so well thought-out and considered that I look forward to and learn something from each of your replies.
