Tired of ADW EX redraws? Try "Mr. Home" launcher...

[Teegunn]

As the title states, with the latests updates of ADW EX, that has practically ruinded the app with the constant, slow and annoying redraws, I had been searching for another launcher to replace my beloved ADW EX. I really prefer everything about ADW EX over pretty much every otherr launcher, but the redraws ruin the experience. So I tried, LP, Go launcher, Regina, SPB shell, Zeam (which used to be my favorite) and then see this new launcher called Mr Home, which is basically a ripoff of ADW EX. It's free, so I figure, what the heck. Well, it's not quite as nice overall as ADW EX, but hey ya now what - the damn thing doesn't have REDRAWS!! It offers about 80% of the options of ADW EX and has some pretty decent 3d effects (I like page swipe). Anyway, if you like ADW EX but are sick and tired of the redraws, give Mr Home a try. I'm using it until ADW gets updated to fix it's latest problems.

 

[Growler48]

Why didn't you like Go Launcher? It's got everything ADW and LP has and more. Plus, NO LAG!

 

[Metroidman]

Go Launcher is good but honestly in my opinion of using Go Launcher/ADW and LP, I'd have to say LP is the smoothest

 

[Growler48]

Interesting how different phones respond to apps. Go Launcher is the ONLY launcher that doesn't lag on my phone!

 

[bleedGreen]

Interesting how different phones respond to apps. Go Launcher is the ONLY launcher that doesn't lag on my phone!

I TOTALLY agree. AdwEx always redrawd but go doesn't.

 

[Teegunn]

I didn't like much about go launcher.... plus it was somewhat laggy. ADW EX was not laggy and had no redraws up until the latest updates early in may. LP I've never liked much I guess. Actually SPB shell ran super smooth but was lacking in features that I'm used to. While the spinning 3d feature looks great, it's really not very useful. Regina was very limited. So far Mr Home is working well.

 

[wabadroid]

Dumb question, I think, but what is a redraw??

 

[Malcaver49]

I have tried LP, Go Launcher but ADW EX has always been my favorite until the early May update. I have been getting several redraws a day, especially after being in the Android Market. Hopefully the Developer with address these issues soon.

 

[Teegunn]

Dumb question, I think, but what is a redraw??

It means that your phone will have to "redraw" the icons, widgets, etc on your screen EVERY time you wake the screen up. It also tends to slow down scrolling of the screens. Whatever the developer of ADW EX did in the early May update, it totally screwed up the launcher. Until the redraw issue is fixed, I will not be using ADW EX....

 

[wabadroid]

I haven't noticed that, but I am getting a lot of ADW force closes...maybe they are related...

 

[cjcross22]

Hmm, ADW on my phone is and has been perfectly fine, as well as all the other launchers..

 

[mahers]

I have LPP and the redraws got INSANELY worse with the Gingerbread update. I was thinking of going to Blur, but the lack of resizing widgets and limitations of rows and columns nixed that idea real quick. I may have a go at Mr Home. Hopefully, LPP can get its act together and fix this mess.

 

[ricksievers]

LPP working great on my X with 2.3

 

[Turdbogls]

redraws are usually NOT launcher specific. if it happens to one launcher, it will happen to the others as well.

there is a fix tho. did this a while ago and haven't had a redraw since.
using root explorer navigate to system
mount r/o
longpress on build.prop
open in text editor
scroll all the way to the bottom
enter the following text:
ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1

press the hard back key and save the document
mount system again
reboot.

basically what is happening is the launcher is an app, and it gets kicked out of memory when memory gets low (hence why it happens to all launchers)...this is b/c the launcher is at priority 6, which is pretty low. the above hack puts the priority at 1, so it is the last thing to get kicked out of memory by the built in memory manager.

did this when i was on apex 2.0 (based on GB 591) when i was getting horrible lag coming out of pretty much ANY app. did the above hack, and haven't had a redraw in since then....so maybe 4 weeks or so. so amazing. even after using a heavy app like Plants vs zombies (thanks amazon appstore) it snapped right back to the launcher.

 

[cjcross22]

^ Good info, I will have to do this if things start lagging.

 

[dibs ODDJOB]

Any way to do this modification without paying $4 for Root Explore? I'm kind of tired of buying a bunch of apps to make my X work properly.

Launcher Pro is redrawing for me a lot after installing Gingerbread.

 

[Turdbogls]

Any way to do this modification without paying $4 for Root Explore? I'm kind of tired of buying a bunch of apps to make my X work properly.

Launcher Pro is redrawing for me a lot after installing Gingerbread.

Possibly...worked for data/local.prop
Go to terminal
Type
Su (enter)
Grant su permission
*insert command to mount system here*
Once system is mounted
type this:
echo ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1 >> system/local.prop

Now I have no clue if this will actually work or not so make a backup prior to doing it.

Our find some other app that can modify the system

 

[Teegunn]

Strangely, Mr Home is starting to redraw on me now too. It wasn't initially, but has been doing it a bit on me, especially with widgets. Not nearly as bad as ADW EX though. I'm going to try the build.prop as described by turdbogls and see if it helps.

 

[Teegunn]

Ok, I have made the build.prop changes..... rebooting.... hoping the redraws are gonzo..... so far, the widgets are definitely redrawing. I am wondering if I did the changes right. In root explorer I had to mount the file in R/W to get it to open. Mounting as R/O it would not open in text editor. Speaking of that, mounting as R/W it didn't mount in text editor, but I was able to make the changes, back out, save and reboot.

 

[Teegunn]

Ok, now I'm wondering if Widgetlocker hasn't been causing the problem. I froze WL with Titanium backup, and when I open either ADW EX or Mr Home, there are now NO redraws. Maybe the combination of doing the build.prop plus not using WL will solve the problem. Stinks, because I like WL, but if it's lagging my phone and causing redraws, I'll have to not use it.

 

[Teegunn]

I made another change that seems to have helped - in Spare Parts, I changed the task killer from aggressive to normal. Didn't even realize I had it on aggressive. I then unfroze Widget Locker and now WL does not lag, there are NO redraws and the phone is much quicker. These changes have made ADW EX like it was before the early may update, and has also stopped the lag I was having in WL. I would suggest anyone that uses either of these apps to try these tweaks.

 

[MutantCheese]

redraws are usually NOT launcher specific. if it happens to one launcher, it will happen to the others as well.

there is a fix tho. did this a while ago and haven't had a redraw since.
using root explorer navigate to system
mount r/o
longpress on build.prop
open in text editor
scroll all the way to the bottom
enter the following text:
ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1

press the hard back key and save the document
mount system again
reboot.

basically what is happening is the launcher is an app, and it gets kicked out of memory when memory gets low (hence why it happens to all launchers)...this is b/c the launcher is at priority 6, which is pretty low. the above hack puts the priority at 1, so it is the last thing to get kicked out of memory by the built in memory manager.

did this when i was on apex 2.0 (based on GB 591) when i was getting horrible lag coming out of pretty much ANY app. did the above hack, and haven't had a redraw in since then....so maybe 4 weeks or so. so amazing. even after using a heavy app like Plants vs zombies (thanks amazon appstore) it snapped right back to the launcher.

Thanks. Just applied this and hoping it works. I sometimes have redraws with LPP.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Go Launcher and Froyo here. Sounding to me like Gingerbread may not be all it's 'spiced' up to be.

 

[Turdbogls]

Ok, now I'm wondering if Widgetlocker hasn't been causing the problem. I froze WL with Titanium backup, and when I open either ADW EX or Mr Home, there are now NO redraws. Maybe the combination of doing the build.prop plus not using WL will solve the problem. Stinks, because I like WL, but if it's lagging my phone and causing redraws, I'll have to not use it.

interesting, I am using Widgetlocker, and using GoLauncher. now i have ZERO apps on my home screen. 3 screens,18 widgets total. i am using desktop visualizer and some custom icons for everything on my home screens. and after doing the system/local.prop fix, i still have ZERO redraws.

went into spare parts, and dont have a an option for the task killer.
not using a task killer either.


Do you have your home screen set to rotate? i know that can cause redraws.

 

[Doubledee90]

I have LPP and the redraws got INSANELY worse with the Gingerbread update. I was thinking of going to Blur, but the lack of resizing widgets and limitations of rows and columns nixed that idea real quick. I may have a go at Mr Home. Hopefully, LPP can get its act together and fix this mess.

Blur does have the ability to resize widgets. In fact, Im pretty sure blur did it before LPP, ADW and GoLauncher.