Is apps2sd working?

[Yeah_Mick]

just installed navigon and its taken my internal memory down to 130mb from about 140mb. is there anyway i can check if apps 2 sd is working?

 

[Yeah_Mick]

linda manager is showing my applications as "35m / 165m"

can i take it that apps2sd is not working for me?

 

[Yeah_Mick]

just cleared the cache in facebook and the browser and thats saved me about 7mb. but i still dont understand if apps2sd is working?

 

[bluenova]

linda manager is showing my applications as "35m / 165m"

can i take it that apps2sd is not working for me?

Hi Mick,

What's reported in Linda manager is not an indication of whether APPS2SD is working or not as the dalvik-cache is most likely still on the phone memory as it defeats the object of caching if it's moved to the SD card.

How many apps do you have installed? I have around 200 (Including Navigon) and Linda Manager reports I have used 146 of 165 M (88%) and my APPS2SD is certainly working. You can check this by mounting the EXT2/3/4 partition on a Linux box and check the contents.

Given that you've only used 35 M, unless you have very few apps installed, I'd say it's working.

 

[Yeah_Mick]

i do only have very few apps installed, one being navigon though.

can you explain this linux box thing a bit more? so i can check.

 

[Xyro]

I think he might mean a linux computer? Windows can't read those Ext partitions you see.

This helped me figure out if apps2sd was working (I was in the halfway situation like bluenova described).

Apps2SD - VillainROM Wiki

The bit I'm referring to is right near the top.

 

[Jaffa]

I'm assuming you have partitioned the SD card with the correct Ext partitions?

 

[Yeah_Mick]

i partition my standard 2gb card, i had 0mb swap, then 512 on the next option and the rest as fat32, then i changed the ext2 to ext3. is that all good?

also whats this dalvik you talk of?

sorry for all the questions im just trying to learn whats going on here.

 

[Xyro]

I'm honestly not 100% sure. But the important bit to know is that an app on your phone takes up memory in two ways: the app it's self as an .apk file, and also data stored in the dalvik-cache.

That's how you can have apps2sd enabled but still have a significant amount of memory used up, as only the .apk is being saved to the SD card.

 

[Yeah_Mick]

using the script as posted in the link above, its come back saying apps2sd is working without dalvik cache. what is this dalvik cache?

 

[bluenova]

what is this dalvik cache?

The dalvik-cache holds pre-compiled .dex files. Multiple .dex files are zipped into a single .apk package. In simple terms it makes the apps run faster. There are a lot of discussions around on the net about having the dalvik-cache on the SD card which is perfectly possible but the general consensus is it's better to keep it in the phone memory.

I wouldn't worry about it taking up your phone memory, as I said I've got around 200 apps installed with space to spare, so all is good.

I haven't run that script but I assume by 'without dalvik-cache' it means it's left it on the phone memory rather than moving it to the SD card.

 

[Yeah_Mick]

thanks for the help chaps.

 

[Xyro]

I haven't run that script but I assume by 'without dalvik-cache' it means it's left it on the phone memory rather than moving it to the SD card.

That's right