Help Instability while browsing

[knoober]

Hi again folks. I bring another problem to lay before the gurus (and non guru) amongst you

I having what I can only call general instability while browsing. When I browse (regardless of the browser and I have tried all the big boys, opera, Firefox, dolphin, and chrome) I see the browser rush through the first part of loading the page and nearly hang after about 60ish percent.

Now first let me say that I know Android is nothing like Windows, but... When I had this same problem with Firefox and win7, I had to readjust the ram speed (I was working on an OC and the ram had gone too high in speed). After I dropped the ram speed back to stock, I benefitted fully from my increased proc speed. From what I read, the issue had something to do with the ram clockspeed not being a multiple of the cpu bus speed, meaning that the ram had partial cycles happening while the cpu worked to finish 1 full cycle.

All I can say is that I am experiencing the same effect and cannot seem to smooth it out. App start times also seem to hang for a second as well. I've tried changing the governor, the swapiness and different cpu core configurations, but like I said just cannot seem to reconcile this issue. I'd really appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks in advance guys

 

[blaqueknight]

I haven't seen this problem, but it sounds like a network/wifi problem other than a problem with the phone.

 

[knoober]

I guess I could try a different rom and see if it still there. I was going to try RaptorRom anyway, and the deSensed rooms too. It's too bad that I Have to though, because I'm pretty happy with slim stock and the new kernel.... Except for my issue. I wonder about the network though, because the problem is static. If it was network related, it would change with different WiFi access points as well as location and time on data. I dunno I guess, just seeing what the crowds think

 

[EarlyMon]

Settings, Developer options, Advanced, do you have the option to reduce the number of background processes?

If so, take it off of the standard limit and see what happens if you wind it down some.

If your phone is stopping to manage the Android cache while the browser is busy allocating memory, that may help reduce that.

Chrome and Firefox do that to me and I'm not ram limited - I consider Firefox superior but fast it is not.

For the lightest weight browser out there, check out Naked Browser. It has zero eye candy but it's way good at doing the job.

 

[knoober]

Settings, Developer options, Advanced, do you have the option to reduce the number of background processes?

If so, take it off of the standard limit and see what happens if you wind it down some.

If your phone is stopping to manage the Android cache while the browser is busy allocating memory, that may help reduce that.

Chrome and Firefox do that to me and I'm not ram limited - I consider Firefox superior but fast it is not.

For the lightest weight browser out there, check out Naked Browser. It has zero eye candy but it's way good at doing the job.

I have been liking dolphin since it came with a good recommendation. I like all the add one for Firefox though your solution seems to be working so far (thanks, this was really keeping me awake at night ya know ) and not to sound like the guy in the Task Killer Myth Thread, but how do I control background processes then? Or more to the point how do I find and punish the offender here? Thanks again!

 

[EarlyMon]

I use Dolphin, Firefox and Naked daily (and a LOT lol) so I understand.

There is no one offender here.

Dolphin and Firefox are made by coders who respect features - not the fact that not everyone has infinite ram.

So your device manages to give them what they need - but your Android task management is getting kinda stressed by the memory hogging so they lag from time to time.

Did turning down the background process limit help?

If so - that's the answer.

 

[knoober]

Yep problem solved. I just was trying to figure out where to set the background limit (1,2,3 .... We know standard isn't right) and shouldn't having a swap partition make it okay to run as many as necessary in the background (to a point anyway) . Also would changing the settings on the OOM killer help, or is that what I did? I have the option in a kernel tuning app I have (and barely understand )

 

[EarlyMon]

Yep problem solved. I just was trying to figure out where to set the background limit (1,2,3 .... We know standard isn't right) and shouldn't having a swap partition make it okay to run as many as necessary in the background (to a point anyway) . Also would changing the settings on the OOM killer help, or is that what I did? I have the option in a kernel tuning app I have (and barely understand )

It's not so much that the standard number isn't right - it's that the OOM management takes a generic guess on what's right for most people.

The rub is - who is most people and what are they doing anyway?

Here's what I mean in terms of browsers and tabs -

Dolphin - 3 tabs
Firefox - 1
HTC Internet - 1
Naked Browser - over a dozen but it caches its own tabs on the fly (edit - I guess they all more or less do, but Naked Browser gives you control over this)

Notice that I couldn't fit all in memory at once, look at the running size values.





Unless told otherwise, the Android task management is going to think only in terms of megabytes. You'll start at the OOM minfree values, graduate to also adjusting the heapsize (and despite Internet advice to the contrary, doing that is usually a bad thing) and the tinkering on a 1 GB Sense phone is going to take months - believe me, I know, that was part of my contribution on a rom's test team for a 1 GB HTC.

The little trick I showed you told the task management to not think in terms of megabytes and balancing foreground app performance and task switching at the same time - it said - let's sacrifice some task switching performance in favor of foreground performance.

Because I kinda guessed from your other discussions that that is probably more of what you wanted anyway.

You mentioned extending virtual memory with swap. OK, why doesn't Android have that?



Android does have swap - it's dormant.

There's a popular root mod with the smaller memory phone crowd that really digs task switching performance and they measure success by how many tasks they can keep loaded up.

The mod uses the external sd card for the swap area - and because of the constant high write rate, eats up sd cards faster than a Rottweiler goes through bacon treats. And that's why it's just not included.

But, it does exist and it does work very well - depending on your definitions and sd card budget.

Limiting background tasks and adding swap are polar opposites - one favors foreground performance, the other favors background performance and task switching.

I think that this may be of popular interest, so I'm going to copy just a slice of this exchange to the task manager thread.

 

[knoober]

It was definitely the right solution. I am always trying to understand what I have done though, and to see if there might have been another way. Especially if that other way is something I thought should work but didn't. In this case I was using a swap partition (although it never occurred to me that it would eat through my card like that... Makes sense though) first I created a swap partition with Aparted and added a line for swappiness in a config file (I do think remember which one but I am sure it was in the right spot) No change though. Then I read about an app that would enable swap. It's pretty much the same thing - - > create partition - -> enable app @ boot (called swapper 2) but I didn't get a whole lot of results there either. I figured I'd look into it later. Changing the heap size is bad? Could that cause this problem? Once a long time ago in casual reading I read something that lead me to believe changing the heap size would be beneficial as long as I changed the heap growth limit as well. Dan this browser / keyboard combo.... Can't make paragraphs in this browser or double space. Anyway, thanks for moving the thread, since it is more populated there. I will post my other questions there instead of here, and carry any device specific info back to here.

 

[EarlyMon]

Tuning kernel parameters is exactly like solving a 6x6 Rubic's cube.

You may hear a lot about getting this or that row or face right but everything has to be considered in the overall.

Not that's not to say that you shouldn't do it.

It's one of the most fun and productive and frustrating and counter-productive things you can do and definitely will expand your horizons.

Just bear in mind that most Internet advice is hooey, there are no silver bullets, and the nandroid backup is your friend.

But - if all you want today are foreground results, there's your big easy button.

 

[knoober]

All I want today? Ha! I want my device to sniff truffles and defecate gold! But your right that might be enough for today. Thanks again. For the record the only way to solve a rubics cube is with a hair dryer

 

[knoober]

Just bear in mind that most Internet advice is hooey, there are no silver bullets, and the nandroid backup is your friend.

Damn right it is. I ended up need in a restore from backup and the problem is 100% gone. No need to switch the background limit or anything. Any idea what gives?

 

[EarlyMon]

Could be any number of built-in app updates or something like that. Just guessing.

 

[knoober]

Could be any number of built-in app updates or something like that. Just guessing.

Well who cases I say. As long as it's solved I'd still like to take a greater part in how my device works but that will have to wait until I learn more. Got a new rom and kernel to play with now too. Portal over from the m8 for my device. Seems pretty nice but I've only had it for a day. Tha ks again for all your help EarlyMon!