OverClocking 101

[JohnnyDepth]

Hi Skull One,

I just wanted to say that I stumbled across a new kernel about a week ago that was built to support an interactive CPU governor.

forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/4434-froyo-kernels-by-slayher/

Check it out. I'm running it now with SetCPU set to 'interactive' and it seems to be working really smooth, and the battery runs a lot cooler now (avg now 87 deg vs 94 deg before with a P3droid kernel). Seems a little faster too maybe.

I am also using the optional Compcache feature which he includes in this new kernel which creates a virtual swap memory which uses hi-speed compression to effectively give you more memory, which seems to be working good as well.

I just thought I'd mention it in case you wanted to test it out officially, and you might have some more professional opinion about whether it really provides an advantage or whether the gains I'm perceiving are just all in my head. The link above talks all about how it all is supposed to work.

I am using this 'Slayher' kernel with an M Droid, on Lithium Mod ROM, and SetCPU, set to interactive mode, and running my advanced settings the same as I had them when I had the old kernel on 'On Demand' mode (which I don't even know if this is optimal anymore).

Anyway, have a look at it and tell me what you think of it, or the idea of it.

THANKS

You must tell me what that setting does in your sig?
I mean I have a momentary lag if I'm in any app widescreen, then
come out of it to the home screen it takes time to show the widgets.

This may have fixed that
Thanks.

 

[projekt128]

Your work and research is amazing Skull. Very impressive! I am running SS 4.7 - ULV 1.25Ghz. The phone seems to be running very well, but I am looking for some suggestions for Profile and Advanced settings. Your help would be greatly appreciated in this manner. Thank you kindly!

To make any suggestion would require knowing how you use the phone and what you want to gain. That is what makes Profiles more of an art than science unfortunately.

The phone is used fairly randomly, sadly enough. Aside from it's sole intentions of being used as a phone, I also spend a good portion of time web browsing, and some slight gaming. I am so focused on having the phone run as smoothly as possible while using various apps/widgets while maximizing the battery life. I know this sounds vague but, I hope you can devise a plan for me.

Also Skull, if you don't mind me asking.. What Rom/Kernel do you prefer? And any apps worth noting as superior?

 

[Skull One]

If I missed it my apologies.
So has your opinion changed and that 250 000 isn't the magic number
anymore, it is 300 000?

I don't understand the question. Sorry.

No problem.
When I first found this thread you stated the best sample data
figure (via the setCPU advanced tab) was 250 000

You stated on page one that anything above 250 000
isn't worth using, I was just wondering if your opinion has changed.

Oh, and guess what?
I just checked the advanced tab (running interactive)
and it said -1 !!!???

I checked back later and it was at 25 000
I am confused. Should this setting be higher?
Like at 250 000 ?

Ok, I was talking about the largest number (250,000 = 4 samples per second) being the top end you would ever want to use. I currently run with a sample rate of 30,000 (33 samples per second) and recommend a number between 25,000 (40 samples) and 125,000 (8 samples) for ondemand to achieve a good mix of performance vs battery life.

 

[Skull One]

Your work and research is amazing Skull. Very impressive! I am running SS 4.7 - ULV 1.25Ghz. The phone seems to be running very well, but I am looking for some suggestions for Profile and Advanced settings. Your help would be greatly appreciated in this manner. Thank you kindly!

To make any suggestion would require knowing how you use the phone and what you want to gain. That is what makes Profiles more of an art than science unfortunately.

The phone is used fairly randomly, sadly enough. Aside from it's sole intentions of being used as a phone, I also spend a good portion of time web browsing, and some slight gaming. I am so focused on having the phone run as smoothly as possible while using various apps/widgets while maximizing the battery life. I know this sounds vague but, I hope you can devise a plan for me.

Also Skull, if you don't mind me asking.. What Rom/Kernel do you prefer? And any apps worth noting as superior?

I am going to think on this answer for a bit. Probably answer it tonight when I can relax and give a non-hurried answer.

 

[projekt128]

To make any suggestion would require knowing how you use the phone and what you want to gain. That is what makes Profiles more of an art than science unfortunately.

The phone is used fairly randomly, sadly enough. Aside from it's sole intentions of being used as a phone, I also spend a good portion of time web browsing, and some slight gaming. I am so focused on having the phone run as smoothly as possible while using various apps/widgets while maximizing the battery life. I know this sounds vague but, I hope you can devise a plan for me.

Also Skull, if you don't mind me asking.. What Rom/Kernel do you prefer? And any apps worth noting as superior?

I am going to think on this answer for a bit. Probably answer it tonight when I can relax and give a non-hurried answer.

No hurry at all. I also notice that when using apps such as Pandora, the CPU does get quite warm.. I'm sure there's no stopping this, but perhaps that can be taken into consideration. SS 4.7 seems like a great ROM, running with the ULV 1.25 kernel.. I've been hearing many good things regarding LFY, UltimateDroid, and BB. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks again for taking the time.

 

[Skull One]

No hurry at all. I also notice that when using apps such as Pandora, the CPU does get quite warm.. I'm sure there's no stopping this, but perhaps that can be taken into consideration. SS 4.7 seems like a great ROM, running with the ULV 1.25 kernel.. I've been hearing many good things regarding LFY, UltimateDroid, and BB. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks again for taking the time.

If you are getting a warm CPU while on a ULV Kernel, there may be something wrong. Please try a Low Voltage Kernel and see if Pandora still exhibits this behavior. I want to rule out a Voltage issue before addressing a speed issue.

 

[samsonite801]

I already tested interactive enough to know it will drain a battery faster than ondemand in sleep/standby mode if you have ANY apps that don't allow your phone to go to full sleep mode.

If you are only using it when the phone is awake, under a low voltage setup, then you are basically running a modified performance mode that allows for underclocking about 1/5 to 1/6 the time it is in use. Which helps keep the phone cooler than the performance governor under the same condition.

As long as you can afford the higher battery drain over ondemand, then I don't see a reason not to use interactive. But if you have to switch back to a Standard Voltage kernel, then you should avoid interactive due to heat it can generate.

Now that you mention this, I have noticed significantly higher battery drain with this setup. It also DOES seem like it gets hotter when you use it a lot, running real high CPU load all the time.

This interactive CPU governer seemed like a new hit trend but that's why I had wanted to get your opinion on it. I think I'm going to switch back to the jdlfg kernel I had been using last because it was by far the fastest one I had used since that dev had only compiled it with essential kernel modules in it (optimized for Lithium Mod ROM), whereas this Slayher guy said he compiled his with all kernel modules included, and I do notice it feels heavier.

 

[samsonite801]

You must tell me what that setting does in your sig?
I mean I have a momentary lag if I'm in any app widescreen, then
come out of it to the home screen it takes time to show the widgets.

This may have fixed that
Thanks.

Well, many home lanchers that people like to run on Android are heavy by the time you put all your cool widgets on and everything like that, so they use lots of memory. Then when you use other apps like your browser or other memory hungry apps run, they will eventually flush your launcher out of memory, so then when you hit the 'home' button Android has to load your launcher from the flash file system since it is no longer in RAM memory anymore which presents delay. This command creates a file with a toggle or appends a toggle command into a file (if the file already exists), that gets read by Android and it forces the OS to keep the HOME app locked into memory. It also seems to be more effective than the typical 'lock launcher into memory' that you may see in your launcher's settings or in Spare Parts. I think those ones just request to lock in memory when convenient, when this toggle which I suggest actually forces it on the OS level.

So now, the only time I ever see it redraw on me is if I changed from portrait to landscape view (or vica versa) when I had an app open on screen and hit 'home' after switching the orientation it will redraw. So my workaround for that is to simply return to portrait view before I close that app off the screen or hit the 'home' button (exposing Home app). But for the most part, this toggle fixes it so my phone works fast when I need it most.
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[projekt128]

You must tell me what that setting does in your sig?
I mean I have a momentary lag if I'm in any app widescreen, then
come out of it to the home screen it takes time to show the widgets.

This may have fixed that
Thanks.

Well, many home lanchers that people like to run on Android are heavy by the time you put all your cool widgets on and everything like that, so they use lots of memory. Then when you use other apps like your browser or other memory hungry apps run, they will eventually flush your launcher out of memory, so then when you hit the 'home' button Android has to load your launcher from the flash file system since it is no longer in RAM memory anymore which presents delay. This command creates a file with a toggle or appends a toggle command into a file (if the file already exists), that gets read by Android and it forces the OS to keep the HOME app locked into memory. It also seems to be more effective than the typical 'lock launcher into memory' that you may see in your launcher's settings or in Spare Parts. I think those ones just request to lock in memory when convenient, when this toggle which I suggest actually forces it on the OS level.

So now, the only time I ever see it redraw on me is if I changed from portrait to landscape view (or vica versa) when I had an app open on screen and hit 'home' after switching the orientation it will redraw. So my workaround for that is to simply return to portrait view before I close that app off the screen or hit the 'home' button (exposing Home app). But for the most part, this toggle fixes it so my phone works fast when I need it most.
.
.

When the command is entered in terminal, nothing happens except a new command line. Is this what should happen or did I make a mistake?

 

[projekt128]

No hurry at all. I also notice that when using apps such as Pandora, the CPU does get quite warm.. I'm sure there's no stopping this, but perhaps that can be taken into consideration. SS 4.7 seems like a great ROM, running with the ULV 1.25 kernel.. I've been hearing many good things regarding LFY, UltimateDroid, and BB. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks again for taking the time.

If you are getting a warm CPU while on a ULV Kernel, there may be something wrong. Please try a Low Voltage Kernel and see if Pandora still exhibits this behavior. I want to rule out a Voltage issue before addressing a speed issue.

1.25 ulv Pandora is running consistently from at 30-34ºC I guess my sense of touch was off. But something silly like Robo Defense game seems to run a bit hotter.. Could be just me though. Seems like a game would be the most demanding task.

 

[samsonite801]

When the command is entered in terminal, nothing happens except a new command line. Is this what should happen or did I make a mistake?

You should be able to browse to /data/local.prop and see the new toggle command in there if it took.

Let's talk about this over in the launcherpro.com forum because I already have a topic running over there. Full instructions on doing this mod are there. I just don't want to further dillute this thread with posts that shouldn't be here.

Now back to overclocking... I took out the Slayher kernel I had been running with the interactive CPU governor and put back on my old jdlfg kernel which is built for Lithium Mod ROM and set it back to 'On Demand' in SetCPU and I already notice that while power-using, the battery is already lasting longer, and it acts a lot snappier again (menus scroll smoother like before). For some reason I had thought it may have been faster with the interactive one but after moving back to this old kernel it had become apparent to me without a shadow of a doubt that the jdlfg kernel which is built lighter with less modules runs faster and smoother.
.
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[furbearingmammal]

Interactive isn't ready for primetime. Nuff said. Thanks for testing and proving it!

 

[projekt128]

When the command is entered in terminal, nothing happens except a new command line. Is this what should happen or did I make a mistake?

You should be able to browse to /data/local.prop and see the new toggle command in there if it took.

Let's talk about this over in the launcherpro.com forum because I already have a topic running over there. Full instructions on doing this mod are there. I just don't want to further dillute this thread with posts that shouldn't be here.

Now back to overclocking... I took out the Slayher kernel I had been running with the interactive CPU governor and put back on my old jdlfg kernel which is built for Lithium Mod ROM and set it back to 'On Demand' in SetCPU and I already notice that while power-using, the battery is already lasting longer, and it acts a lot snappier again (menus scroll smoother like before). For some reason I had thought it may have been faster with the interactive one but after moving back to this old kernel it had become apparent to me without a shadow of a doubt that the jdlfg kernel which is built lighter with less modules runs faster and smoother.
.
.

No dilution intended.. LAST COMMENT (I swear) .. The toggle in data/local.prop being......... ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1 correct?

 

[Skull One]

No hurry at all. I also notice that when using apps such as Pandora, the CPU does get quite warm.. I'm sure there's no stopping this, but perhaps that can be taken into consideration. SS 4.7 seems like a great ROM, running with the ULV 1.25 kernel.. I've been hearing many good things regarding LFY, UltimateDroid, and BB. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks again for taking the time.

If you are getting a warm CPU while on a ULV Kernel, there may be something wrong. Please try a Low Voltage Kernel and see if Pandora still exhibits this behavior. I want to rule out a Voltage issue before addressing a speed issue.

1.25 ulv Pandora is running consistently from at 30-34ºC I guess my sense of touch was off. But something silly like Robo Defense game seems to run a bit hotter.. Could be just me though. Seems like a game would be the most demanding task.

Actually that isn't always true. If you are in a weak 3G area while running Pandora and it is struggling to buffer the song, it is eating a lot of battery and CPU time trying to make sure the song is playing back in "good quality".

Currently games on the Android OS suffer from bad programming practices. They assume, and I have to admit rather correctly, that the phone is stock and can handle being run at 100%. They do this to get the max FPS (Frames Per Second) out of the display. This helps with collision detection and a few other items like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and user input. The problem is when we overclock, instead of the game loop running 20 to 30 times per second, we now are running it 40 to 90 times a second. That amount of screen drawing and CPU usage is going to heat the phone up very quickly. One day Android games will be written with FPS locks (IE the display only needs to be update 25 times a second) and the phone can be idle waiting for the next loop to execute. This would help tremendously with battery and heat issues. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[samsonite801]

This is why I made a bunch of preventative profiles in SetCPU for this reason. So if the temp is below 100°f then it gets the full 1000mHz but if it goes higher than a mere 100°f, it will slow down to 850mHz, and if it hits 104°f then it slows to 700mHz, and if it hits 108°f then it slows to 600mHz, and if it hits 111°f then it slows to 400mHz, and finally, if it hits 122°f then it slows to 250mHz. This is my safety mechanism I must use since I notice a lot of apps do this very thing of heating the phone up to the point of meltdown if I don't stop it. But with these settings, it never goes past 108°f at all anymore.

One other thing I did just days ago was to install 'Droid Wall' which is a cool firewall frontend UI made to control iptables so you can easily turn off any unnecessary apps from accessing the internet. It calms down all the unnecessary network chatter (you know, from all those wallpapers that need 'Full Internet Access'). With that firewall frontend, combined with iptables, you can turn off all that crap from either WiFi, 3g, or both. Then you will see battery life get better too since the chatter is gone, and because those apps probably give up trying to connect after they realize that they can't connect to the internet. Please note that Droid Wall is a frontend UI, so if you want it to work, you need to install iptables v1.4.7 (older versions will error out) which can be found in the link from comment 15 here:

code.google.com/p/droidwall/issues/detail?id=27#c17

...just get that zip and extract the iptables bin from /system/bin in that zip, and copy it to your /system/bin folder. You must obviously be rooted for this to work as well. On mine, in order for the firewall to correctly block apps and function, I had to toggle the list to 'blacklist when item checked' mode, instead of 'whitelist when item checked' mode. Once I did that, this app worked nicely to cool down the WiFi and 3g radios, and I'm sure battery life will improve as well. I've also noticed that the phone doesn't seem to be as 'busy' when coming out of standby either.
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