Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

After your explanation I understand the situation much better.

Did you move or resize it? Did you in any way monitored it with a PC?
Maybe just connecting N900 to a linux PC using backupmenu rw mode causes the UUID creation. The Linux PC needs to distinguish the partition and provides the UUID to do it. Unfortunately I cannot test this since I do not have an image before the UUID creation.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Any changes to the partition with GParted caused a UUID to be created. It seems the UUID is stored in the filesystem when generated, with no way to remove it. Did you try to clear rootfs and restore a backupmenu image?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Unfortunately the only image I got (flopswap works fine to it, so I guess no UUID) for reasons I was unable to track reboots all the time. That is why I reflashed and started putting everything back. Now I have a rock-solid system with much more goodies (added 720p recording, a dedicated partition for easy debian that works so fast, etc) and the only thing not working is flopswap :(

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

New Flopswap pushed to Extras-Devel.
Standard Extras-Devel rules apply only tested on two devices but can't see any issues occurring.
This update fixes the UUID issue "taxaza" mentioned.

The swaps are now located in the same method as eMMC is found in CSSU rcS-late and no longer depends on the swaps "TYPE" or "UUID" to locate internal memory.

Please report any issues, thanks.

Changelog
0.1.3
* Change how swap spaces are located to fix UUID issue
* Added extra banner message during refresh

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I tested it and it works fine! Great job and well done! THANK YOU!!!

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Thanks, no problem. I should be thanking you for making me look for a better solution and testing it.

BTW in the rush to release the package I messed up the changelog, not a huge issue but I will fix in the future.

What do we think of the extra banner message, I put that in there so it didn't look like the application was hanging while swapoff is happening.

Fixed my post above like I said I would and included a changelog.

As usual any feedback welcome. :)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I think it is much better this way. I remember I was puzzled the first time I tried flopswap and thought that it did hang or that it didn;t accepted my click on the button. Again, good job!

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

FlopSwap 0.1.4 uploaded to Extras-Devel

Changelog
* Added initial start help text
* Delete QSettings due to incorrect permissions

I have added an initial "one time only" dialog to help new users of the application.

Also I have fixed a bug I found in the process of creating the above.

Your FlopSwap QSettings will be removed if you upgrade from a version <=0.1.3
Fortunately there's only one QSettings setting and nobody spotted that wasn't working correctly, anyway ;)
If you have FlopSwap set to the default settings you will not notice any change.

Thank you for the feedback.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Well there have been no complaints or issues reported since the updates last week. So I have pushed this to testing.

http://maemo.org/packages/package_in...lopswap/0.1.4/

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Minor suggested fixes:

Swap to Device doesn't seem to display the "moving swap..." banner.

"Swap Refresh Sucessful" - fix the spelling (add "c").

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Flopswap 0.1.5 pushed to extras-devel.
Fixed minor issues pointed out by chill above.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Hi to everyone, got a problem with this app. As soon as I activate swap on the SD, the proximity sensor stops working. :confused: Practically Shortcutd goes bonkers. If on the terminal I type "ps aux | grep proximity" it does show up. Done as well a restore trough backupmenu just to be sure that's this app that is causing this. All working until I activate the swap by pressing "Fresh Swap". Any idea on how to solve this issue? I'm on CSSU thumb

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I can't see how it's affecting the proximity sensor or shortcutd.
I can't reproduce any issues either on Thumb or Non-thumb.

Are you certain you have checked other software isn't causing this?
Have you only just installed FlopSwap or have you just upgraded?
Which version FlopSwap?
What other applications do you have?
What settings do you have in shortcutd?
Have you setup your swap partitions on the uSD card correctly?
What settings are set in FlopSwap?
What happens if you press Show Current and Check Status?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Yes I'm sure that's this application causing it.
I'm using the last release (0.1.5)
I've set in Shortcutd "Proximity sensor short" touch as BackSpace(Browser back) has been like this for ages. The sensor works, but as soon as I activate the Swap stops, indeed while on a phone call the screen goes black instantly.
I've followed your wiki regarding how to setup.
If I hit check status that's the result:
"One Swap space active, 2% of fresh Swap Written"
Show current:
"dev/mmcblk1p2"
In settings I've selected the checkbox "Enable FlopSwap"
Don't know what to do... :(

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

@cdctm: one thing you did not answer: have you installed flopswap 0.1.5 for the first time and had the problem, or did you have a previous version working fine?

I would guess the former ....

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

My bad...
Yes, you're right. I had installed 0.1.4 and upgraded this morning to 0.1.5
The uSD works, and jic, this is the model:
"Transcend 16GB Premium microSDHC Class 10 UHS-I Memory Card"
Typing the following into the terminal makes it working:

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Sorry to be pedantic: so 0.1.4 works just fine?

And once you start it manually, everything is OK?

I think those answers will help narrow it down for the beast...

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

No, 0.1.4 does not work.
0.1.5 not working as well
If I disable and re-enable Shortcutd, it doesn't work as well.

Yes if I start it manually, the sensor works as it should.
Hope this helps.:)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I'm also using Flopswap and have slight problems with proximityd. This might be connected or not, I'll let you decide.

In january a user named yrannadx reported in Timenow thread that Timenow stopped working for him after couple of days usage. I noticed the same thing in my system and started to investigate it. I noticed that proximityd stopped working randomly after couple of days uptime for no apparent reason and that caused the Timenow not to work (When screen is blank, Timenow polls proximityd once in two seconds and if it changes from covered to uncovered it show the lockscreen for 5 secs, for example when you take your phone out of pocket). All that was needed to fix it, was "sudo gainroot" and "start proxmityd" and it would work without problems for a couple of days to about a week and then stop again.

I dont know if yrannadx had Flopswap, but I do and I have had it installed for some time now (received at least couple of updated for it through HAM) and I believe that the swaps are set correct, because the software seems to work ok. I could not pinpoint the reason for proximityd stopping and still can't. It could have someting to do with the automatic refreshing of the swap when it gets full after a couple of days usage, but I can't cause the proximityd to stop by manually reswapping or swapping to device/card. Is there anything in the reswapping scripts that might affect proximityd or some other component connected to it. I don't have shortcutd installed.

And again, I'm not sure that my problem has anything to do with problem cdctm is experiencing, but we both have Flopswap installed and have problems with proximityd.

Edit: I'm also on thumb.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I was following that thread too. I'm not an active member but I'm addicted to maemo...
Indeed I had installed Timenow the first time that I faced this issue. Then I've restored using backupMenu and it worked perfectly. (Timenow on the backup is not installed)

Don't know if this could help, but after I've removed FlopSwap and before performing a full restore using backupMenu, I made a contacts and settings backup(just to avoid to lose my new phone numbers and texts). As soon as I restore this after reflashing, same problem, it doesn't work. However searching trough the thousand of good advices that I've always found on this site, managed to get it working.
Seems really strange to me. Just need to open the phone, get the uSD out and in... restart the phone and it works! I tought that I was probably getting into the "ghost in the shell" of my N900. :D To be sure i did it again. Flashed and restored settings and contacts, same problem. Opening the phone and doing the same works.
I love this phone :p

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

More cosmetic feedback:

In The Quick Guide, the bottom row has the letters cut off by the bottom of the screen. This can make one wonder if there was more below (I don't see a way to scroll down).

You might want to educate the user (myself included) why Flopswap can no longer calculate the fresh swap percentage. Mine did that a few times recently....A suggested fix in the yellow banner is to use alarmed/cron, but it apparently also helps to Fresh Swap again, i.e. right after dismissing the banner. Maybe the user should be told that, too. I personally haven't read the code yet to see why it can't calculate the percentage after a while; I'll look at it later.

EDIT: I see there is some info on the percentage calculation limit in the wiki.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

The two QLabels on that window are set to preferred so they resize themselves. Personally they don't look like they go off the screen to me but maybe it depends on the system font.

Busybox can only calculate values upto a certain amount.
Then the calculations hit int32 overrun.
You can still use the buttons to swap the warning is to let you know the percentage and byte calculations will no longer work correctly.


Flopswap 0.1.6 uploaded to extras-devel
A few minor fixes including...
*Fixed description in control file
*Improved int32 overrun warning
*Small UI changes, including decreasing font on Quick Guide
*Icons (See what you think about them)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

The new icons are great. My favorite is the Check Status one.:)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Icons make for a much more interesting yet clearer interface.

Thanks

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Out of the Gentleface Icon selection this was the most obvious option.
In a silly way it makes sense :)

I am glad the icons have got the thumb up.

A couple of points I have spotted. I was fairly sleepy when I uploaded the new version so the packages changelog has slightly incorrect information.
There is no QProgressDialog, this was the original plan but there seemed no easy way to get this to work.

I have also not full tested the int32 overrun banner fixes.
The way it should function now is upon reaching int32 overrun Check Status will show the "Busybox can no longer..." message everytime and abort the calculations.
This makes more sense than showing the banner once and then incorrect values thereafter.
Do let me know if you have any troubles with that.

Also here's a screenshot for those that haven't seen the icons

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

How about educating the reader as to why (s)he would want to swap to device? The new icon is suggestive, and the wiki says "This moves the swap space to the device so the back cover can be removed." but a new N900 user won't necessarily know why the back cover can't be removed otherwise.

Also, why not tell the user "you can still use the swap functions" after the int32 underrun; maybe merely add it to the current banner.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Ok, good point

I have chosen a different approach to this. Upon int32 overrun the banner is shown and then the Check Status button should become disabled (greyed out).

Flopswap 0.1.7 uploaded to extras-devel

*New first time dialog message for "Swap to Device"
*Updated "Quick Guide"
*"Check Status" button disabled on int32 overrun

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Bug
Just to let you know I have found a very minor bug.
The new Swap to Device dialog is shown on every press, this was not the intention.
Pretty sure it's a one line fix ;) but I am busy working on something else at the moment.
Expect an update soon.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Flopswap 0.1.8 uploaded to extras-devel
Bugfix as above.

Enjoy, I hope to push this version to -testing if all is well.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I am still using 0.1.7 and am not seeing Swap to Device when I press Check status or Show Current, for example.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

The issue was the huge warning dialog on Swap to Device was displayed every time you press that button. This wasn't the intention and I'd find this annoying, you only need warning once.
Flopswap 0.1.8 update fixes this.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Is it possible to use 'expr' or 'bc' for calculations given busybox's limitations?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I believe expr still suffers from int32 and bc is not in maemo busybox.
There are no alternatives that with run without installing other packages. bash or busybox-power would fix this but I don't want to force people to use these, hence the warning dialog etc.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

I'm still looking into int32 and your code.

Is ugbytes actually used as input to any calculation or banner?

Also, is /tmp/flopswapint ever written to?

Thanks.

EDIT: I see /tmp/flopswapint (it's existence, not content) is used as a flag to indicate Flopswap can no longer calculate the percentage used, and once set it stays up (until reboot). To set the flag you create the file.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Just do NOT use bytes!

I told you once upon a times, divide output by 1000 (should suffice) and use KiBytes for calculation.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Ok here's my 2 cents, and please correct me where I'm wrong. In swapused.sh you convert the used blocks (reported by /proc/diskstats) directly to MB, and then compare to the swap size reported by /proc/swaps. The latter you also convert to MB from the KB reported. There is no multiplication here, so we are not likely to hit an int32 overrun. We cannot divide much further, e.g. to get GB, because swap sizes are usually under a GB, and integer/integer division, which is truncated, would give swap size 0. The only small issue here is that you are getting ugbytes by dividing ublocks with 1024, which is incorrect; however, I don't see that ugbytes are really used anywhere, except to print out in the terminal.

Now, in swapswitch.sh:

ubytes is then used to get umbytes and ugbytes. Now, multiplying ublocks with 512 will cause an int32 overrun earlier than necessary, here is why. Normally int32 will hit at 32 bits of 512-byte blocks, i.e. 2 TB. If you multiply ublocks with 512, it will hit at 2 TB/512 = 4 GB. This is a reasonably achievable amount of written swap, and may explain why I encountered int32 overrun after about 17 days of runtime. Why not get umbytes (and ugbytes if needed anywhere) directly by dividing by 2048, as in swapused.sh?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Since i have installed flopswap to use a fast Samsung 64GB sdxc card with swap partitions, i'm experiencing issues with hildon-status-menu starting before the optified mount point become available.

This happens because the N900 seems to start and run so fast that the boot order seems a little different!

If someone else is experiencing problems with python plugins of hildon-status-menu, here the trick

Modify: /etc/X11/Xsession.post/15hildon-status-menu
To:

#!/bin/sh
sleep 5 && /usr/sbin/dsmetool -t /usr/bin/hildon-status-menu

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

No, it's left over from a previous version.

Correct.

Thank you for being so verbose with your explanation, I would have not seen this error.
Basically I have applied peter's int32 fix to one file (this is the part surrounded by comment marks) I have forgotten to do the same in the other.

TBH I saw the whole int32 and only 17 days of runtime a non-issue anyway.
At the end of the day you will hit int32 at some point. This is why I have recommended that you use the check swap to calculate your swap usage. Then setup something to automatically run swapswitch.sh at night.
I see the int32 banner as a band-aid really.
Now that I see more people wishing for longer calculation runtimes I will look into a overall better solution.
For now I have quickly fixed and tidied up the bits pointed out above.
Flopswap 0.1.9 is uploaded to Extras-Devel.


This is interesting, while it doesn't seem to be flopswap at fault I think we need to find a reason and a better solution (maybe in another thread?). This obviously shouldn't happen, I also have never experienced this. The boot process shouldn't allow h-s-m to start without the points it needs being ready.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Of course, but for practical purposes it matters when IMO. With the previous script, 2TB/512=4GB ~ 17 days, and with the new script 2TB*2048 [because you are dividing by 2048] = 2TB/512 * (512*2048) ~ 17*512*2048 days (let's use my runtime to estimate here). That's a lot of days, especially considering that our N900 will get rebooted, willingly or not, many times before that time.

Note this is assuming /proc/diskstats can report more that 32 bits of swap written, and that busybox can read and then divide it (by 2048). The latter is probably not true - if busybox can't store the result of a division if it has >32 bits, then it probably can't read an operand that's >32 bits, either. In that case we will hit int32 when /proc/diskstats reports swap written >32 bits, which is 32 bits of 512 bytes = 2 TB. This is still 2TB/512 * 512 ~ 17 days * 512 = 23 years. Assume instead I write 4 GB of swap every day instead of every 17 days, and I still get a year and a half of swap-worry-free uptime.

Hmm, I'm not sure how running swapswitch.sh mitigates the problem. The amount of swap written since boot (/proc/diskstats) can only increase, and swapswitch.sh does not decrease it. Can you clarify?

Thanks again for your effort.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] FlopSwap - Swap GUI Management
 

Yep I agree.
I still feel the fact you could reach int32 is a problem.
My next task is to find out if /proc/diskstats can report more that 32 bits of swap written. Has anybody tested this? If this is not possible then I cant see how it could be fixed.

You use the "Check Status" to work out how quickly you use your swap allocation in days. Then use this to setup a cron job at a convenient time to run swapswitch.sh. This was the original concept for flopswap.
You should have calculated your swap usage within the period of swap it took to reach int32. However it seems people wish to use flopswap, differently so I have/will continuously adapt it if possible.