augustya | # 11 | 2010-10-31, 14:12 | Report

What could be the possible risks involved with Swappolube? But will it make any improvements in performance.

extendedping | # 12 | 2010-10-31, 14:30 | Report

what is the difference between wappolube ans swappolube-nogui?

ste-phan | # 13 | 2010-10-31, 15:08 | Report

Sorry but my impression is also enough a fact. I did say it "seems to me".

PR1.2 + Swappolube = PR1.3 , so far with, my usage pattern.

Swappolube was the only way to reach 14 days of up time with reasonable interface responds fluidity.
How Nokia did optimize the system further might be interesting to find out later but for me it is too early to jugde if Swappolube needs to come to the rescue with PR1.3 like it did for PR1.2 lagging.
Swappolube being experimental for most, we just need to get to know what to expect and what not from PR1.3 before we feel the effect of finetuings is positive or negative.

ossipena | # 14 | 2010-10-31, 16:07 | Report

can't you read the descriptions?

ossipena | # 15 | 2010-10-31, 16:09 | Report

probably memory chip wear would be the biggest one and geneal lockup that requires reflashing is more realistic.

anything could happend and there probably are some reasons why the values are what they are by default....

retsaw | # 16 | 2010-10-31, 16:44 | Report

Really? I had a look at exactly what swappolube was doing when it was first released, and simply put it was tuning some kernel parameters, none of which could IMO cause any harm to the N900. One significant one was tuning swappiness from 100 (the maximum) to 0 (the minimum), this means the kernel will try to use swap as little as possible instead preferring to drop cache from RAM, whether this helps or hurts performance depends on whether you are more likely to need the program data or the data in the cache because it can sometime be beneficial to swap out unused programs and have a greater amount of cache in RAM with the cache saving extra reads from the disk. This tuning will in fact reduce the amount of writes to the swap partition, which reduces the wear on the flash memory chips.

There was only one option I was slightly concerned about, and that was the one turning off TCP timestamps, I didn't think there was any real benefit to doing it, and it could potentially cause problems with you network connections, but even this wouldn't actually harm your N900 and can easily be changed back.

Now, I haven't looked at what changes have been made to swappolube since the first version, I uninstalled it to test something then just reinstated the changes it made without reinstalling it, so I haven't seen the newer versions, but from what it was when I did look at it is was mostly harmless, and I wouldn't worry about it causing any harm or bricking my N900.

I'm also still on PR1.2 (cause I'm on the UK firmware), so I haven't seem first hand what changes PR1.3 made, but I think the most likely result of installing it would be not quite as noticeable as it was with PR1.2 because there is less margin for noticing an improvement.

EDIT: I just checked the swappolube-nogui from extras-testing and it seems to be just the same with its tweaks. I also made a little mistake in my post, swappolube changes swappiness from 100 to 30, not 0. I wouldn't hesitate to say it is safe to use. I haven't check the regular version with the GUI, but that should be just as safe, just with the addition of a GUI to change the tuned parameters to your liking.

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Last edited by retsaw; 2010-10-31 at 20:03.

augustya | # 17 | 2010-10-31, 18:44 | Report

So finally I clicked on proposed settings in swappolube and hit apply I also clicked on store (There is a button in swappolube called that) Now I have got a little worried thinking was it required to hit on the store tab,when I clicked on it said that the current settings are stored in events.d.folder which has got me a little worried if it is permanently going to change the settings as right now I am just checking out what this damn thing called swappolube is and if it really doesnt help I have no intentions of keeping it in my settings forever.what do I do now of the events.d.folder that it has created where will I find it and how do I delete it !!

retsaw | # 18 | 2010-10-31, 20:11 | Report

I haven't used the GUI version since I'm happy tweaking on the command line, but swappolube adds a file called "tuning" to "/etc/events.d". This directory is where scripts that are triggered by certain events go, and in the case of swappolube the event is starting the hildon-desktop, in other words it is only run when you boot up your N900. Every time you reboot your N900, it boots up with the default settings which is why this file is needed to change the settings to the more optimal values at boot time. Don't worry about it being permanent, this file should be removed when you uninstall swappolube, and you can always check in /etc/events.d to make sure it is. Swappolube should also reset these values back to default when it is uninstalled, but if it doesn't, so long as the file has been removed they will be back to default after a reboot.

jedi | # 19 | 2010-10-31, 20:13 | Report

Swappolube -> Menu -> Delete Tunings ....sounds like it might restore settings...

ossipena | # 20 | 2010-10-31, 20:23 | Report

that is a pretty bold statement. unless you have tested swappolube with multiple devices and prolonged time. As I said the stock settings are there for a reason and something unecpected might occur because all (or just 95%?) developing etc from nokias side has been done with stock settings

memory chip wear was just something that crossed my mind. as possible as device catching fire when overclocked: totally impropable but not impossible.

I am pretty sure that nothing unexpected can not happend but never say never....