[REF] Startup script speed tweaks

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hardcore

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2006
3,435
7,992
Hi guys,

UPDATE: Over time, I've modified some of these values in my SpeedMod kernel. The values here may not be the best ones.

NOTE: These tweaks are now included in kernels based on sztupy's Universal Lagfix, for example:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=822756
But they must be manually activated from the recovery menu.

I've been using Linux kernel tweaks in a startup script to make the phone smoother.

With these tweaks, the phone is quite smooth and fast even without using the filesystem lagfixes.

These settings are only useful for you if you know how to create and modify a startup script. I use the old playlogos hack myself, but I'm sure there are many new ways to do it now.

Code:
# Tweak cfq io scheduler
for i in $(ls -1 /sys/block/stl*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/bml*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/tfsr*)
do echo "0" > $i/queue/rotational
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/low_latency
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_penalty
echo "1000000000" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_max
echo "3" > $i/queue/iosched/slice_idle
done
# Remount all partitions with noatime
for k in $(busybox mount | grep relatime | cut -d " " -f3)
do
sync
busybox mount -o remount,noatime $k
done

# Tweak kernel VM management
echo "0" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
#echo "10" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
#echo "4096" > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

# Tweak kernel scheduler, less aggressive settings
echo "18000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns
echo "3000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns
echo "1500000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns

# Misc tweaks for battery life
echo "2000" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
echo "1000" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs
EDIT: Explanations:

# Remount all partitions with noatime
atime is a setting where the filesystem updates the access time of a file. This creates a write-after-every-read which slows things down. By default all partitions are mounted with relatime, which is an optimized version of atime. noatime is the fastest, and afaik we don't need atime.

# Tweak cfq io scheduler
Tweaked settings of the disk io scheduler more for flash memory. Defaults are optimized for spinning harddisks. Lowered the idle wait, re-enable the low latency mode of cfq, removed the penalty for back-seeks and explicitly tell the kernel the storage is not a spinning disk.

# Tweak kernel VM management
Set tendency of kernel to swap to minimum, since we don't use swap anyway.
Lower the amount of unwritten write cache to reduce lags when a huge write is required.
Increase tendency of kernel to keep block-cache to help with slower RFS filesystem.
Increase minimum free memory, in theory this should make the kernel less likely to suddenly run out of memory.

# Tweak kernel scheduler
Make the task scheduler more 'fair' when multiple tasks are running. This has a huge effect on UI and App responsiveness. These values (less aggressive settings) are 20% of the Linux defaults, and about half of the Android defaults.

# Miscellaneous tweaks
Increase the write flush timeouts to save some battery life.

___________________________________

EDIT: How to create/use a startup script:

You need root and busybox for this.

This procedure is adapted from the old OCLF which used this method to create a startup script in /system/userinit.sh

Check if the file /system/userinit.sh exists. If it does, u should just edit that file as the startup script and DO NOT do the procedure below.

Here's how to do it manually. Do this only if some other lagfix/patch has not already done the playlogos hack, otherwise u might overwrite the other script!

Create the startup script on your PC. Use adb to push it to /sdcard/userinit.sh

adb push userinit.sh /sdcard/userinit.sh

On your PC, create a file called playlogos1 with this content:

#!/system/bin/sh
sh /data/userinit.sh
playlogosnow

Use adb to push the playlogos1 file to /sdcard/playlogos1

adb push playlogos1 /sdcard/playlogos1

Now use adb shell, su and do this:

busybox mount -o remount,rw /system;
busybox cp /sdcard/userinit.sh /data/userinit.sh;
busybox mv /system/bin/playlogos1 /system/bin/playlogosnow;
busybox cp /sdcard/playlogos1 /system/bin/playlogos1;

chmod 755 /system/bin/playlogos1;
chmod 755 /data/userinit.sh;

The startup script will be /data/userinit.sh

The reason I put the startup script in /data is so that if you mess up the startup script and get stuck during boot, you can do a "clear data" from recovery, and the startup script will be erased.
 
Last edited:

EarlZ

Senior Member
Jun 21, 2010
6,290
327
Could you explain what this actually does for the non linux savvy, also maybe you could make a script/app for this so everyone else can try it ?
 

kalpik

Inactive Recognized Contributor
May 19, 2010
4,604
2,065
Amsterdam
www.kalpik.com
Hi guys,

I've been using Linux kernel tweaks in a startup script to make the phone smoother.

With these tweaks, the phone is quite smooth and fast even without using the filesystem lagfixes.

These settings are only useful for you if you know how to create and modify a startup script. I use the old playlogos hack myself, but I'm sure there are many new ways to do it now.

Code:
# Remount all partitions with noatime
for k in $(mount | cut -d " " -f3)
do
	sync
	mount -o remount,noatime $k
done

# Tweak cfq io scheduler
for i in $(ls -1 /sys/block/stl*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/bml*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/tfsr*)
do echo "0" > $i/queue/rotational
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/low_latency
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_penalty
echo "1000000000" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_max
echo "3" > $i/queue/iosched/slice_idle
done

# Tweak kernel VM management
echo "0" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
echo "10" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo "1000" > /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure
echo "4096" > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

# Tweak kernel scheduler
echo "2000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns
echo "500000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns
echo "400000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns

# Miscellaneous tweaks
setprop dalvik.vm.startheapsize 8m
setprop wifi.supplicant_scan_interval 90
setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68
VERY interesting :D
 

hardcore

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2006
3,435
7,992
Hello :)

Values description for each one and why is welcome ;)
Hey supercurio! Great job on Voodoo, I am particularly keen on the Sharpness, Video and future Sound fixes. I think its very cool that you found out how to modify the sharpness (S-AMOLED's PenTile matrix software algorithms?).

Edited the starting post with explanations. Most of them should be documented somewhere in the Linux sources / documents.

I've been using them for a while, tweaking values here n there. I think I've finally reached a stage where I'm confident enough to recommend them to others to try. There could be more optimum values with further testing, but these work well for me with Froyo.
 
Last edited:

supercurio

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
May 31, 2010
3,550
5,041
Chambéry
spectrastudy.com
Hey supercurio! Great job on Voodoo, I am particularly keen on the Sharpness, Video and future Sound fixes. I think its very cool that you found out how to modify the sharpness (S-AMOLED's PenTile matrix software algorithms?).

Edited the starting post with explanations. Most of them should be documented somewhere in the Linux sources / documents.

I've been using them for a while, tweaking values here n there. I think I've finally reached a stage where I'm confident enough to recommend them to others to try. There could be more optimum values with further testing, but these work good for me so far with Froyo.

Yeah thank you so much for taking the time and sharing, i'll integrate them after a bit of testing :)

About the sharpness filter yes this is the main difference between S-AMOLED and AMOLED panel wise.
It's a hardware sharpness filter which is here to fight the fuzziness introduced by the pentile pattern but.. they overdid it a bit.

The "perfect" values are of course closer than the one with the same radius that the one of the blur introduced itself with the pixel pattern.
I feel it can maybe be improved a hair :)
I'll soon publish a version that allow write to the mDNIe register so you'll be able to play *live* with it too ;)
 

xan

Retired Recognized Developer
May 21, 2006
1,407
455
Crack-ow
Nice, could these be modified post-startup? like I go adb and copy paste some of them for testing?

I've tested setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68, no difference. Set it to
setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 10 and still, no difference.
 

supercurio

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
May 31, 2010
3,550
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Chambéry
spectrastudy.com
Nice, could these be modified post-startup? like I go adb and copy paste some of them for testing?

I've tested setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68, no difference. Set it to
setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 10 and still, no difference.

hey xan, you made me remember to add run-parts support.
i'll do that and you'll be able to set it without special hack very soon with voodoo
 

hardcore

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2006
3,435
7,992
Nice, could these be modified post-startup? like I go adb and copy paste some of them for testing?

I've tested setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68, no difference. Set it to
setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 10 and still, no difference.
I don't think the setprop values can be modified post-startup. You can check if the value was modified by doing a getprop. (The default value for that prop is 55.)

The rest of them can be modified post-startup though.
 

thunderteaser

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2010
830
296
Excuse my noobiness on Android, I would like an explanation on this command:

# Tweak kernel VM management
echo "0" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

On my GNU/Linux system I've set vm.swappiness to 10, because I've got plenty MiB of RAM and I don't want my system to swap a lot. Is this swappiness the same as Linux? Because that would mean having the system to use more RAM, and since we don't have much of that available by default, I'm just surprised you didn't set a higher value. (I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing, I just want to learn how it works!)
By the way, this script is going to be a must-have, I think you've put an excellent effort on i9000 Android development! :) Thanks for sharing!
 

Fr4gg0r

Inactive Recognized Developer
Aug 4, 2010
698
679
Nice, could these be modified post-startup? like I go adb and copy paste some of them for testing?

I've tested setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68, no difference. Set it to
setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 10 and still, no difference.

The aosp windowmanager (android framework) ignores values <35. (Samsung could have changed something here, but that is very unlikely).

That value does not affect the framerate, but how many touch events are reported to the apps; this saves some cpu if the user keeps touching the screen.
 
Last edited:
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supercurio

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
May 31, 2010
3,550
5,041
Chambéry
spectrastudy.com
The aosp windowmanager (android framework) ignores values <35. (Samsung could have changed something here, but that is very unlikely).

That value does not effect the framerate, but how many touch events are reported to the apps; this saves some cpu if the user keeps touching the screen.

Yes, i tried on Eclair to set it to 56fps (real fps is 55.5555555555555) but touch scrolling were not smoother.

I hope it can be improved in some way!
 

hardcore

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2006
3,435
7,992
The aosp windowmanager (android framework) ignores values <35. (Samsung could have changed something here, but that is very unlikely).

That value does not affect the framerate, but how many touch events are reported to the apps; this saves some cpu if the user keeps touching the screen.
Thanks for the info. Looks like default settings are best unless we can actually change the refresh rate.
 

GantengX

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2010
83
2
Singapore
Hi guys,

I've been using Linux kernel tweaks in a startup script to make the phone smoother.

With these tweaks, the phone is quite smooth and fast even without using the filesystem lagfixes.

These settings are only useful for you if you know how to create and modify a startup script. I use the old playlogos hack myself, but I'm sure there are many new ways to do it now.

Code:
# Remount all partitions with noatime
for k in $(mount | cut -d " " -f3)
do
	sync
	mount -o remount,noatime $k
done

# Tweak cfq io scheduler
for i in $(ls -1 /sys/block/stl*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/bml*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/tfsr*)
do echo "0" > $i/queue/rotational
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/low_latency
echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_penalty
echo "1000000000" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_max
echo "3" > $i/queue/iosched/slice_idle
done

# Tweak kernel VM management
echo "0" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
echo "10" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo "1000" > /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure
echo "4096" > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

# Tweak kernel scheduler
echo "2000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns
echo "500000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns
echo "400000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns

# Miscellaneous tweaks
setprop dalvik.vm.startheapsize 8m
setprop wifi.supplicant_scan_interval 90
EDIT: Explanations:

# Remount all partitions with noatime
atime is a setting where the filesystem updates the access time of a file. This creates a write-after-every-read which slows things down. By default all partitions are mounted with relatime, which is an optimized version of atime. noatime is the fastest, and afaik we don't need atime.

# Tweak cfq io scheduler
Tweaked settings of the disk io scheduler more for flash memory. Defaults are optimized for spinning harddisks. Lowered the idle wait, re-enable the low latency mode of cfq, removed the penalty for back-seeks and explicitly tell the kernel the storage is not a spinning disk.

# Tweak kernel VM management
Set tendency of kernel to swap to minimum, since we don't use swap anyway.
Lower the amount of unwritten write cache to reduce lags when a huge write is required.
Increase tendency of kernel to keep block-cache to help with slower RFS filesystem.
Increase minimum free memory, in theory this should make the kernel less likely to suddenly run out of memory.

# Tweak kernel scheduler
Make the task scheduler more 'fair' when multiple tasks are running. This has a huge effect on UI and App responsiveness. These values are 10% of the Linux defaults, and about half of the Android defaults.

# Miscellaneous tweaks
Manually set the starting dalvik heap size.
Increase wifi scanning gap to reduce battery usage.


I'm interested in doing this but I'm not sure where should I put the file. I checked playlogos1 from /system/bin but it's a binary file.. Tried to find playlogos hack on the forum but can't really find anything... :confused:
 

andrew_vi

Member
Sep 12, 2010
13
1
i have a jpm with voodoo, and i have copy this code into /voodoo/scripts/init.sh
just simplely add to the end of it, of course, before the last line.

the system reboot is ok, but i havent see the effects yet.
 

[kab]

Senior Member
Jan 29, 2007
61
0
btw, "ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*" in adb give us:
Code:
ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*
-1: No such file or directory
/sys/block/mmcblk0
/sys/block/mmcblk1
so, "-1" key is useless
 

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  • 19
    Hi guys,

    UPDATE: Over time, I've modified some of these values in my SpeedMod kernel. The values here may not be the best ones.

    NOTE: These tweaks are now included in kernels based on sztupy's Universal Lagfix, for example:
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=822756
    But they must be manually activated from the recovery menu.

    I've been using Linux kernel tweaks in a startup script to make the phone smoother.

    With these tweaks, the phone is quite smooth and fast even without using the filesystem lagfixes.

    These settings are only useful for you if you know how to create and modify a startup script. I use the old playlogos hack myself, but I'm sure there are many new ways to do it now.

    Code:
    # Tweak cfq io scheduler
    for i in $(ls -1 /sys/block/stl*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/mmc*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/bml*) $(ls -1 /sys/block/tfsr*)
    do echo "0" > $i/queue/rotational
    echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/low_latency
    echo "1" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_penalty
    echo "1000000000" > $i/queue/iosched/back_seek_max
    echo "3" > $i/queue/iosched/slice_idle
    done
    # Remount all partitions with noatime
    for k in $(busybox mount | grep relatime | cut -d " " -f3)
    do
    sync
    busybox mount -o remount,noatime $k
    done
    
    # Tweak kernel VM management
    echo "0" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
    #echo "10" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
    #echo "4096" > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes
    
    # Tweak kernel scheduler, less aggressive settings
    echo "18000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns
    echo "3000000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns
    echo "1500000" > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns
    
    # Misc tweaks for battery life
    echo "2000" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
    echo "1000" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs
    EDIT: Explanations:

    # Remount all partitions with noatime
    atime is a setting where the filesystem updates the access time of a file. This creates a write-after-every-read which slows things down. By default all partitions are mounted with relatime, which is an optimized version of atime. noatime is the fastest, and afaik we don't need atime.

    # Tweak cfq io scheduler
    Tweaked settings of the disk io scheduler more for flash memory. Defaults are optimized for spinning harddisks. Lowered the idle wait, re-enable the low latency mode of cfq, removed the penalty for back-seeks and explicitly tell the kernel the storage is not a spinning disk.

    # Tweak kernel VM management
    Set tendency of kernel to swap to minimum, since we don't use swap anyway.
    Lower the amount of unwritten write cache to reduce lags when a huge write is required.
    Increase tendency of kernel to keep block-cache to help with slower RFS filesystem.
    Increase minimum free memory, in theory this should make the kernel less likely to suddenly run out of memory.

    # Tweak kernel scheduler
    Make the task scheduler more 'fair' when multiple tasks are running. This has a huge effect on UI and App responsiveness. These values (less aggressive settings) are 20% of the Linux defaults, and about half of the Android defaults.

    # Miscellaneous tweaks
    Increase the write flush timeouts to save some battery life.

    ___________________________________

    EDIT: How to create/use a startup script:

    You need root and busybox for this.

    This procedure is adapted from the old OCLF which used this method to create a startup script in /system/userinit.sh

    Check if the file /system/userinit.sh exists. If it does, u should just edit that file as the startup script and DO NOT do the procedure below.

    Here's how to do it manually. Do this only if some other lagfix/patch has not already done the playlogos hack, otherwise u might overwrite the other script!

    Create the startup script on your PC. Use adb to push it to /sdcard/userinit.sh

    adb push userinit.sh /sdcard/userinit.sh

    On your PC, create a file called playlogos1 with this content:

    #!/system/bin/sh
    sh /data/userinit.sh
    playlogosnow

    Use adb to push the playlogos1 file to /sdcard/playlogos1

    adb push playlogos1 /sdcard/playlogos1

    Now use adb shell, su and do this:

    busybox mount -o remount,rw /system;
    busybox cp /sdcard/userinit.sh /data/userinit.sh;
    busybox mv /system/bin/playlogos1 /system/bin/playlogosnow;
    busybox cp /sdcard/playlogos1 /system/bin/playlogos1;

    chmod 755 /system/bin/playlogos1;
    chmod 755 /data/userinit.sh;

    The startup script will be /data/userinit.sh

    The reason I put the startup script in /data is so that if you mess up the startup script and get stuck during boot, you can do a "clear data" from recovery, and the startup script will be erased.
    2
    Hi hardcore,
    I've got a question.
    I followed the steps in the first post.
    As far as I can see everything is set up as you described.
    With Root Explorer I've checked whether userinit.sh was in data,
    and it is.
    What I don't know though,
    do I have to go trough the steps in this post as well?
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=819580
    I suppose that topic is part of the startup script you posted here..
    because I see similar code.
    Or does the [HOWTO] Optimal ext4 mount options tutorial give other advantages when combined with this tutorial?
    I've made it to the step
    * Repeat the above for all other ext4 partitions.
    As I am not really sure how to apply to the other partitions..

    hope you can help me.
    Startup scripts r a bit tricky if the kernel doesn't support it. I suggest u check out my speedmod kernel which already has these tweaks and also startup script support.
    1
    you could make a script/app for this so everyone else can try it ?

    +1, pretty plz, also, is this compatible with voodoo?
    1
    Hello :)

    Values description for each one and why is welcome ;)
    1
    Nice, could these be modified post-startup? like I go adb and copy paste some of them for testing?

    I've tested setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 68, no difference. Set it to
    setprop windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec 10 and still, no difference.

    The aosp windowmanager (android framework) ignores values <35. (Samsung could have changed something here, but that is very unlikely).

    That value does not affect the framerate, but how many touch events are reported to the apps; this saves some cpu if the user keeps touching the screen.