2012 Nexus 7 So Slow It's Almost Unusable - Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

This issue actually started before I updated to 4.4.4. I am currently on 5.02.
I have the WiFi version of the 2012 Nexus 7. I am running the stock Rom, and am rooted (using Wug).
I have several issues with this tablet, but by far the worst is it runs VERY slowly, sometimes taking 15-20 seconds or more to respond to my input.
I have tried doing a factory reset. The problem with that is that the tablet responded better for a day or so, but as soon as I set up my account it began downloading all my apps, making it impossible to determine whether one or more of them is responsible.
I have tried going into developer Options and checking the "Don't keep activities" option. That had no effect.
It's especially maddening when I'm trying to view web pages (using Chrome) and a page takes f o r e v e r to load. Then all those javascript ads that pop up just as the page finally loads (I tried deselecting that as well, but then I can't view slide shows, videos, and user comments on web sites).
It's also fun to click on a link, only to have the page jump right at that instant, resulting in the click hitting an unintended link!
At this point I am out of ideas, other than buying a different tablet, which I can't do right now due to financial reasons.
So my questions:
How do I troubleshoot the speed/lag issue?
How do I prevent my apps automatically installing themselves after a factory reset so I can install them one by one in an attempt to determine whether it's one or two apps causing this?
Is there a pop up blocker available for Chrome (or an alternate browser) to both block, or allow on a case by case basis those dang Javascript ads?
Thanks everyone.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

leebo said:
How do I troubleshoot the speed/lag issue?
How do I prevent my apps automatically installing themselves after a factory reset so I can install them one by one in an attempt to determine whether it's one or two apps causing this?
Is there a pop up blocker available for Chrome (or an alternate browser) to both block, or allow on a case by case basis those dang Javascript ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 of these are easy, the other may take more work.
To prevent the apps from automatically reinstalling, open the play store as soon as the tablet boots up, go to my apps > installed, and click Stop. Then go to Settings in play store, and change auto-update apps option to "Do not update".
There's many adblockers out there, if you're rooted then you shouldn't have a problem installing them. I use AdAway and it works fine, Adblock plus is also popular. Just download the .apk for one you want to use and install it, run the app, then reboot, profit.
As for lag, though it's possible you have an app causing you some issues, this older device is also pretty well known for having a big problem with declining i/o performance over time, and this is more likely the culprit. But any apps that constantly run in the background can exaggerate this further, especially since we also only have 1GB of RAM on this device.
As you mentioned, a factory reset can sometimes help with degrading performance, but it will just degrade over time again through regular use (or as soon as a bunch of apps are immediately restored). This can sometimes be mitigated to a point by using fstrim, but this is not the final solution for everyone.
For me, converting to F2FS format helped with this a lot, it actually felt faster than when it was brand new initially. But it takes some extra work to make the conversion, especially the first time (you have to format your partitions, losing all data in the process, so EVERYTHING you want to keep has to first be backed up elsewhere then restored after conversion). You'll also need to install an F2FS compatible kernel or ROM. Do your research before jumping in if you go this route, and backup your data!

Thanks Prismatic.
I've seen a few posts from people complaining about the slowness of the OG Nexus. Since hardware like cpu's and Ram don't actually slow down (to my knowledge at least), I assume it's usually due to the larger size of newer apps? Like a Windows thing where a version seemingly becomes slower after several years because hardware requirements get more demanding?
But has Chrome for Android really gotten that much larger over these years to cause our little tablets to slow so much? I'm almost at the point where I use my phone (HTC One) more than my tablet for looking things up and browsing.
As far as changing file systems, I'll have to look into whether the community overwhelmingly agrees that the speed gain is worth such a drastic measure. Thanks for the input.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

Chrome has been a problem (along with Facebook) for my 2012 for a long time. When I did the 5.0.2 upgrade I did a factory reset afterwards about did not let it reinstall apps. I installed some fresh from the Play Store that were essential (none that run continuously) one by one. I replaced Chrome as the default with UC Browser which has Facebook Fast integrated (does FB notifications running in background) and all was like new. The only defect is that you don't have a "share to FB" in other apps. Haven't tried FB Messenger yet either. Beside the system/Google and cloud apps running in the background the major hits are Amazon Kindle and my password manager (50 and 35 MB). UCB (w/FF) are only 7.3 MB. Leaves about 500 free ram.
---------- Post added at 08:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:01 PM ----------
BTW I only keep about a half dozen apps in "Recent Apps" and clear some out when it starts to lag a bit. The 2012 is not up to L's multitasking as L puts each tab or instance of an app there. Open a bunch of tabs in Chrome and you'll see what I mean.

I may try that myself. I already uninstalled FB (I've been suspecting it was a resource hog for a long time now).
I've been out of the loop for over a year though, what is "L"?
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Free mobile app

Let me guess: 16GB version? Those models used really crappy emmc that had a flash firmware bug where IO would get really slow once you hit 2-3 GB free space left on the device. If you're in that position, try freeing up space until you have 3-4GB free. It'll probably speed up again.

rtiangha said:
Let me guess: 16GB version? Those models used really crappy emmc that had a flash firmware bug where IO would get really slow once you hit 2-3 GB free space left on the device. If you're in that position, try freeing up space until you have 3-4GB free. It'll probably speed up again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct that I have the 16Gb version, but under storage it currently says, 8.5Gb free.
XDA Mobile App

Encrypted? If so, it wouldn't matter how much space you have free because as soon as the full-disk encryption operation completed, the internal map in the flash controller that keeps track of free blocks would think that there was no space left on the device (even though the OS and the file system would obviously report otherwise) and the only way to reset it once it gets to that point would be to reformat the file system (ex. Factory reset) which forces the flash controller to clear its internal map and start from scratch.
Either way, if your tablet is not encrypted and you're rooted, you could try to download the LagFix program from the Play Store and have it run fstrim, which would sync up the internal map of the flash controller with the current locations of free blocks of flash memory so the device doesn't keep slowing down trying to manually probe for free blocks every single damn time it needs to do a write operation. You may have to do it every once in a while as that internal map slowly fills up again though (the pro version lets you set a schedule). Theoretically, from Android 4.3 and onward, it's built into the OS and the the OS is supposed to be able to do it automatically based on certain conditions (ex. Idle for a certain amount of time, plugged in or 80%+ battery on a certain schedule), but I found that sometimes it needed to be done more often and it's always nice to be able to run the command manually if needed, although to be blunt, there's no reason why the end user should have to resort to this in the first place. That said, I don't know if LagFix will work on Lollipop (never tried; no longer have a rooted 16gb N7 due to a replacement logic board but a busted USB port so I can't unlock my bootloader to re-root the new board) and the program looks like it hasn't been updated since 2013. One way to find out, though and that'd be to try it.
Switching to F2FS as the file system rather than ext4 might help as well (I really wish I could re-root my device to try it for myself). The speed increases over other file systems when using it on flash memory come from letting the flash controller deal with the disk I/O rather than having the OS schedule things. When you look at the bug and what causes it, it could be the communication between the OS and the flash controller that's the culprit. So using a file system that cuts out the middle man and makes the controller deal with scheduling all the I/O might mitigate the problem (after all, the flash controller works fine when there's lots of free space, it's only when it fills up to less than 3gb of space that the flash controller's algorithm to sync what the file system advertises as free blocks with its own internal map starts to screw up).

I am not encrypted. I will try this LagFix app and report back, hopefully in next day or two. Do you recommend another factory reset first? Is been about three months.
XDA Mobile App

If you want, although I'd try LagFix first to see if that's all you need. If you do go through the wipe, run LagFix every so often to sync things up (assuming it works for you or on Lollipop in the first place).

OK, lagfix does NOT work on lollipop. It gives an error. When I can find the time maybe I'll try to convert to F2FS. Or else when I can find the money, try a new tablet.
Sent from a mobile device.

Question: When you wiped the device previously, how did you do it? If you're using TWRP and use the Advanced options under format to manually wipe /data and internal storage, it'll just use the rm command to delete the files which won't reset the controller's internal map. You need to use the factory wipe option, which will use the mkfs.ext4 commamnd to format the partition (which is what you want). If you've been doing it the wrong way, then that might explain why you're still getting the lag despite having a lot of space still free.
Also, the built-in trim functionality (supposedly) only triggers when the tablet is plugged in or at 70 or 80% battery *and* has been idle for 2-3 hours so if you use the tablet a lot or keep it powered off when not in use, there's a chance that the automated task won't run (and since LagFix doesn't work in Lollipop until the Dev updates it to be compatible, then there's currently no way to manually trigger it). So if you haven't already, try leaving it in powered on and plugged into the wall outlet overnight while you sleep and see if it's better in the morning. Might be worth a shot if all else fails.

Thanks. Yeah, I always leave it plugged in over night to make sure it's ready the next day.
I probably did do a factory wipe, but I'm not certain. Guess I'll try that again eventually.
XDA Mobile App

Cool. Well, if all else fails, there's one last trick to try, which is to zero fill all the empty spaces on the drive to tell the controller that the empty space is indeed empty when it hits the "start probing the file system for empty blocks to perform the write operation" part of its I/O algorithm. You can do that yourself on the command line by using dd to create a giant empty file until the drive is filled up, syncing the file buffers and then deleting the empty file, and then sync the file buffers one last time. There's also an app that can do it automatically, which is just a GUI that calls dd, rm, sync, rm and sync in the background. I forget the name, but it's in the store and I think it has "secure" as part of its name.
I had moderate success with that method as things would speed up again once done, but would slow up again over time as the drive was used. Formatting the partition is preferable because it saves on write operations and thus, wear and tear on the flash drive but the downside is that you lose all your data. And zero-fill was the preferred method outside of re-formatting the partition until someone figured out the fstrim trick. You might be able to run the fstrim command from the command line if you're rooted since LagFix doesn't work anymore on Lollipop, but I forgot what the command line arguments are. Google could probably help with that.
So still a few more things to try before giving up. But I wonder if F2FS would work better. Let us know if you ultimately go that route.

You can run the trim commands from terminal. But I found increasing the minimum clock helped.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app

leebo said:
This issue actually started before I updated to 4.4.4. I am currently on 5.02.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW same here, I updated from kitkat to 5.02 today and my god, this is TERRIBLE!!!
I keep rebooting in hope that SOMETHING will be better. I know this is an old tablet but I have a good mind to call Google tech support and complain about this abysmal ROM.
I did not do a wipe, just upgraded as you'd imagine that would be all one needs to do, it is a factory upgrade after all...
Some apps take forever to boot and then are inoperable because they can take a minute to respond to a touch (facebook seems the worst)
Others are very laggy but useable (like a cheap phone from 5 years ago).
I guess I have to try a factory reset/wipe.

So just to update: I have been wiping the cache partition about every five days. It lasts about two to three days. I plan on waiting until I have money to get a different tablet before getting a different ROM, or converting to the newer file system (though that will probably be some time from now). In its current condition I can't even give this thing away!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Same deal here. When new the Nexus 7 performs great. I have a 2012 8 gb version primarily for platform testing. The interface is so slow now I've given up and just use my phone. The keyboard takes forever to show up. When you first load an app it takes forever and switching between apps takes just as long. The last Nexus and Asus mobile device I will buy for a good while. At least I can still use it to test an app and know that the app will run on a crappy performing device.
Nexus 7 2012 (8gb)
Android 5.1.1
I've done factory resets and it doesn't really help, maybe for a few minutes and then back to the slow clunker. Even after the reset the keyboard is slow as snot to show up.

Just to update, I ended up using Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit to push 5.1 to my Nexus, then I did a factory reset. It had already downloaded 5.1 from Google, but I was desperate.
I had already given up and bought a Samsung Galaxy S 8.1 by then. It's now much faster. Because I bought the Samsung, I'm not using the Nexus very much, so I can't say for certain I cured it. It's worth a try however.
Signature edited to appease the OCD's

I would suggest installing Chroma 22/6/2015. It's very good since Android 5.1.1 fixes some memory leaks over 5.0.2 ^^ It runs perfectly P.S I wanted to sell or blow up my nexus with other roms so it's worth giving it a try ^^ I'd suggest wiping internal storage too after installation so you have a fresher feel ^^
Plz do it :3 You'll not regret it! The UI is pretty coolio too!

Related

Iwant to throw my archos 70 out of the window

Hello everyone
I have been a loyal archos user for a year now, first with the a5IT and now the 70 internet tablet. As form factor I love the Archos 70 internet tab but the software is killing me it is so slow, what can I do to make it fast again?
speed tweaks
kuwari316 said:
Hello everyone
I have been a loyal archos user for a year now, first with the a5IT and now the 70 internet tablet. As form factor I love the Archos 70 internet tab but the software is killing me it is so slow, what can I do to make it fast again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What in particular is slow?
If scrolling home screens is slow, or icons are taking time to show up (or refresh) try a different launcher than the default. Popular ones lately have been Go Launcher, ADW.Launcher, and Zeam.
Are you using the most recent firmware update? (2.0.71 has sped the systems up quite a bit from the older versions)
http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/updates.html?country=us&lang=en&#firm
Are you using an SD card? (If so try adding a file named .nomedia to the card to reduce the gallery from spending time scanning).
Did you install Google Voice? (If not, you should refrain from it since, it is dragging down a lot of systems).
What speed (in settings) do you have your processor set to run. (The most responsive is the Overdrive setting).
If you want to know how to speed your system up you'll need to tell us what is slow about it.
The overall system is getting really unresponsive and what bugs me the most is when I try to install any app through .apk the device fails on me and freezes. Basically when I try to instal any app it freezez when I try to use an app it freezes most of the time
I am using the latest update with the middle setting for power but overdrive doesn't make a big difference. I am running adw launcher which helped and is really good compared to the stock launcher.
The device freezes a lot and thats not because of me having a lot of apps when I get home I will try reinstalling the update keeping the device on overdrive for a long time and will report back
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
i would do a reset. it really is not as bad as it sounds.
market will tie your purchases to your account, just power off, hold vol-down and power up. choose reset, and then reset device( i do & storage). make sure firmware is 2.0.71, and install gapps5. then just watch what you install, and uninstall things you don't use.
Yeah, it sounds like you need to do a full reinitialization and then reinstall the newest firmware.
My A70 was literally not usable after I tried to upgrade. It was freezing every minute. After a reinstall, everything works great.
And don't forget to set your CPU to overdrive. Really doesn't affect battery too much, and the speed is noticeable.
I turned off the animated live wallpaper. Made my 101 noticable faster.
Deinstall VoiceSearch
You should deinstall the updates of VoiceSearch ....
thanks guys I did a full reinitiolization (not sure bout spelling) and now it is working better, i chose not to install the market and just use applanet for what i want to download, working good now but we'll see how it ends up after a few days of use.
thanks guys you were really helpfull.
dont know if the contents of your memory were wiped with your full reinitialization but i have noticed that every time i install an app i get the little pop up saying that the device is updating its library. this would explain why it would appear to grind to a halt when you install anything
thefunkygibbon said:
dont know if the contents of your memory were wiped with your full reinitialization but i have noticed that every time i install an app i get the little pop up saying that the device is updating its library. this would explain why it would appear to grind to a halt when you install anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the contents of my memory card did get wiped and i've noticed the less things in the internal memory the better. this is because archos did not partition the internal memory for the users the should have left maybe 2gb for the system and apps and the rest for us to use like what is on the galaxy s, that is what mae the device not lag.
Hi, if you do throw it out your window....pls make shure you aim at my open window.
Javierinnn said:
Hi, if you do throw it out your window....pls make shure you aim at my open window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice!
Make sure you don't have any plants on the window sill.
Okay. Please no littering the landscape with fancy toys...
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App
I had the same issue. I had a photo app syncing online and it downloaded 30,000 thumbnails. That with the screwy "update multimedia library" really brought the 70IT to a halt. It would "sync" for about 1 hour leaving about 75% battery left.
I reinitialized and installed gapps4archos v5 with only the market and gmail (no voice or maps) and it's flying now. I wish I could disable the multimedia library sync permanently.

Any chance the Atrix is exempt from this Android "feature"?

My single biggest gripe with the Android OS is the way it closes backgrounded applications without the user's permission, unrelated to available memory but rather amount of time the app is left idle. I can be editing a Word document in QuickOffice or Docs-to-Go, then get an incoming call, answer it and talk for ten minutes, only to find my Office application has been closed and all my changes have been lost.
I am wondering if perhaps by some small miracle, the Atrix has been programmed differently from other Android devices NOT to do this, because of its intended function as a desktop substitute via the Webtop environment. No one ever wants their desktop/laptop computer shutting down applications because they left to grab a coffee for ten minutes, so I'm hoping maybe the Moto devs took this into account and somehow turned off the "auto close backgrounded apps if left idle for X minutes" functionality of Android.
It's only a slim hope I'm holding out regarding this, but maybe someone can answer definitively one way or the other.. anyone know for sure?
No, it's still the same operating system. The Webtop is completely separate from Android.
Nope. I'm slightly annoyed every time adw ex is background killed just because I was reading my email, and it has to completely reload.
Not only that, but gingerbread took away the option to keep the launcher persistent
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
It is worth pointing out this is less of an issue on Atrix given the 1Gb of RAM... but yes, this is still Android and as such the memory management is ultimately the same.
I have had cases on the Atrix where I am playing Angry Birds, get distracted and browse the web, forget I was playing the game... then return to the game 1 hour later to find it's still running as I left it. This certainly would NOT have happened on my Galaxy S!
Sogarth said:
Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We were talking about android apps though
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most apps do restore previous state.
They also take a while to do so.
On the other hand, my biggest gripe is resolved: cm7 has an built in option under he performance setting to keep the launcher persistant, so I don't really care anymore
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
From my understanding of Android programming, it only closes Background tasks automatically, all apps are started as Background tasks by default, it's up to the app to tell Android that it's a Foreground app, and it can't be closed automatically.
Hmm, I've used QuickOffice and left it alone for a while (got distracted, went on the internet, checked emails, turned off the screen, etc) and it was still all there when I came back. Does it happen to you frequently?
As a test I just made a new word document and typed some random stuff into it. I'll leave it alone for a day in the background and see if it's still there tomorrow...
Restoring to previous state works for some types of apps, but for others it's not a viable solution. For example streaming radio applications or chat programs like eBuddy, Fring, Skype etc. These need to be left running constantly in the background, not just restored to where they left off, because otherwise you're not available to be contacted through them while they're closed/offline. Some of those apps use the workaround of an ongoing notification to avoid being shut down, but that is really just a trick that developers shouldn't have to resort to.
I find that both QuickOffice and Documents-To-Go get shut down constantly when left idle in the background, even with nothing else running or using memory, and after only ten minutes or so of idle time. And I always lose all unsaved changes - the previous state is never restored.
What seems to happen is this: I can leave a document in the background for hours, and then come back to it okay, IF I don't do anything else in between. But if before returning to the open document, I launch ANY other app first, even a very small footprint one like a notepad, THAT is when the previously backgrounded apps like QuickOffice get closed by Android. It seems that Android's auto-close-after-idle activity is triggered by the next time the user launches something else. That's when the check is done and idle apps get shut down.
There are free app-switching utilities like AltTabApps and Smart Taskbar which allow you to easily see which windowed apps/tasks are still currently running. Using these I have tested and confirmed that I can actually leave quite a few things running idle in the background for a full day, and every time I keep checking, they are all still there and open, waiting to be switched back to. But then as soon as I open a new small app, and all those others have been sitting there idle and backgrounded for long enough, *POOF*, they all get closed instananeously the moment the new app is opened.
And like I said it's not related to memory, because I can see how much is free, and the app I end up opening is very small as well.
So if you're going to test, don't just leave it for a day and then try to come back to it. Before you go back to it, open something else that ISN'T already running (such as email or text messaging which are always quietly open already).. choose a brand new app to open and then try to go back to your Quickoffice document. On the three or four Android 2.2 devices on which I have tried this, I have never, ever been able to return to a document without losing all changes.
Sorry for the long message.. just important to point out the mechanism at work so as to avoid a false positive result, since there are cases when you can return to documents when you haven't opened anything else new in between.
Ok, I see what you mean now. Tried it the way you said and left it for a good while and it did indeed lose the stuff I had typed. I can see how that would get frustrating...
Have you tried using a task manager and telling it to keep QuickOffice alive (i.e. for the system to never kill it)? Although this will probably eat your battery, so I guess only do this if you really need it. I doubt there's a way to turn the functionality off entirely, as it's a pretty core part of making multi-tasking work on low power consumption devices.
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
paleozord said:
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The keep persitant value was depreciated from android alltogether in 2.3. However, if cm7 can be set to keep alive the launcher and the messenger app, then it stands to say there is still a way around this.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

First-Timer Rooting NST. Latest Status?

I've rooted my phones but haven't rooted my NST yet.
I'm interested in doing it mainly to get access to Dropbox and one of the Dropbox apps that let's you get feeds put onto your NST daily (I want to get my local paper there--which is available). I already have the paper portion working locally.
I have a few concerns:
1. What's the absolute latest/best way to root the NST? I'm on 1.1.
2. Will rooting suddenly drive my battery life down while the NST is sitting idle? I can go a week without touching it. I don't want to have to charge it every time I touch it.
3. Are the latest approaches problematic? I'm seeing threads about people having some pretty serious issues. Should I just wait at this point assuming there's serious thought to a near-bulletproof approach right around the corner?
All roots are pretty stable, there have been some methods that have had issues. TouchNooter for example had a major issue just yesterday because of a space in an Apps name. But it's been resolved and is stable.
Battery Life won't be affected so much depending on your wifi settings, if you keep wifi off you won't notice the difference between root and non-root. If you keep your wifi on though you may find yourself needing to recharge more often if you have your nook doing data updates too often.
Each version has it's advantages and disadvantages:
MinimalNooter - If you're willing to use CWM Minimal Nooter is available and is easily one of the most customizable of all the Nooters with different packages ranging from the most basic of roots "Minimal" to a full root package with Gapps XorZone's Mods etc.
Advantages
Clear Instructions, lots of information, can be a little confusing/overwhelming.
More Customizable with multiple packages
Lowest chance of FS corruption due to CWM use
No One Day Market Wait
No extra Apps to fix Market Search
Disadvantages
More steps to get to root through using CWM (Not just pop it in wait and done)
TouchNooter - TouchNooter was the original Nooter for Nook Simple Touch using the original Methods used on it's sibling the Nook Color. It installs a few mods and the basics to make it as customizable as a person needs you can drop apps in or remove them without having any real technical know how.
Advantages
Customizable with most extra apps in /data/app
Lower chance of FS corruption due to new TouchNooter methods
No extra Apps to fix Market Search
Clear Instructions that go step by step through each requirement
Disadvantages
One Day Wait to get Market Working
I would use TorimuNooter, because theCPU underclocking saves the most battery power.
I'd be very curious to know why Gabrial originally included TorimuNooter but then edited his post to remove mention of it.
[NST]MinimalTouch 1.1beta5 (+Index to manual rooting)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1346748
My favorite so far, easy install as long as you can follow directions.
Market works immediately, lightweight - only includes apps necessary for functionality and has had no problems since installing a few weeks ago.
Still waiting for XorZones NST launcher for my nook to be complete
Agrajag27 said:
I'd be very curious to know why Gabrial originally included TorimuNooter but then edited his post to remove mention of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the update to 0.5 in which TorimuNooter is no longer really a derivative of TouchNooter, not even bothering to change bootloader images or disk names or a number of other things unique to TouchNooter, I feel that it no longer deserves to be recognized as it's own "Nooter"
GabrialDestruir said:
After the update to 0.5 in which TorimuNooter is no longer really a derivative of TouchNooter, not even bothering to change bootloader images or disk names or a number of other things unique to TouchNooter, I feel that it no longer deserves to be recognized as it's own "Nooter"
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Click to collapse
He's gonna freak about that...
*hides*
So do I take it that the "simple" act of rooting will drive my battery life down, possibly significantly?
Agrajag27 said:
So do I take it that the "simple" act of rooting will drive my battery life down, possibly significantly?
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No.
Rooting just makes you gain root access, so you can modify your device.
It wont eat any battery just for rooting, but depends on what you do with your device, it will consume more or less battery.
On idle, except if some app is preventing your device to go to sleep, it should be the same.
If you read a lot of pdfs, play games, use web browsers, etc, the cpu will stay much more time active and there will be many more screen refreshes than when reading books.
Your battery will last less when doing more intensive tasks, the same when reading books, and the same when idle.
Just dont bloat it with trilions of apps you wont use, keep it minimal as more apps running, normally means more problems with battery.
If you wanted to lessen the cpu states, you could try SetCpu or follow this manual tuto http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20069231&postcount=4 (I preffer this type of tricks, instead of installing extra apps).
Don't forget to never leave the wifi on for long periods of time, as it dosn't let the device go to sleep.
Agrajag27 said:
So do I take it that the "simple" act of rooting will drive my battery life down, possibly significantly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
If you have too many applications running the background such as email and twitter and weather updates and etc. Your battery life will be significantly less than if you have just email running. Your battery life is directly affected by what you put on your device and by which settings you use.
My nook is rooted and without underclocking my battery life hasn't changed that much, if I leave wifi off I can go weeks before I ever need to recharge, if I leave Wifi on I can go maybe a few days to a week. Which isn't abnormal or extreme battery difference from root to non-rooted.
It's very much like your android phone, when you rooted it the battery life didn't actually change, if you install new roms, or different kernels you risk a difference between non-root and root. However the only real difference between root and non root on this device is your ability to install apps on the device and do things that require root such as directly modify the filesystem, or use root ADB.
If you don't overload your device with bloat and lots of apps that want to run in the background you won't notice a difference. If you decide to bloat your device up with a bunch of excess apps that like to stick around in the background you risk the chance your battery life will suffer.
Googie2149 said:
He's gonna freak about that...
*hides*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a dev, I don't care if he freaks, it's my honest opinion. To me there's a fine line between derivatives and non derivatives, if he can't even bother to change the things that mark the image he used as TouchNooter than to me that is theft and nothing else, regardless of the changes or additions he makes to it.
I had read elsewhere that an app or two that got installed as a by-product of the rooting process was taking up CPU that wasn't there prior.
That was the concern. For me I'd think about adding passive e-mail support, another keyboard, possibly another reading app and would be likely to read more PDF's though now it appears I can get my newspaper (which is the primary goal) in epub format daily.
On WiFi, I haven't touched the default other than setting up access and it's been a good three weeks since I last charged and just re-charged it at 10%. I guess I could do better than that turning that off.
GabrialDestruir said:
I'm a dev, I don't care if he freaks, it's my honest opinion. To me there's a fine line between derivatives and non derivatives, if he can't even bother to change the things that mark the image he used as TouchNooter than to me that is theft and nothing else, regardless of the changes or additions he makes to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that entirely, but Torimu will still be upset about it. He is kind of going around advertising his as the best nooter, and having it "insulted" (in his mind) will probably set him off. You know what, I should probably just leave this whole thing alone... :/
Agrajag27 said:
I had read elsewhere that an app or two that got installed as a by-product of the rooting process was taking up CPU that wasn't there prior.
That was the concern. For me I'd think about adding passive e-mail support, another keyboard, possibly another reading app and would be likely to read more PDF's though now it appears I can get my newspaper (which is the primary goal) in epub format daily.
On WiFi, I haven't touched the default other than setting up access and it's been a good three weeks since I last charged and just re-charged it at 10%. I guess I could do better than that turning that off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gapps does get added in with some other apps to make it more usable. Gmail runs in the background but with the right settings it isn't an issue. The launcher I believe could also run in the background with some settings (I believe there's an option in ADW so it doesn't close completely) but I pretty much find battery life between root and non root is pretty much negligible.
I forgot about the disk names...
But I will change that. I'm just trying to improve upon others work.
Thanks for your opinion Gabreil......
I'll try to stop advertising.
Torimu.Joji said:
I forgot about the disk names...
But I will change that. I'm just trying to improve upon others work.
Thanks for your opinion Gabreil......
I'll try to stop advertising.
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Click to collapse
It's more than just disk names there were other changes I made, big changes that would be rather noticeable if you bothered to test your work. Like for example the start up image which was left completely unchanged in both your most recent updates.
@Gabrial and the other nooters
While you're on the subject of images I just want to take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of you guys keeping your images within the size of the original NST boot partition.
Reason is, as said before, people regularly do the mistake of writing your image directly to the NST instead of writing it to the SD card.
Just this week I've had four cases where people have written "garbage" data outside the boundaries of the boot partition, and as you (should) know, the next one is the tiny /rom partition with the really important stuff.
Thank you
-Roger
ros87 said:
@Gabrial and the other nooters
While you're on the subject of images I just want to take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of you guys keeping your images within the size of the original NST boot partition.
Reason is, as said before, people regularly do the mistake of writing your image directly to the NST instead of writing it to the SD card.
Just this week I've had four cases where people have written "garbage" data outside the boundaries of the boot partition, and as you (should) know, the next one is the tiny /rom partition with the really important stuff.
Thank you
-Roger
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Click to collapse
I often keep this in mind. It's even addressed as one of my "Before you Begin" pieces. The problem is there's only so much you can do before it just falls to the user to pay attention and not screw up their device. When "You must have an external microSDCard reader or this will not work. Do NOT use the Nook Simple Touch." is apart of the "Before you Begin" and a user ignores that, then it's unfortunately their fault if or when they screw up their device by not following directions.
I've always limited my images to 128 because it's big enough for people to add what they want or to expand Nooter as needed. I'll actually be switching over to the CWM method which would be safer but you're stuck with the same issues with CWM that you will see with using TouchNooter's current image based method and that is people not following instructions and screwing up their devices.
While limiting images and such to 70MB (I think that's right) would be ideal the issue is the majority of that space is already filled, meaning you're very much limiting what you can do with an "automatic" method.
Mind you I've heard of methods like noogie which is the exact size if I remember for the boot partition completely destroy a device because someone wasn't following the proper directions. So the issue isn't the size of the image but how the user uses them.
GabrialDestruir said:
Mind you I've heard of methods like noogie which is the exact size if I remember for the boot partition completely destroy a device because someone wasn't following the proper directions. So the issue isn't the size of the image but how the user uses them.
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Click to collapse
True, but my experience is, and I get around three to four cases every week, is that they write it to the root device which means that 76MB (or 155648 sectors to be exact) is ok.
Beyond that you go into the next partition and the data there is only a couple of hundred kilobytes.
So you see, just 300KB beyond the size of /boot is enough to completely brick a NST forever :/
Yes, there's a backup zip in p3 (factory) but it's usually fragmented and I have only once succeeded in recovering it..
Let me end with a 2012 version of a famous (mis)quote:
"155648 sectors ought to be enough for anybody"
-Roger
ros87 said:
Let me end with a 2012 version of a famous (mis)quote:
"155648 sectors ought to be enough for anybody"
-Roger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish that were true, lol, but considering how much information we want to put on the device it's hard. Perhaps if CWM could grab zip files off of the internal media storage you could toss CWM on 155648 sectors then keep all update zips, etc on the internal storage partition
So i just squires an NST and already have a Fire and Sensation for most of my needs, i really only want to use this as a reader, but the restrictions blow. i really only care about fixing this partition silliness. Which is the best way for just getting that space available.

My nexus 7 takes almost 4 minutes to boot up!

When I frist got my n7, I believe it took about 30-40 seconds to boot up. As I have installed apps it has taken longer and longer.
I've cleared up a fair about of space (1.5 gig free) but it's still a slow bootup.
I've read all about google 'takes of everything' and will kill idle processes, but really I don't want to give these apps permission to start in the first place. here's an example: appsales, a neat app that will let you see what is on sale. But I want to run it when I want to run, not get notifications in my task bar '5 new apps on sale!'. I'm not saying this app is the culprit but you get my point.
From what I've read, there's no real way to stop this, task killers just continually check and re-kill the app. I just wanted to confirm, there's no way, (even with a custom rom) to have control and say no this app can never launch?
If that's true, what do others use to kill background apps.
I was going to wipe it and install a custom rom, but I bet as I install all my apps again, I'll be back in the same boat. And I've read others install their apps one at a time to find which ones are causing issues, well there must be a better way.
Remember when you first started using windows 95/98 and you discovered msconfig? It was like, 'Cool now I can stop all these freaking apps from loading at startup!'
here you go, only enable the apps you want, and problem solved. https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wsMSwxLDEsImltb2JsaWZlLnN0YXJ0dXBtYW5hZ2VyIl0.
You could go one step further and use openpdroid. You will need to be rooted on a non-stock ROM, though.
Once you have it installed, you can control a slew of permissions, including the one that allows booting at start.

[Q] Reducing Audio Latency Through Mods

I'm using a USB MIDI keyboard (through a mini USB connector) and trying to use my Galaxy S4 to drive the sound. The reason is that it's a small, portable, solid state computing device (stage vibrations already killed a couple hard drives in the last few months) that I already own. The drawback, of course, is latency. The delay between key press and sound generation makes this unworkable.
Here's a list of what I've done, I'd love to hear any advice for making this possible. I'm hoping to update this into a complete tutorial if it is successful:
1) The best app as far as sounds available (for the music I play, this may vary for you) AND allowing external keyboard control is Music Synthesizer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.levien.synthesizer). It would be ideal if there was an app that allowed VST plugins for custom sounds or had its own internal latency controls, but none seem to exist on Android. Please, please notify me if I'm wrong. That would make this whole setup better.
2) Because stock Android is super bloated, I wiped and flashed TriFroceRom onto my device using TWRP. This was harder for me than I'd like to admit, so allow me to point future people to what worked for me:
First you'll need to get TWRP up and running. Here's the walk through that worked for me: http://wccftech.com/install-twrp-recovery-on-samsung-galaxy-s4-i9505/
This is the best tutorial I've found for installing TriForce: http://wccftech.com/flash-triforcerom-54-samsung-galaxy-s4-sphl720/. MAKE SURE you do not just reboot straight away. Follow that last step about going back to home, reboot menu, into system. And it may ask to fix your root permissions too. I skipped that part and had a dead phone for a while.
Also, if you're on this stage and wondering about the best way to back everything up before you do it, G Cloud (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.genie9.gcloudbackup&hl=en) is your answer. It is free, works perfect on upload and download, and lets you look at what is on their server at any time (including browsing photos, not just file names). Text messages and contacts sync too. If you pay a little bit of money for the full version, it will even keep your application data. If you're super cool and want to put in my referral number, it's BG2III (gives me more storage, and those are uppercase letter i not number 1s).
3) I then added Ktweaker so that I could overclock and improve the system performance. I watched this video to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5hcuLG-xp0. He has a link to download the files for Ktweaker which is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2294083 but you ALSO need to know that, with the links provided, you PROBABLY need 4.3 touchwiz version. TriForce Rom is a touchwiz rom for sure, and depending on when in the future you see this, check your device's about page (in the settings on your phone) to make sure which version of android you're running.
ALL OF THIS SAID, I have noticed zero improvement. I've read some documentation on Ktweaker and watched some videos on optimizing it and tried several different settings (overclocking, changing the CPU governor, reducing internal and external read ahead (and increasing, for kicks and giggles, though it seemed counter to my intuition), and ultimately have found not a single detectable millisecond of improvement in the latency.
Does anybody have any ideas? I understand that the Nexus devices are supposed to have lower latency, but a new device is not currently in my budget. It seems to me that MIDI controllers have been possible with very low latency since far before the computing power of even this phone was available, so conceivably there should be a way.
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