MemoryInfo v1.1 newly released

rudychow · 01/29/2006, 05:48 AM

New version allows flushing and defragmenting (to increase largest free chunk) of the dbCache. Also has a "compact storage/dynamic heap" feature (no idea what it does though).

Not sure if this is gonna be much use as the dbCache mangement functionality provided is performed automatically in the 1.20 software update. Nonetheless here it is...

Franko515 · 01/29/2006, 07:37 AM

Where did you find this? I searched but couldnt come up with anything. Just wondering

rudychow · 01/29/2006, 12:44 PM

It's released by Palm as part of the SDK utilities package to members of the Developer's Plugged-In Program.

zvandiver · 01/29/2006, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudychow

New version allows flushing and defragmenting (to increase largest free chunk) of the dbCache. Also has a "compact storage/dynamic heap" feature (no idea what it does though).

Not sure if this is gonna be much use as the dbCache mangement functionality provided is performed automatically in the 1.20 software update. Nonetheless here it is...

rudychow,
Can you elaborate on the menu choices for clearing the dbcache? What exactly does each one do? I hesitate to use those options without knowing what I am doing.
Thanks,
Zane

gt5l · 01/29/2006, 05:39 PM

outstanding find, i have been wanting to clear NVFS without reset and without dbcache tool. Thank you

twitch3 · 01/29/2006, 07:19 PM

Good Find!

RedDevil · 01/29/2006, 08:30 PM

Are there instructions on this?

aprasad · 01/29/2006, 08:51 PM

I tried running Memoryinfo (installed on the SD Card) on my 1.17 Cingular Treo 650 and it resets the Treo!

I hope 1.1 won't do that. My cable modem is down and out till tomorrow. The Treo is my only portal to the world .. er Internet.

reverendrhino · 01/30/2006, 02:41 AM

Nice.....thanks!

scottymomo · 01/30/2006, 08:39 AM

If you use zLauncher, make sure you lock it with Resco Locker otherwise you'll corrupt your zLauncher_DB file (which maintains all you apps category associations) when you clear dbCache. This app is probably a good way to really determine what needs to be locked and what doesn't, so have a backup of Saved Preferences etc ready

Gaurav · 01/30/2006, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottymomo

If you use zLauncher, make sure you lock it with Resco Locker otherwise you'll corrupt your zLauncher_DB file (which maintains all you apps category associations) when you clear dbCache. This app is probably a good way to really determine what needs to be locked and what doesn't, so have a backup of Saved Preferences etc ready

DOH!!!

I can painfully attest to this very circumstance!! BE VERY CAREFUL using this app if you use a 3rd party launcher like zlauncher. I tried to clear the dbcache unwittingly and ti totally fubared all my zlauncher prefs!

It took me good half hour of restores and tweaking to get them back!!

tomvb2000 · 01/30/2006, 10:26 AM

ScottyMomo and gfunk - Not sure what carriers you have but I installed the Sprint 1.13a update last night and use ZL but haven't yet seen the db corruption problem. I've done both the memfill and hotsync flushes with MemoryInfo v1.1 a couple of times but don't have ZL locked.

Not sure if it made a diff, but I did exit ZL before running the installer per the directions on the Palm update page. It may be related to precisely which apps each of us has and where they end up in dbcache. I've seen similar issues when using dbCacheTool and the 1.12 Sprint update.

aprasad · 01/30/2006, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomvb2000

Not sure if it made a diff, but I did exit ZL before running the installer per the directions on the Palm update page. It may be related to precisely which apps each of us has and where they end up in dbcache. I've seen similar issues when using dbCacheTool and the 1.12 Sprint update.

Which installer are you talking about?

How does this relate to general guidelines on running MemoryInfo 1.1?

I would still like to learn more on the various menu options in it. I cleared and consolidated the various memories using it, rather naively. So far, I have not seen any ill-effects. But, I use the Palm Applications launcher, not ZL.

karipay · 01/30/2006, 10:40 AM

I'm not sure if this will help but I'm also running zlauncher and I ran the flushdbcache(memfill) and i still have my zl preferences intact. I ran dbcachetool before and after I ran the flushdbcache, and I notice a significant increase in free and max alloc sizes in dbcachetool. and no resets so far. hope this helps.

tomvb2000 · 01/30/2006, 10:44 AM

I was referring to the ROM installer.

Not sure if it's related to MemoryInfo or not - it was a total guess as to why my experience has been different. It only came to mind because the Sprint 1.13a update instructions (for the first time that I've noticed) specifically said to exit 3rd party launchers before running the fw installer.

The MemoryInfo v1.1 memfill flush type seems to be equivalent to dbCacheTool Clear type: DB sync and the hotsync flush type is equivalent to DBCT's Clear type: hotsync (brilliant grasp of the obvious, I know

. Beyond that, I don't know exactly what they do differently. MemFill always seems to clear more for me.

aprasad · 01/30/2006, 11:53 AM

I never used dbCachetool so I can't compare that on my Treo.

With the Cingular 1.17, Blazer also clears the dbCache and consolidates the largest available memory block in the dbCache. I wonder what method is used by Blazer and how that compares to the 2 ways in MemoryInfo 1.1.

The other way of flushing open files to the NVFS volume is to power-cycle the Treo. I have been doing that before important actions like manual resets, Hotsyncs etc. Couldn't hurt.

tomvb2000 · 01/30/2006, 12:29 PM

Do you really think it's Blazer forcing the flush on it's own or is the cache manager kicking in automatically when it sees an app (like Blazer or any other) that needs more than is available. I think it's the latter which should mean that other apps can run where in the past, they'd hit the "out of memory" wall.

aprasad · 01/30/2006, 12:53 PM

I could not find any other program doing the same thing. Even heavy-hitters like DTG or PalmPDF. I posted asking if others knew of any other way to flush the cache but got no responses.

To clarify, Blazer flushes the cache so that applications like MemoryInfo (or Resco Explorer) report the larger available dbcache. The OS must be doing this when running other applications also, because I can run ANY applications one after another without any problems. So, I can run BBVFS backup, followed by PalmPDF, followed by Resco Explorer backup, followed by Palminternals.

But, Blazer is the one that shows the change in available dbcache (and largest chunk size) before and after running it.

tomvb2000 · 01/30/2006, 01:12 PM

Thanks for the confirmation. I've only been running the Sprint/cdma 1.13a update for 12 hours or so but was beginning to see some of the same improved cache management. I'm going to continue without DBCT or RL enabled for a few days and see what happens.

One thing I noticed that is likely unique to my app list is this. After a soft reset, I start GoodLink (the 6.5M cache hog). Immediately afterwards, MemoryInfo shows only 671KB total free. Then running Blazer, I get the "out of memory" error as expected. Doing a MemoryInfo MemFill flush, it zooms back to 6531KB total free with 1533KB largest free chunk (which is typical max for my Treo).

Bottom line is that so far at least, the cache manager doesn't seem to kick in right away in this scenario. That might mean I end up enabling DBCT again since it did an auto flush whenever it needed to. Aside from the brief lag, it was working very, very well with the Sprint 1.12 update.

scottymomo · 01/30/2006, 01:57 PM

Hey Tom, I'm using Cingular Blue 1.17 fw. I launched Memory Info from zLauncher then tried to clear the memfill cache. When I hit the home button to go back to ZL it told me the db wa corrupted. Fortunately a painless restore from backup of zLauncher_DB and I was ready to roll