[Gandhi]

For all SGS owners.

Froyo update for Samsung I9000 Galaxy S delayed until October - GSMArena.com news

If you were counting the days until the Froyo update hits the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S we have some bad news - you’ll have to count longer than expected. The update has been delayed in Spain and India and possibly other regions too.
There’s no official press release yet, instead the bad news trickled through Facebook (the Spanish page) and Twitter (the Samsung India account).
It’s not clear what other regions will have the Android 2.2 Froyo update for the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S delayed, but other European countries are probably affected too.
Anyway, the release date for the Froyo update has been moved to late October. The update will be available through Samsung Kies.
If you can't wait, there are other ways to update the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S to Android v2.2 Froyo. We've updated ours and so far it's been working quite well.
Source: Samsung Mobile Spain Facebook, Samsung India Twitter

[v.anand]

Oh ho! Thats bad news indeed. Was keenly waiting for this update. I don't want to risk anything and will wait till officially announced.

I installed Launcher Pro today along with home switcher and enjoying the difference completely. Feels like a new phone again. The contacts tab doesn't work though.

As for lags in system software, I cleared the application cache, calls list and unwanted messages and it seems to be working better again. How do I clear the market cache other than hard restore? Is it even possible to do it?

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

find out if there is a timezone specified in your phone. and on server. and whether they match. to me it sounds like your phone is set on pakistan time

Nope. It is IST. It is network time. Synced from airtel.

Originally Posted by v.anand

I installed Launcher Pro today along with home switcher and enjoying the difference completely. Feels like a new phone again. The contacts tab doesn't work though.

What tab are you talking about?

Originally Posted by Gandhi

For all SGS owners.

Froyo update for Samsung I9000 Galaxy S delayed until October - GSMArena.com news

That india twitter says end of next month. Crazy i have live with fixes till then. I just hope that this extended borrowed is to get a proper fix for the lag issues.

[Tommie]

HTC Desire User feedback
--------------------------------
I bought a HTC Desire (Bravo-A8181) in Aug 2009 when it was launched. It was an impulse buy and not a well evaluated buy. After buying I was very unhappy that the memory to be used by the OS and apps is just 512MB where as 2 GB SD card was sitting idle. It seems the OS-Eclair(Android 2.1) never supported the feature of moving the application to the SD Card.

HTC provided an online update to Froyo-Android 2.2. This update was probably one of the most seamless upgrade that I have seen. It just used probably 10-15 minutes to download the 90MB file and then installed with 2 automatic restarts and I have the new Froyo OS without loosing any exisiting apps or customizations. After Froyo upgrade, I was able to move applications to SD (not all, some which are possible).

This also gave me upgrade to my video camera to capture in 720pHD Video.

However, I find the battery being drained before 24 hours if any of the following is powered on the data network or Wifi or GPS. I did not find any major improvement for the battery even after froyo upgrade.

[Sergei]

Originally Posted by v.anand

As for lags in system software, I cleared the application cache, calls list and unwanted messages and it seems to be working better again. How do I clear the market cache other than hard restore? Is it even possible to do it?

How do you clear the application cache?

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by v.anand

As for lags in system software, I cleared the application cache, calls list and unwanted messages and it seems to be working better again. How do I clear the market cache other than hard restore? Is it even possible to do it?

This is the best you could have done.

I would say do not try that fix from XDA or VODOO ( Edit: Even if you take no great harm as in one of the fix they are mapping to external memory where EXT2 File system is possible ) What you have done is best. I can not explain the whole hog but just a little bit of information pardon me if it is too technical.

Neither RFS is really an issue nor RFS is crappy as people at Voodoo sight claims. RFS is VFAT compatible journaling file system, Apple also uses a similar file-system.You need VFAT compatibility so that the File-system is visible form a windows PC.

The internal memory in Galaxy-S is not an SD card as those guys claim it is a kind of NAND Flash.
Flash device are different from the block devices ( MMC) for which file-systems such as EXT4 are designed. For prolonging the life of flash you need to have efficient file system to take care of errors and keep count of how many times a block is written so that File system does not write to same block again and again and your internal memory does not go bad as you can not simply throw it away like a damaged SD card. So the RFS is used as it provides these features other phones use something similar for same requirements.

The lag problem has roots elsewhere and hopefully a real fix will emerge may be with next update. Till that time clearing the cache etc as you have done is the best option.

[sohail99]

Originally Posted by Tommie

HTC Desire User feedback
--------------------------------
I bought a HTC Desire (Bravo-A8181) in Aug 2009 when it was launched. It was an impulse buy and not a well evaluated buy. After buying I was very unhappy that the memory to be used by the OS and apps is just 512MB where as 2 GB SD card was sitting idle. It seems the OS-Eclair(Android 2.1) never supported the feature of moving the application to the SD Card.

HTC provided an online update to Froyo-Android 2.2. This update was probably one of the most seamless upgrade that I have seen. It just used probably 10-15 minutes to download the 90MB file and then installed with 2 automatic restarts and I have the new Froyo OS without loosing any exisiting apps or customizations. After Froyo upgrade, I was able to move applications to SD (not all, some which are possible).

This also gave me upgrade to my video camera to capture in 720pHD Video.

However, I find the battery being drained before 24 hours if any of the following is powered on the data network or Wifi or GPS. I did not find any major improvement for the battery even after froyo upgrade.

I think you're confusing RAM with storage media!?

Available RAM in the device is fixed to 512mb, i.e. you can multitask easily(which is quite good for a phone! my N95 has 55mb ram!)
RAM is a place where data is stored temporarily and accessed in real time.

Your SD card is the storage media where you can store stuff like videos, songs, ebooks etc.
(Its much slower than a RAM)

[amohit]

^ I believe he is talking about the location where installed apps go. In Android (pre-2.2), there is no option to install apps on storage media.

Regards,

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by amitk26

You need VFAT compatibility so that the File-system is visible form a windows PC.

but does this even visible on host side? sd cards is only storage that is visible, I thought.

[v.anand]

@gkrishn, what I am talking about is the tabs at the bottom of the screen for making calls, contacts, application, messaging and Internet. Of these, contacts tab does not work and pops out a message saying the requested application could not be launched.

Also noticed, it does not connect to KIES with Launcher Pro.

@amitk26, thanks for explaining the file system concepts in such detail. I was very skeptical to take that route initially and your words only reconfirmed it further to stay safe. Looks like its going to take another month to make Froyo updates.

Another advantage SGS holds over Desire in Eclair is it comes with a dedicated space of 2gb (out of internal memory of 16gb) to store android applications in lieu of 512mb of Desire.

[akshay_b]

Originally Posted by Sergei

How do you clear the application cache?

Go to settings>Applications>Manage applications>Click on the apps that are installed and hit "clear cache" You can find the market app here.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by v.anand

@gkrishn, what I am talking about is the tabs at the bottom of the screen for making calls, contacts, application, messaging and Internet. Of these, contacts tab does not work and pops out a message saying the requested application could not be launched.

the short cut in dock are customisable. Press and hold any icon and some kind of edit menu should pop up. In fact the dock scrolls. Just try pulling it left right.

Also noticed, it does not connect to KIES with Launcher Pro.

yes it won't.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

@Hellwrath -- i got access to app inventor about a month back. Havent tried it yet. Everyone says its veryyy basic and limiting. I'd suggest you do it the real way.


cya
R

I am still waiting for my access. Hmm, but I started learning Java anyway. Reminded of all the OOPS concepts and C++. Yet to implement it into an app. I am getting a lot of ideas, just have to document them and keep so that I don't forget :P.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

For all SGS owners.

The sources of that article are a little vague. Atleast the spanish FB page was when i had seen it earlier. Where is the india twitter account update they mention? I cant find it.
On the other hand, the captivate got a GPS fix firmware update yesterday! Separate from 2.2! LINK to test

Anyway -- I'm loving the voodoo fix in the meanwhile. Strongly suggest you guys try it.

Originally Posted by v.anand

The contacts tab doesn't work though.

I had the same issue.
Keep it pressed > Change shortcut > try another option for pulling up the contact list

Originally Posted by amitk26

...Neither RFS is really an issue nor RFS is crappy as people at Voodoo sight claims. ...

The lag problem has roots elsewhere and hopefully a real fix will emerge may be with next update. Till that time clearing the cache etc as you have done is the best option.

Amit,

From what little i know, samsung has piggy-backed some sort of journaling on top of the RFS system. This causes a lot of the slow-down as well.

About your closing point on "lag problem having roots elsewhere" -- im not sure i agree. A major part of the slow is caused by the I/Os in my opinion, and has been proven by OCLF and voodoo. Have you tried either? I suggest you give voodoo a whirl. You can get rid of it in a month when 2.2 comes out!

cya
R

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Amit,

From what little i know, samsung has piggy-backed some sort of journaling on top of the RFS system. This causes a lot of the slow-down as well.

About your closing point on "lag problem having roots elsewhere" -- im not sure i agree. A major part of the slow is caused by the I/Os in my opinion, and has been proven by OCLF and voodoo. Have you tried either? I suggest you give voodoo a whirl. You can get rid of it in a month when 2.2 comes out!

cya
R

Well it is not the case let me assure you
Some Q&A from my side hope this clarifies

Q1. Why journaling is required ?
A: Because an embedded device can power off anytime ( battery pulled out) a non journal FS need to be unmounted first else there is a chance of corruption. EXT2 is not a jornaling file system and thus if used directly can cause a corrupted flash in once a blue moon scenario when phone battery conks off . EXT3 supports jornaling but that is full jornaling so
quite heavy for a mobile phone so something in between is required.

A non-journaling FS if not unmounted can resulted in corrupted File System , So though it may be faster no manufacturer worth it's salt will provide such a solution.

Q2 : If Voodoo is able to mount EXT2 on it's patch on SD card why not Samsung ?

Ans : Do not confuse the packaged Flash memory with Raw Flash.
Linux file systems such as EXT2 ,EXT3 and EXT4 and Microsoft NTFS are for block devices not for Flash memory.

All the packaged flash memory such as USB stick , SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC
CF have an embedded software running in the controller , If you dismantle an SD/MMC controller you will see a micro-controller and it runs code for FTL which converts the Raw flash in SD/MMC to a block device.

A non-jornaled EXT2 on SD card for installing application can serve as a quick fix by some enthusiast because there is no implied warrenty that things wont go wrong neither the people who install expect any such thing but a manufacturer can not offer such a solution.

To read more on differences between Flash memory and block device read here.
Memory Technology Device (MTD) Subsystem for Linux.

In case someone enable jornaling ( EXT3) to prevent corruption and increase robustness I am not sure how much improvement thy will observe over RFS.

Q3 : What are the other possible solutions for internal flash memory if not RFS ?

Ans : There are many including open source solutions such as UBIFS , YFFS2 etc , but if bench marked they are not necessarily faster and better then RFS.
There is no comparison between FS designed for block device such as EXT2 , EXT3, EXT4 and NTFS with these they are different beasts.

Q4: So how exactly these File systems meant for internal Raw flash memory different from FTL ( Flash translation layer) which micro-controller of SD/MMC/CF and USB mass storage implement in firmware.

Ans : Whatever is done by FTL using a powerful ARM processor in micro-controller for SD /MMC / CF / USB mass storage is to be provided in the MTD layer of internal raw flash memory drivers so it is implemented in FS software.

The UBIFS is open source and this page can give a lot of information to enthusiasts.
Memory Technology Device (MTD) Subsystem for Linux.

Q5 : I read RFS is just VFAT + some jornaling is that all.

Ans : Not exactly if you see open Source UBIFS and YFFS2 there is lot more in MTD device. You need the algorithms so that life of flash memory is prolonged for instance.

Q6: So if SD/MMC interface allows everything why these folks design hardware with something called raw flash and not use SD/MMC internally.

Ans : Many reasons , First code in a mobile phone runs from flash.
Here the code means the full platform code including boot loader and not just the application code which is loaded once the operating system is booted.

Loading application is relatively easy because OS and File System is up.

If you remember that before FroYo Android put this semi-artifical restriction by design that applciations can not be loaded from externally mounted file system and that is the reason that in Eclairs 2.1 the apps are running from internal filesystem.

I cited this as a big negative of Android as compared to rival platforms on another thread but Android fanboys were pooh-poohing that,

Secondly an extra controller in between means lesser battery ( most critical on mobile)

Q6: OK with all this theory but Voodoo fix is giving me nice performance ?

Ans : So install and be happy , It has removed certain features and some amount of flash from your system as well but if you are happy who is anyone to preach.
But in case your file system is going to store a data or app which is worth few K $ don't do it for reason mentioned above.
On a PC EXT2 is perfectly fine as you are supposed to unmount the partition before you pull out the USB mass storage to prevent the corruption and also generally you have a UPS for PC but on mobile , battery going off is a general scenario and application or even worse the phone binary being corrupted is something which no one can afford.

Voodoo solution in no way affects the phone binary as it is not altering the FS which platform code uses but EXT2 for application make it ( application code + data) prone to corruption. It may look small to use but a big issue to introduce this as a permanent fix.


Q7: If RFS is not really an issue what is the issue ?
Ans : Sorry I can not spell out here on this open forum nor can provide a fix or solution.

Q8: Few more questions.
Ans : Understanding FTL , MTD and file-systems in general can help answer them.

This is the best from my side I could do as it is like swimming against the tide.