Root Can LagFix be installed?

[RBEmerson]

After doing all of the usual things to speed up my RAZR MAXX, and still not being happy about seeing things drift back into "skating in sand" speeds, I looked for alternatives. On strong contender is an app called LagFix.

The idea is to clean up memory garbage collection and keep the OS from wasting time doing this collection on the fly. From what I've read, this should help the RAZR MAXX. There is, however, a gotcha. Installed on some phones, it's known to brick them. The big question is whether or not LagFix is compatible with the RAZR MAXX (XT912)? I asked the author and he said he doesn't know whether it works or kills the RAZR MAXX. So far I've found, on this forum, one person who installed it successfully. Searching on LagFix turned up only that post.

Has anyone successfully installed LagFix on a RAZR MAXX, rooted and using the stock VZW ROM with Android V 4.1.2?

 

[Rukbat]

Evidently a Windows programmer had an idea for an app for Android - but doesn't understand how Android works. Windows keeps memory free, because the more free RAM, the better. In Android, free RAM is wasted RAM, so Android keeps it as full as possible. Killing apps actually slows the phone down, when it has to reload an app that was killed. (Garbage collection actually refers to an app reducing a variable that's no longer needed, but still exists, to its smallest size. IOW, a 200 character string is reduced to 1 character after it's been used if the programmer forgot to destroy it.) When Android needs more RAM, it kills the most last recently used app that it thinks the user won't need and uses that space. (The app is force killed - that takes almost no time.) I don't think anyone has yet come up with a better memory manager than the one that's already part of Android.

Read Multitasking the Android Way

The secrets to getting the maximum speed possible on Android are not running background apps you don't need (get an app that lets you set which apps run on boot - you want things like email and text to be running, but a lot of things that get loaded aren't really needed until/unless you want them) and having enough RAM to run the apps you need to run (IOW, if the phone doesn't have enough RAM, get one that does - and this does mean that we have to get new Android phones every 2 or 3 years if we want to be running the latest apps - developers seldom write apps aimed at 3 year old or older phones, they write apps aimed at current ones).

 

[RBEmerson]

If Android follows the Linux memory model, then I'm not so sure I agree with the notion that, in effect, the OS expands to use the memory available. That is, with far less memory than is in my MAXX, it's not uncommon to see Linux leave an appreciable amount of unused RAM.

That being said, I do consider the background apps to be a veritable plague. Many apps don't have much to say but use far too many cycles, and too much RAM and bandwidth saying it.

All of that being said, it appears the LagFix can be useful. Why it seems to work in some cases and not as well in others may well be tied to the design of the device. After all, the BrickBug seems to be tied to machine design. It stands to reason, IMHO, that LagFix does or doesn't work for the same reason: machine design.

 

[imcomininhot]

I don't know if this will help, but I have an old razr running jB still, but I dropped it face first with a cheap case and the LCD screen cracked. I can still plug into an hdmi to micro USB to view it's OS... Perhaps I can upload this lagfix to see if it bricks it.
(I never wanted to pay 125$ to have it fixed and replaced it instead.)
But after reading what the app does, in not sure functional the app is, due to different usage patterns and such

 

[RBEmerson]

While I'm sure I'm being a little casual with your beat up phone (it's your phone, use how you will)... "The only dumb question is the one not asked." So ask "what happens when I install LagFix?" At worst, your already fading phone is bricked (oops - sorry 'bout that), at best we find out whether or not LagFix does anything good for the MAXX. [/grin]

 

[imcomininhot]

while i'm sure i'm being a little casual with your beat up phone (it's your phone, use how you will)... "the only dumb question is the one not asked." so ask "what happens when i install lagfix?" at worst, your already fading phone is bricked (oops - sorry 'bout that), at best we find out whether or not lagfix does anything good for the maxx. [/grin]

blasphame!

 

[imcomininhot]

just kidding. No, actually that's why I asked the very question in an earlier forum that if by learning CM, it'd be still applicable to another phone, say the s4 or s5. I never got an answer but I'm assuming that I need to catch up with some reading - that oughta tell me if CM is a fading root due to a "fading" phone. I mean, I should start a cult and try to resurrect the evo, no?

 

[RBEmerson]

Um, my project horizon is a little closer: Does LagFix improve things, make no difference, or brick the phone?

The most I can contribute, at the moment, to the discussion is I haven't found an instance of a report of a RAZR MAXX being bricked while using LagFix. After that... [/shrug] it's a mystery.

FWIW, at the moment, I'm in Germany, trying to read the live ticker account of Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid (Champions League soccer). The phone is back to skating in sand despite re-building the swap partition in addition to all the usual tricks. Given BVB (Dortmund) is showing signs of delivering the impossible (down 0-3 in aggregate points at the start, they just may reach parity at 3-3 or better) and the phone refuses to tell me what's happening. ARGHHHHH!!!