Root Kernels *Xyro/Slug Summoning Powers*

[The0Code]

What are kernels? What do I use them for? Do they improve battery life? Do I need one? Do they affect my battery life positively? Do I just flash them normally?

Cause pretty much everyone on the XDA forums has a kernel in the list under their sig and I never have a clue why it's so important...dont know what they even do it.....Help!!!

 

[Xyro]

Erm, well I'm not 100% what they actually are. I believe they are there to communicate between android and the hardware drivers, but don't quote me on that.

But in practical terms, they are used to over/underclock your phone (i.e. running the processor faster than normal). From the standard 580MHz we can get to about 710-760MHz (it varies for each phone), which increases speed. You can also underclock when the screen is off to save power. The effect on battery life defends on how hard you push the processor.

Your current ROM probably overclocks to some degree already, but probably not as extreme as it could. Flashing is just like flashing a ROM (you only need to do a dalvik cache wipe, not a full wipe)

P.S, You do know Slug and I charge call-out fees, right? The bill is in the post as we speak.

 

[The0Code]

Do you use a kernel?(I need recommendations) And how exactly would u access the settings? Also, underclocking when screen is off would make wake up time longer wouldnt it?

P.S: The money's in your account, go check ._.

 

[Xyro]

Everybody uses a kernel; they're a fundamental part of android. It's just the matter of which kernel that's important For example, Villain12 comes with a '19MHz to 748MHz OC kernel' already. They say that they've tweaked it for you already, but I don't know what frequencies.

I use flykernel 12, made by a guy on XDA. It's probably the most popular out there.

Underclocking too far can cause problems for some people's phones (did for mine), but flykernel seems to come with the right balance of speeds to avoid that.

 

[The0Code]

Oh, so the underclocking/overclocking is already set, I just flash it and I'll see some change in my battery life positively? Or do I get to edit it myself.(Sorry for 2 many questions lol)

 

[Xyro]

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. Essentially there are three different things that are controlling your processor, the kernel, a 'governor' and an overclocking app.

The kernel just determines which speeds are available to the processor (just think of it as a list of numbers). You can specify the minimum and maximum speeds the kernel allows whilst flashing it, but once that's done the kernel won't change.

The governor is basically there to tell the processor which speeds it should be using. If you're doing something complicated with the phone, the governor tells the processor to speed up and vies versa. The more modern governors are very good at managing this and you won't even notice them changing the speed. Flykernel comes with a governor called 'smartass', which won't let the processor go above 350MHz with the screen off, saving you power. When the screen comes back on it will immediately let the processor jump as high as necessary.

Overclocking apps, such as SetCPU, are apps that let you set your own min/max speeds and pick which governor to use. You can add rules to change the available speeds depending on whether it's plugged in, temperature and so on.

So whether you flash flykernel or stick with villain's kernel, essentially all you have to do is set your min/max in SetCPU and pick the right governor.