Help Why do some home screens take forever to call your apps list?

[6StringDave]

I have been trying different home screens and car mode home apps, and the one difference between them all which really makes me go "HUH!" is the difference in time which they waste calling up your apps list when you want to place one on a screen. For example, HTC Sense brings up all 400+ of my apps instantly (and it's the only thing besides the really flashy widgets which I like about Sense). DxTop (which is kinda obsolete with that testy cube arrangement) doesn't lag so much, but popular ADW, LauncherPro, and Live Home would give me no major issues if they didn't take 1000 years (it actually can take the better part of a minute) to call up my apps. Does anyone know what would cause such a difference in lag. If I have a huge app collection, and it doesn't slow down Sense, then why should a popular home screen replacement take so long to find them all?

 

[Xyro]

I'm guessing that the cause may be that all of the 3rd party launchers are being cleared out of your phone's memory when you switch to other apps (either by android or by a 3rd party task killer).

I say that because I use launcher pro and, whilst it takes a while for the apps to load first time after booting, the rest of the time the app list is already fully populated when I view it. And my custom rom (cyanogen 7) allows you to lock your launcher app in memory so it can't be killed.

Similarly, if you're using the sense launcher on HTC Sense firmware, that will be protected from being killed by android, which is why it would appear to work better.

Minimising the ammount of apps you run at once, and disabling any task killers, might help you.

 

[6StringDave]

I'm guessing that the cause may be that all of the 3rd party launchers are being cleared out of your phone's memory when you switch to other apps (either by android or by a 3rd party task killer).

Task killers with Froyo? They don't work, so I quit trying to use them!

I say that because I use launcher pro and, whilst it takes a while for the apps to load first time after booting, the rest of the time the app list is already fully populated when I view it.

Well, they (launcher pro, adw, and live home are about the same) don't take as long to populate the list after the first run, but they still take longer than sense. I was just testing Car Home Ultra, which takes no less time to display the whole list of apps than Sense, every time you call it up, while DxTop has been somewhere in between on this. So, although I do suspect that my heavy utilization of Tasker (context-based automation and custom launchers) may be a factor, and I couldn't use a task killer if I wanted to, I'm wondering what else may be in play.

And my custom rom (cyanogen 7) allows you to lock your launcher app in memory so it can't be killed.

I've been curious about that cyanogen, and other custom roms which get mentioned here. I have rooted my phone with Unrevoked, which is also referred to as a custom rom, and I'm wondering if Cyanogen serves the same purpose, the same plus more, or whether it is something entirely different which may somehow run in tandem with the Superuser roms.

 

[Xyro]

Task killers with Froyo? They don't work, so I quit trying to use them!

That's good They aren't recommended from 2.1 onwards really. Android is designed to clear apps out of memory on it's own too, so it's not unheard of people's launcher being closed that way.

Well, they (launcher pro, adw, and live home are about the same) don't take as long to populate the list after the first run, but they still take longer than sense.

Hmm. That doesn't really fit my theory then, since it doesn't sound like they are being shut down.

I've been curious about that cyanogen, and other custom roms which get mentioned here. I have rooted my phone with Unrevoked, which is also referred to as a custom rom, and I'm wondering if Cyanogen serves the same purpose, the same plus more, or whether it is something entirely different which may somehow run in tandem with the Superuser roms.

I don't own your phone or have any experience with your selection of custom ROMs, so maybe there is a rom called unrevoked, but I would wager there isn't.

At the moment you're running the stock firmware, right? Unrevoked is just a tool, available for many different phones, that grants you root access. Once you do have root, superuser is just an app that allows you to grant/deny other apps root access (think of it as a security measure). So you're still on the stock firmware at the end of the day. That's the most basic level of rooting.

Custom roms are where you replace the firmware entirely with something a rom developer has created. They are often heavily tweaked/optimised and come in lots of different variations. For instance, you can keep HTC Sense, go for stock android or even try out MIUI (which is another UI like HTC Sense and quite popular). They all come pre-rooted too, of course.

Cyanogen is just one specific custom rom, although it's one of the oldest and most popular and is available for lots of different phones. It's based on stock gignerbread, but is pretty customisable. One tweak includes the ability to lock your launcher and SMS app in memory and stop android killing it.

 

[6StringDave]

Custom roms are where you replace the firmware entirely with something a rom developer has created. They are often heavily tweaked/optimised and come in lots of different variations. For instance, you can keep HTC Sense, go for stock android or even try out MIUI (which is another UI like HTC Sense and quite popular). They all come pre-rooted too, of course.

Pre-rooted? Does that mean that it isn't necessary to run Unrevoked first? So I could have done better for the time invested (it wasn't much, but it seemed to be such a remarkable feat when the Incredible could be rooted at all (some comments indicated it took longer than most phones), and then Unrevoked made it easy)? How difficult is it to flash cyanogen on the Incredible?

 

[Xyro]

Pre-rooted? Does that mean that it isn't necessary to run Unrevoked first? So I could have done better for the time invested (it wasn't much, but it seemed to be such a remarkable feat when the Incredible could be rooted at all (some comments indicated it took longer than most phones), and then Unrevoked made it easy. How difficult is it to flash cyanogen on the Incredible?

Unfortunately no, everyone has to root the stock firmware first before switching to custom roms. So you're already halfway there, in that respect

If you're interested in using cyanogen, or any other custom firmware, I suggest you check out the sticky in the All Things Root. You can always make a thread there if you get stuck or just want to ask some questions.

I would help but the specific methods differ even between HTC handsets, so you're best off asking incredible owners.