RAM usage

[Leinad]

I have installed TC 2.50 in my android 2.3.3 rooted phone. Everything looks fine and is working good but one exception: each time when I'm browsing the root, the phone rapidly ran out of RAM, forcing me to exit TC (I'm using "exit" button) and to restart the phone. When I access TC, the free RAM is near 70MB and in a matter of tens of seconds becomes 0.0MB. This issue occurs only when accessing the root, otherwise, everything runs smooth.

The OS is the stock one and is a stable version, I have tried also many applications with root access and all run without this issue. I'm very fond of TC and I want to continue using it but this issue is very annoying. Can anyone give me a hint of what could be the cause of it?

[ghisler(Author)]

That's very odd, I have never heared of such a problem. Can you give me more details, please?
1. What do you mean with root, the home folder (list of drives and plugins) or the directory "/" (file system root)?
2. How did you measure the free RAM?

[Leinad]

The details are as follows:
1. File system root ( "/" ); the issue appears after browsing through random folders at this location;
2. After my phone started to choke, I've exited TC and immediately accessed "settings->applications->running services" and saw the available amount of RAM.

[Leinad]

I don't know if it matters, the phone is a Huawei U8650, it has 256MB RAM and works with the stock ROM from Comviq Sweden.

[ghisler(Author)]

1. I guess that it only happens when you browse folders where root rights are needed, e.g. under /data. TC then runs a root shell with "su" command, and sends commands to it like "return list of files/subfolders". I will check whether there is any memory leak in this function, but I'm not aware of any (the root shell is closed when no longer needed)...

[Leinad]

Yes, that's it. When I'm browsing through folders where roots rights are needed, the phone quickly runs out of RAM. I've tried also two other file managers and there were no problems but TC has a much better functionality, the interface is intuitive and the customizable button bar is simply lovely. That's why I want to stick with TC, it's the best file manager, at least from my point of view.

[ghisler(Author)]

That's very strange - I checked, TC always closes all root shells with "exit".

Btw, this "running services" page doesn't seem to exist any more on newer Android versions. Neither my Nexus 7 with stock Android nor my Samsung with Touchwiz has a "running services" page. Just "Downloaded", "Running" and "All".

Edit: Found a Cyanogenmod emulator with Android 2.3, and it has the "running services" page. However, TC is not listed on it.

Btw, TC only starts services for the following two functions:
1. The music player. It only runs while there is a player icon in the status bar.
2. When you do an operation in the background and switch to another app. TC will then show an icon for that operation in the status bar.

Sounds like TC has problems with your specific root method. Are you using SuperSU or SuperUser as the root tool?

[Leinad]

I'm using SuperSU Free v2.40.

[ghisler(Author)]

I'm very sorry but I'm not aware of any problems with SuperSU and TC. You will have to use a different file manager.

[Leinad]

Thank you for your effort! Anyway, I'll continue to use TC, maybe someone will find the fix someday (whatever it is) and it will be posted here.

Regards!

[ghisler(Author)]

You can try one more thing: delete the following file:
/data/data/com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander/lib/libtcmadmin.so

This is the admin binary. Afterwards, you need to kill and restart Total Commander. TC will then try to use system programs for admin functions.

[Leinad]

Thanks for your advice. However, the folder you have mentioned (folder path: "/data/data/
com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander/lib/") does not contain any files in it, it's completely empty. I have looked for "libtcmadmin.so" file, using TC's file search function, in the " /data/data/
com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander/" folder but I didn't find it at all.

Could be an issue that the "libtcmadmin.so" file is already missing?

[ghisler(Author)]

That's definitely not OK. Maybe it's the cause of your problems. Normally Android unpacks the libraries from the apk file when installing an app. Apparently this failed in your case. Could it be that your device is out of internal memory? Please go to the TC home folder and check the size shown under "File system root".

[Leinad]

"File system root
20.4 M / 160.6 M /"

That's what it's written...

[ghisler(Author)]

Hmm, that isn't much, but it shouldn't prevent the system from installing the libraries!

Could you try to reinstall Total Commander (without uninstalling it first)? Try using the version from our homepage:
http://www.ghisler.com/android.htm#download