Free up iPhone system memory?

[bkw]

One thing you can do is install MobileTerminal and then use the ps command to see what processes are running and evaluate what is using up memory - try
ps -e -o%mem,pid,command | sort

to see which apps are using the most memory (SpringBoard is top at 16% on mine) and what is running that you don't need at the moment (mail and iPod were running on mine) and you can kill them by typing in
kill (pid)

On my iphone, SB was @ 15% so I killed the pid, which immediately re-springs the phone and turned it back on, but this time @ 30%.

Got any other tips to keep springboard in check?

[NetMage]

I wouldn't kill SpringBoard, it is like Windows Explorer (desktop shell instance) you have to live with it. However, it would be interesting to see how much less it uses when WinterBoard has no themes or is not installed.

Mainly I would try closing some of the Apple apps that hang around such as Mail or Safari. Beyond that, I think we have to hope Apple increases RAM in the next generation, or changes the firmware to undo some of the creep they put in the 2.x version trying to DRM the App store applications.

[iphoneprogrammer]

is it possible to ssh into your ipod then delete the .app files downloaded from cydia? If so, will it free up the space required for cydia to run?

[saleen392]

NetMage "Said"

"Basically Cydia now moves /Applications to /private/var and replaces the original with a link to the new location. This means everything done afterwards is done in the large user partition, and not the system partition.

Unfortunately, Cydia doesn't clean up after itself when you upgrade the firmware - so every time you upgrade and jailbreak, you end up with new copies of Applications, Fonts, etc. taking up space in /private/var."

NetMage, when you say Cydia doesnt clean up after itself.

I checked /

I see for instance a private folder, system folder, usr folder
Also see a folder within / that says var, but that folder that should look like a normal blue folder is smaller and has a little arrow on bottom left side of folder. "I would assume this is a copied folder" or "Link"

Question- Are the folders with the little arrow on bottom left side copies, or links
if its a link then user should not delete. But if it is then we can?

[marcoiac]

NetMage "Said"

Unfortunately, Cydia doesn't clean up after itself when you upgrade the firmware - so every time you upgrade and jailbreak, you end up with new copies of Applications, Fonts, etc. taking up space in /private/var."

I am not sure about this. I made a custom firmware with 590 Mb in root partition for 2.1. After that, I upgraded a couple of times with QuickPwn and my free disk space in the root partition is always the same. If Cydia does not clean up, I should see progressively less disk free space in my root partition, shouldn't I? And it's still the same 130 Mb (which means my root partition is an overkill, but that's another story....)

EDIT: after re-reading carefully the previous posts, I realized the issue is not about root partition. So, just scratch what I say above

[ares07]

The iPhone's RAM is quite limited

128mb total RAM...same as all top Nokia Symbian devices...however, Symbian devices can run 20 or more 3rd party apps at the same time...they have something like 80-90mb of free RAM after boot...compare with the iphone - starts around 50mb, quickly jumps to around 30mb

so...RAM is not limited, problem is other...

[BitchI'llKillYa]

any way to do this on 3.0 or higher?