WinterBoard creates significant lag in 2.1 firmware

[bhz1]

Interesting. Boss Prefs seemed to cause me major signal woes on 2.02 so i didnt install it on 2.1 I have isolated my problems to happening after installing 5 icon doc since the related mobile substrate upgrade of a few days ago.

Perhaps the fact that you installed all your apps via a script helped? I also found that my iphone worked best after the inital JB release as you did, but I figured after the official quickpwn came out, i should use that and have I been sorry. I recall having similar issues after upgrading to 2.02. Worked great after the quickpwn workaround method but when i did it the "official way" signal problems.

Think I'm going to go back one more time and do it the first way again.

Question, I'm assuming you killed the mediaserverd process via terminal since there is no sysinfo program for 2.x?

[reznor9]

I am also experiencing a pretty hefty battery drain, even though 2.1 was supposed to correct this... is this because of BossPrefs? My only real reason for using bossprefs is for the battery percentage meter, is there another app that preforms this task?

Also, since I pwnaged my way to 2.1, my GPS has not been fuctioning well at all.. 95% of the time it will not work. Is this due to a 3rd party app, or could this be related to pwnage not updating the baseband(hence the old baseband is possible conflicting with the new 2.1 firmware)?

[pj_rage]

Interesting. Boss Prefs seemed to cause me major signal woes on 2.02 so i didnt install it on 2.1 I have isolated my problems to happening after installing 5 icon doc since the related mobile substrate upgrade of a few days ago.

Perhaps the fact that you installed all your apps via a script helped? I also found that my iphone worked best after the inital JB release as you did, but I figured after the official quickpwn came out, i should use that and have I been sorry. I recall having similar issues after upgrading to 2.02. Worked great after the quickpwn workaround method but when i did it the "official way" signal problems.

Think I'm going to go back one more time and do it the first way again.

Question, I'm assuming you killed the mediaserverd process via terminal since there is no sysinfo program for 2.x?

Yeah, I was ssh'd in with putty. Just found it's id and issued "kill [ID]". I've only ever jailbroken this one phone, and only two times. Both times were "unofficial." That is, before the official windows version came out. I jailbroke the 2.0.2 using the 2.0.1 firmware after upgrading to 2.0.2, and I jailbroke 2.1 using the method I described. I never had any real issues that I could attribute to jailbreaking on 2.0.2, and definitely not this battery issue, but it's possible that I had the same app opening lag because I never compared it to non-jailbroken, and I didn't notice this JB 2.1 being any worse than JB 2.0.2 as far as app-opening lag.

I am also experiencing a pretty hefty battery drain, even though 2.1 was supposed to correct this... is this because of BossPrefs? My only real reason for using bossprefs is for the battery percentage meter, is there another app that preforms this task?

Also, since I pwnaged my way to 2.1, my GPS has not been fuctioning well at all.. 95% of the time it will not work. Is this due to a 3rd party app, or could this be related to pwnage not updating the baseband(hence the old baseband is possible conflicting with the new 2.1 firmware)?

My gps seems to be alright so far on 2.1, but I don't use it a whole lot. What's the problem here? Does it never lock on with the solid blue dot but it does give you the bigger target looking thing? Or does it not give either?

As far as your battery.. When you notice it's been draining faster, and you view your usage stats, does the "usage" number seem right? Or is it several hours higher and close to or equal to your standby number? If it seems higher, that is, seems like it's reading way more time than you would guess you've actually used the phone, then can you install top and insomnia from cydia, lock the phone, wait a minute, then ssh into the phone while it's asleep and watch top to see if the mediaserverd process is using any cpu while the phone is supposed to be sleeping? (Or any process other than top, that is).

[reznor9]

It never pinpoints unless Im using wifi... otherwise I just get the large circle like I did with the 2G...
af for the battery drain, I try to turn off push and the locator to see if that helps... the usage meter seems to say Im using my iPhone more than I can recall... I just did a clean install....
When I restore my old settings after a restore I seem to have the bossprefs battery percentage even though I didnt reinstall it... that being said, will I still have the performance drain from bossprefs even though it isnt installed?

[pj_rage]

It never pinpoints unless Im using wifi... otherwise I just get the large circle like I did with the 2G...
af for the battery drain, I try to turn off push and the locator to see if that helps... the usage meter seems to say Im using my iPhone more than I can recall... I just did a clean install....
When I restore my old settings after a restore I seem to have the bossprefs battery percentage even though I didnt reinstall it... that being said, will I still have the performance drain from bossprefs even though it isnt installed?

It sounds like when you restored you restored from a backup. That's why the battery icon is still there and stuff. You need to restore as new phone to be sure it's gone.

[reznor9]

It sounds like when you restored you restored from a backup. That's why the battery icon is still there and stuff. You need to restore as new phone to be sure it's gone.

correct, I restored from a backup. So it seems like bossprefs probably edited the iPhones preferences file to make the battery percentage meter and iTunes made a backup of that, which it restored... so Im thinking that it should be ok... there shouldnt be anything else from bossprefs within the iPhones files. Im gonna try it out like this and see if I get better performance...

On a good note, my GPS seems functional again.

[DuRo]

Which problem do you notice... sluggish app opening or reduced battery life?

Pretty much all of my apps are a little sluggish to open, but I honestly don't think they are much worse than 2.0.2 was (jailbroken). I don't remember how fast they opened on 2.0.2 without the jailbreak/winterboard, and I didn't give 2.1 very long non-jailbroken/non-winterboard, so I don't have much basis for comparison, but the amount of time doesn't bother me too much anyway.

How is winterboard causing this sluggishness anyway? I thought it is basically just a front end for replacing system files with different ones? I didn't think anything was "running in the background" so to speak. I mean, what would happen if you uninstalled winterboard and just replaced the artwork files yourself, would there still be a performance hit?

When you press the 3rd party app (not apples app) it shadows but hang a little bit before opening. Meaning the icons get stuck a little bit before opening the app. It only happens to 3rd party apps from the appstore and itunes not cydia or installer apps or the default apps . Compare both and tell me what you think.

before JBing my 2.1, I noticed the phone crashed mostly when I was listening to music while using another app. 2.1 is so much better than previous crap, especially regarding keyboard lag, since in my case I'm using 3 languages plus the Japanese "cellphone" keyboard.
Since JBing and theming my 3G, I've notice a significant, although worth it, overall lag, especially since installing the "illuminated" wallpaper (8 pics changing every 3 hours). BUT, to be honest, I'm wondering whether Cydia itself might not be the source of the lag, since I don't have SSH, haven't used Boss yet and because cydia is crashing one time out of three when I install stuff.

We all know themes with wallpapers changing every 15 min or so make the iphone sluggish, because its working in the background . What we mean its overall sluggish just by installing winterboard and regular themes

[461am]

Duro, the first thing you said about apps opening sluggishly, this happens for everything on my phone, I always notice it for safari because I click on it, nothing happens, I get frustrated, click again, all my icons start wiggling. I've been able to trace this down directly to winterboard after having a unmodified phone for nearly a week with no issues and then as soon as I jailbroke and installer winterboard, it started happening again.
My 'theory' on it is that since winterboard works through mobilesubstrate, that meaning no direct patching of any file, it is the culprit; as it forces more and more on the cpu with additional theming.

installed*

[pj_rage]

Duro, the first thing you said about apps opening sluggishly, this happens for everything on my phone, I always notice it for safari because I click on it, nothing happens, I get frustrated, click again, all my icons start wiggling. I've been able to trace this down directly to winterboard after having a unmodified phone for nearly a week with no issues and then as soon as I jailbroke and installer winterboard, it started happening again.
My 'theory' on it is that since winterboard works through mobilesubstrate, that meaning no direct patching of any file, it is the culprit; as it forces more and more on the cpu with additional theming.

installed*

Ahh, I didn't know winterboard didn't just replace files. So it is "changing" the artwork files "on the fly" ? That would explain how it can cause such a performance hit anyway.

And Duro, I didn't test everything, but I didn't notice a big difference between third party app store apps and "regular" apps. They both stayed grayed out for half a second before they load. Granted, I only have one app store app even on my springboard, everything else is categorized. The longest wait for me while loading apps is after they leave springboard, they sit at the "last screenshot" view for like a full second at least. Some apps worse than others (sms for example).

[DuRo]

pj_rage its mostly when you have install over 40 app store apps.

[461am]

Ahh, I didn't know winterboard didn't just replace files. So it is "changing" the artwork files "on the fly" ? That would explain how it can cause such a performance hit anyway.

From my understanding of it. This is how saurik explains it:

What SummerBoard really had going for it, though, was how it worked: it hooks into SpringBoard and overrides functionality down into its core. This lets it swap out icons at runtime without having to actually muck around on disk and swap out the .png files. This, in turn, makes it incredibly safe: you don't have to worry that the guy packaging the theme managed to think through backups correctly (or that the people who wrote the package mangager didn't think through package conflicts... I'm looking at you Installer...): the theme sits entirely self contained in its own folder.

With WinterBoard, I therefore wanted to bring as much power as I could for theming the device down in one simple backend tool as I possibly could, and I think I've drastically succeeded. Pretty much every form of graphic-file related theme I've so far seen (and a few other varieties we may think of) is supported by WinterBoard, all using the SummerBoard model of "the safe other folder". WinterBoard truly is the modern replacement for SummerBoard. It's also open source.

Source: http://www.saurik.com/id/9

[bhz1]

Is there any difference between downloading a theme and SSH'ing a theme to the iPhone? I ask becasue I just upgraded my son's 2G from 1.1.4 to 2.1 and hes got literally no lag. he is using the KillSign CarbonRed theme. I have a self made theme I SSH'ed into the iPhone. No html or video wallpapers, just a simple image.

FWIW, I only have 19 app store apps installed.

[461am]

well, it shouldn't make a difference since the only real difference is that the cydia theme got placed by a script and yours didn't. But I'll definitely try this with monochrome and see if my troubles go away.

[pj_rage]

I got the safe mode message on springboard last night after updating some app store apps (from the phone). Don't know why exactly, perhaps I got an update for mobilesubstrate or something related when I updated apps on cydia earlier, but either way, I definitely noticed a very big jump in performance when in "safe mode." My theme was turned off and stuff, and apps loaded like instantly. It was really a pleasure to use. I might try removing winterboard and managing the replacement of theme-related files myself to see if I can avoid the performance hit of winterboard. I guess I didn't know how drastic it was since I never compared it myself.

With regard to the battery issue I was/am having... My usage stats have been normal, they've been reading the number of minutes I have actually used the phone, HOWEVER, my mediaserverd problem is back and ran rogue all day, killing 20% of the battery while the phone was untouched, in airplane mode, in my pocket (which normally SHOULD use anywhere from 0 to 2% battery over the same period). I don't know how or why it's back, and I have no idea why now it isn't even reflecting the fact that it's running by displaying higher usage numbers. It's even more annoying now. I liked it better when the usage numbers ran wild so I could tell for sure that something was running / going wrong. Now it just kills my battery with the only indicator being a battery that's dying too fast. I guess I have to keep a constant close eye on my battery level and kill the mediaserverd process whenever I notice the battery draining unusually fast.

If I get some time this weekend, I'm going to get rid of winterboard and replace the artwork files myself and see if I can kill two birds with one stone as far as performance and battery. Now that I see how winterboard is actually working, it seems plausible that it is the battery culprit too by causing mediaserverd to run rogue.

[se23]

so can we safely say winterboard & bossprefs affect iPhone & signal? I was about to send my iPhone back to apple because signal is crazy & batt still drains fast on 2.1

[461am]

Yes and no. Winterboard has an obvious effect on the battery; but the signal thing, I highly doubt bossprefs does (or even can) do anything.

[bhz1]

For some reason winterboard inadvertently did affect signal, but I think only because of power management issues. If winterboard takes up so much cpu/battery, it possibly ends up degrading the signal.

Interestingly, a full reboot of my router and setting SSH as an "allowed application" in the router fixed the wifi/ssh issues. ive rebooted the pc my iphone, installed Cydia updates, left the house, etc... I come in and open the iphone and wifi now connects instantaneously and SSH connects.

I think the lag is more of an issue with 3G iphones becasue my son's 2G now synced with app store apps 1,000 songs and winterboard installed, seems much snappier than my 3G. He does not have categories yet nor five icon dock this iphone has been modded every which way and unlocked at one point since 1.1.3. I always thought this was a better iphone than my other 2G that was originally a 1.0.2.

mediaserverd has to do with iphones core audio. I remember on my old 2g having an issue with mediaserverd eating my battery. I found it running every time I used the ipod or played a game with sound. I had installed sysinfo (obviously not available on 2.x) and killed the process, then i learned that a respring killed teh process and installed BigBoss respring app. I got in the habit of respringing before putting the iphone to sleep after using ipod or even safari and mail as well.

Anotehr method is to fully close the application by holding the home button for 5-10 seconds until it switches back to springboard as opposed to just clicking the home button. Battery life much better.

[461am]

For some reason winterboard inadvertently did affect signal, but I think only because of power management issues. If winterboard takes up so much cpu/battery, it possibly ends up degrading the signal.

Quite possibly. It's too bad I'm not having any luck working with top, otherwise I'd try to come to a proper conclusion as to whether this happens or not.

[bhz1]

I couldnt figure out top either but ps -e in terminal will give you a list of every process running on the iphone

[Miss_Mindy]

I KNEW IT!!!!! I've been saying this for months. In an earlier thread the "cydia vs installer" i said it was cydia and it components that made my phone lag, calls drop and apps crash on a regulary basis. I was "advised" it was apples firmware that did it...yeah freakin right. Everytime I upgrade my phone and re pwn it...it runs worse and worse with each upgrade. I never had ANY of these problems with Ziphone and installer!!!! I sure wish it was available now....i'de rather have a standard ole boring phone that worked as it is suppose to than a cute little theme with my apps constantly crashing and freezing up. Guess I need to give Zibri some extra cash so he releases a working program that doesn't crash your phone. Sorry dev team but I think you as well as apple are releasing programs to fast.