@JustArchi optimized HK LP Android release (based off v1.4)

by **ne0zone75** » Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:41 pm

@JustArchi optimized HK LP Android release (updated 2016-05-09)

I've built HK LP for C2 along with serious ROM build optimizations by @JustArchi and it works really well !

I do not have an eMMC module yet so i am using microSD which is a performance bottleneck. Anyway, i have already better overall performance with this build over regular one.

If you do have a C2 and an eMMC module and are interested in checking my build out, then you should really see a performance boost. With my microSD, AnTuTu gives me almost a 36K score at best. ROM is also smooth and snappy !

You will find detailed explanations on these optimizations @xda forum : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=2754997

Sources :
-> https://github.com/hardkernel/android/t ... 1.1_master <= HK LP sources.
-> https://github.com/ArchiDroid/android_b ... af6979772c <= @JustArchi ArchiDroid Optimizations V4.1

Notes :
-> u-boot + kernel are built according to HK guidelines (Linaro GCC v4.9 toolchains).
-> 3 editions : ROM is compiled with Linaro (*-LE-*.*) or SaberMod (*-SE-*.*) or UBER (*-UE-*.*) GCC v4.9 Android TCs : graphite is disabled in LE but is enabled in SE and UE.
-> Superuser is embedded BUT it can be easily replaced by SuperSU and disabled afterwards...
-> Linaro edition : smoothness !
-> SaberMod edition : snappiness !
-> UBER edition : more or less both !

Credits :
-> HK team
-> Linaro team
-> @JustArchi (build optimizations) + @sparksco (SaberMod) + @Cl3Kener (UBER) xda forum members.

Downloads :
SELFINSTALLERS
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138270 <= LE
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138273 <= SE
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138271 <= UE

UPDATERS
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138272 <= LE
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138275 <= SE
-> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24533103863138278 <= UE

Installation :
SELFINSTALLERS : no requirements
-> Windows : proceed with HK Disk Imager for ODROID as usual and when selecting the source file, change 'file type' from '*.img' to '*.*', you will be then able to open my '.bin' selfinstaller of your choice as source file. Continue the process as usual by clicking on 'write' button and once done with 'verify' one.
-> Linux : my '.bin' selfinstallers are created with the 'dd' command, which can also be used to flash them to your microSD / eMMC. The following shell command example can be used to do so : 'sudo dd if=<myinstaller.bin> of=</dev/sd'*'> bs=1M conv=fsync' + 'sync' afterwards. Of course, you will have to properly set <myinstaller.bin> and </dev/sd'*'> to suit your needs.

UPDATERS : requires a target running ROM to update / upgrade
-> Extract the two files ('update-signed.zip' + 'update-signed.zip.md5') inside my '*.7z' archive of your choice and copy them to your microSD / eMMC (through MTP for example...)
-> Open up HK 'ODROID Utility' APP and click on 'package install from storage' from its upper right menu, then select my 'update-signed.zip' file with your favorite file explorer APP. Finally click on 'proceed' : your device will reboot twice and your current ROM will be updated (if you are already running one of my builds) or upgraded (if you are running any official HK LP build) to the corresponding edition.
-> It is not mandatory to back up your data before updating / upgrading but it is strongly recommended !
-> The only ROM components that are overwritten when updating / upgrading your current ROM are 'u-boot', 'kernel', 'device tree' and 'rootsystem'.
-> Once your system is updated / upgraded you will have to : reinstall GAPPs and SuperSU if you were previously using any of them... you will have to set any Google account again too.

If you decide to try this build out, please report back for any negative of positive feedback !

Thanks,

Happy flashing !

by **montaigne** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:14 am

Thank you for your hard work!.

We have a plan to release v1.2 in the middle of next week.
The issue of HDMI/USB audio volume control will be fixed.

A new release is coming in the next few days which fixes a large problem (at least for me) with the volume/HDMI issue. I have downloaded your build and will try it tomorrow, however after v1.2 is released this week it wont be usable for me. I am sure others may be affected as well. Any plans to build this off the v1.2 release as well?

Thanks,
Tom

by **ne0zone75** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:41 am

Thanks

!

My builds (KK for C1 and LP for C2) are quite new so it's difficult to know if there will be any audience for them yet. If it is the case, i have already planned to offer updates for every new official HK release because it is not a too time consuming task for me now

.

Regards

by **nspader** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 2:11 am

any chance you would build in Kodi and Gapps to this as well? I would be extremely interested if that were the case...not that I am not already

by **ne0zone75** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 2:30 am

Like it is the case for any official HK Android release, Kodi is embedded into my KK and LP installers (16.0 ATM) and GAPPs are not and will never be because they are proprietary.

Thank you for your understanding

by **odroid** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 9:20 am

Nice optimization! I love the aggressive "gcc -o3" optimization on Android.
Its spirit seems to be similar to the Arch/Gentoo Linux.

by **ne0zone75** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:48 pm

I've just added a SaberMod edition download link in opening post and refreshed OP. Now there are two editions : SaberMod (which is my favorite Android TC but i was having build errors with it until now) => it provides best system responsiveness + UBER edition (which was my initial release) => it provides best raw performance.

My advice is to use SaberMod edition for general use (mediacenter, etc...) and UBER one only in case you need strong power (games, etc...).

Have a nice day !

by **LiquidAcid** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 7:17 pm

odroid wrote:Nice optimization! I love the aggressive "gcc -o3" optimization on Android.
Its spirit seems to be similar to the Arch/Gentoo Linux.

A common misconception, since Gentoo actually discourages the use of -O3.

by **xblackdemonx** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 8:59 pm

I love this! I'm not sure which one I want though but every optimization counts!
If we install your modded rom, is there any way we will be able to update without erasing everything when a new version will be out?

by **ne0zone75** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 9:40 pm

LiquidAcid wrote:
odroid wrote:Nice optimization! I love the aggressive "gcc -o3" optimization on Android.
Its spirit seems to be similar to the Arch/Gentoo Linux.

A common misconception, since Gentoo actually discourages the use of -O3.

At least and AFAIK it is very popular in Android custom ROMs / kernels world

xblackdemonx wrote:I love this! I'm not sure which one I want though but every optimization counts!
If we install your modded rom, is there any way we will be able to update without erasing everything when a new version will be out?

Of course yes ! Once installed, my ROMs can be updated by using the 'update.zip' archive which is created during every new compilation process like it is the case for official HK releases. AFAIK, this file has to be copied to the root of '/cache' partition and when it's done, the ROM will update itself automatically during next boot. I will offer such update packages for every new release. My upcoming releases will contain two files per edition : an installer + an update package. I think that i will keep only SaberMod edition, unless poll results show that users would like to keep UBER edition too...

Regards

by **LiquidAcid** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:09 pm

ne0zone75 wrote:
LiquidAcid wrote:
odroid wrote:Nice optimization! I love the aggressive "gcc -o3" optimization on Android.
Its spirit seems to be similar to the Arch/Gentoo Linux.

A common misconception, since Gentoo actually discourages the use of -O3.

At least and AFAIK it is very popular in Android custom ROMs / kernels world

Android is not Gentoo, so I don't see your point here.

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:30 am

I was just liking to say that if these optimimizations are not commonly used on some platforms, it is not the case for Android

That is simply it.

Regards

by **mi7chy** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:39 am

Thanks for this. Any way you can post RAR benchmark and DroidFish (configured for 4 threads) analysis mode nps results to compare real world differences? With stock Android I get about 880 KB/s with RAR and 760k nps with DroidFish.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rarlab.rar

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.petero.droidfish

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:50 am

I will give a look at it ASAP

.

EDIT 1 : from which menu am i able to set the thread count in DroidFish ?

EDIT 2 : you will find requested screenshots below... do not forget that i am using microSD as storage...

by **mi7chy** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 6:03 am

ne0zone75 wrote:EDIT 1 : from which menu am i able to set the thread count in DroidFish ?

Based on score it looks like it's already using all cores. To access threads setting, drag in from left edge of screen > Manage Chess Engines > set options. CPU performance doesn't seem too different. Perhaps see if optimizations help GPU performance with something like Epic Citadel game engine benchmark which got around 43 fps on the higher graphics setting on stock Android if I recall correctly.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epicgames.EpicCitadel

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 10:21 am

That's a nice 3D benchmarking tool, you will find my results below.

Are you using microSD or eMMC as storage ? Can you post your AnTuTu score ?

Regards

by **mi7chy** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:11 pm

Antutu v6.1.2 and 3D v6.0.4 1st run on stock CPU performance setting and Samsung EVO+ 64GB micro SD. I paused inbetween tests otherwise repeated back to back runs may cause the scores to fluctuate from throttling.

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 6:30 pm

Maybe you should try to install one of my builds in order to see the difference with your stock results which are close to mines but slightly better while i'm running my SaberMod ROM !

Anyway, between stock and any of my builds, my C2 AnTuTu result jumped from 31K to around 35K. And as usual with @JustArchi optimizations applied, the system is more responsive and ROM is running more smoothly than stock.

Does anybody have some feedback about my builds ?!

All the best

PS : FYI v1.2 is close because GitHub has just been massively updated

! Also, i will try to build kernel with -O3 + graphite + LTO

!

EDIT : i've just built successfully C2 Android kernel with just above mentioned optimizations

! Now i have just to check out if it is booting or not

...

by **xblackdemonx** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:02 am

You da man!!

by **ne0zone75** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:31 am

ne0zone75 wrote:
xblackdemonx wrote:I love this! I'm not sure which one I want though but every optimization counts!
If we install your modded rom, is there any way we will be able to update without erasing everything when a new version will be out?

Of course yes ! Once installed, my ROMs can be updated by using the 'update.zip' archive which is created during every new compilation process like it is the case for official HK releases. AFAIK, this file has to be copied to the root of '/cache' partition and when it's done, the ROM will update itself automatically during next boot. I will offer such update packages for every new release. My upcoming releases will contain two files per edition : an installer + an update package...

Well i've spoken a little bit too fast ! I've not found a way to use the 'update.zip' archive yet... once copied to the root of '/cache' partition, i've issued a 'reboot update' from an 'adb' shell but my C2 rebooted to 'system' without performing any update !

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated...

Optimized kernels (1 compiled with SaberMod and the other with UBER ARM64 kernel toolchains) featuring -O3 + graphite + LTO are built and are working quite well... internal tests are running ATM !

Updated installers based off v1.2 are built too and are currently uploading to AFH servers...

Since 'update.zip' is not usable for me yet, i'm using Titanium Backup to backup / restore my data... at least i tried to use it because nothing happens when restoring any backed up APP (but restoring APP data is working...) and IMO it is related to the HK 'su' binary because previously i was using CM 'su' binary and TB was working fine... does anybody has any issue with official HK 'su' binary or 'Superuser' APP ?

Stay tuned

EDIT : updated installers are available from OP

by **xblackdemonx** » Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:09 am

Yes, Titanium Backup doesn't seem to work. Stuck at 0%

by **montaigne** » Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:41 pm

Going to give SE v1.2 a try this weekend. Thanks for the quick release.. and of course the hard work.

by **rooted** » Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:58 pm

ne0zone75 wrote:That's a nice 3D benchmarking tool, you will find my results below.

Are you using microSD or eMMC as storage ? Can you post your AnTuTu score ?

Regards

Antutu benchmark is just for fun, it would be better to use something like vellamo.

by **xblackdemonx** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 5:13 am

I tested yesterday with 1.1 stock and 1.2 UBER with Antutu
Stock 1.1
#1 30317
#2 31521
UBER 1.2
#1 34611
#2 35137

by **ne0zone75** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 6:24 am

IMO and regardless to the benchmarking tool, it is very hard to quantify all of the effects of such build optimizations as those of @JustArchi on the final product...

Anyway, benchmarking scores are (almost) always better than stock...

BTW, i don't think that i will release any optimized kernel ! They are stable but without any advantage over regular one...

by **rooted** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 7:36 am

Vellamo is more real world, Antutu is to see who's wang is bigger

I know JustArchi, I'm fivefour on XDA.

Did you try integrating frandom in the kernel?

by **xblackdemonx** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:14 pm

ne0zone75 wrote:BTW, i don't think that i will release any optimized kernel ! They are stable but without any advantage over regular one...

Overclocking?

by **rooted** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:04 am

xblackdemonx wrote:
ne0zone75 wrote:BTW, i don't think that i will release any optimized kernel ! They are stable but without any advantage over regular one...

Overclocking?

Impossible to overclock currently, he is basically forcing an O3 instead of what's specified in the kernel make file.

It is generally not a good idea, you may or may not run into issues. Also very few things in userspace will benefit, the stability risk isn't worth it.

This is a basic description.

Code: Select all: -O turns on the following optimization flags: -fauto-inc-dec -fbranch-count-reg -fcombine-stack-adjustments -fcompare-elim -fcprop-registers -fdce -fdefer-pop -fdelayed-branch -fdse -fforward-propagate -fguess-branch-probability -fif-conversion2 -fif-conversion -finline-functions-called-once -fipa-pure-const -fipa-profile -fipa-reference -fmerge-constants -fmove-loop-invariants -freorder-blocks -fshrink-wrap -fsplit-wide-types -fssa-backprop -fssa-phiopt -ftree-bit-ccp -ftree-ccp -ftree-ch -ftree-coalesce-vars -ftree-copy-prop -ftree-dce -ftree-dominator-opts -ftree-dse -ftree-forwprop -ftree-fre -ftree-phiprop -ftree-sink -ftree-slsr -ftree-sra -ftree-pta -ftree-ter -funit-at-a-time -O also turns on -fomit-frame-pointer on machines where doing so does not interfere with debugging. -O2Optimize even more. GCC performs nearly all supported optimizations that do not involve a space-speed tradeoff. As compared to -O, this option increases both compilation time and the performance of the generated code. -O2 turns on all optimization flags specified by -O. It also turns on the following optimization flags: -fthread-jumps -falign-functions -falign-jumps -falign-loops -falign-labels -fcaller-saves -fcrossjumping -fcse-follow-jumps -fcse-skip-blocks -fdelete-null-pointer-checks -fdevirtualize -fdevirtualize-speculatively -fexpensive-optimizations -fgcse -fgcse-lm -fhoist-adjacent-loads -finline-small-functions -findirect-inlining -fipa-cp -fipa-cp-alignment -fipa-sra -fipa-icf -fisolate-erroneous-paths-dereference -flra-remat -foptimize-sibling-calls -foptimize-strlen -fpartial-inlining -fpeephole2 -freorder-blocks-algorithm=stc -freorder-blocks-and-partition -freorder-functions -frerun-cse-after-loop -fsched-interblock -fsched-spec -fschedule-insns -fschedule-insns2 -fstrict-aliasing -fstrict-overflow -ftree-builtin-call-dce -ftree-switch-conversion -ftree-tail-merge -ftree-pre -ftree-vrp -fipa-ra Please note the warning under -fgcse about invoking -O2 on programs that use computed gotos. -O3 Optimize yet more. -O3 turns on all optimizations specified by -O2 and also turns on the -finline-functions, -funswitch-loops, -fpredictive-commoning, -fgcse-after-reload, -ftree-loop-vectorize, -ftree-loop-distribute-patterns, -fsplit-paths -ftree-slp-vectorize,-fvect-cost-model, -ftree-partial-pre and -fipa-cp-clone options.

by **rooted** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:05 am

Android can benefit from optimization though.

by **ne0zone75** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:58 am

xblackdemonx wrote:Overclocking?

I bet that HK team will offer such feature for the C2 one day like they did for the C1...

rooted wrote:Impossible to overclock currently, he is basically forcing an O3 instead of what's specified in the kernel make file.

It is generally not a good idea, you may or may not run into issues. Also very few things in userspace will benefit, the stability risk isn't worth it.

Yes ! I modified C1 and C2 kernel make file in order to build it with '-O3'; i added an option for it to build with 'graphite' optimizations or not and did the same for 'link time' optimizations...

During my internal tests, i have not encountered any stability issue with these custom kernels, neither for C1, nor for C2... but like you said it could have happened !

Anyway, i have not found any objective reason to continue to use them because regular C1 or C2 kernel is working as fine as them or better... i was just curious about it !

rooted wrote:Android can benefit from optimization though.

True !

BTW, IDK if Kodi is pre-installed as usual in official HK LP release v1.2 but it is not the case for my latest builds because ATM i build them, a commit was preventing Kodi binary from being properly installed ! Sorry about that ! It will be fixed in upcomming releases...

Also, i will add update packages soon : each package will consist in one update.zip file + one update.zip.md5 file and you will be able to use them from the 'ODROID Utility' APP wirh its 'update from storage' menu option. There will be one package for SE + one for UE.

@HK team : can you help me about fixing the '/system RW mounting' issue ?! It is really a bad issue because like i already said it prevents any APP from doing so, even if it has been root granted ! Among many other root APPs, SuperSU is impacted and embedded 'su' is not working well with Titanium Backup for example...

Best regards

by **xblackdemonx** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 3:03 am

That would be so nice if SuperSu could be incorporated instead of Superuser. It's such a pain in the butt!

by **ne0zone75** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:36 pm

Good afternoon,

If anyone is interested, i'm about to release my update packages. They install well but i did notice that if you upgrade an official HK release with them, then upgraded system will perform a little bit slower than if you flashed a complete selfinstall image of mine.

BTW i also built a Linaro edition (everything is compiled using this toolchain in this one; graphite is disabled in it...) which is giving me almost 36K with AnTuTu. I could release it too if there is some of you interested in it...

Regards

by **xblackdemonx** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:50 pm

ne0zone75 wrote:Good afternoon,

If anyone is interested, i'm about to release my update packages. They install well but i did notice that if you upgrade an official HK release with them, then upgraded system will perform a little bit slower than if you flashed a complete selfinstall image of mine.

BTW i also built a Linaro edition (everything is compiled using this toolchain in this one; graphite is disabled in it...) which is giving me almost 36K with AnTuTu. I could release it too if there is some of you interested in it...

Regards

Will we be able to update to your future OS without wiping everything?

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:33 am

xblackdemonx wrote:Will we be able to update to your future OS without wiping everything?

By using my upcoming update packages : yes

!

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 5:52 am

Opening post has just been updated !

LE selfinstaller is currently uploading... ALL update packages are now ready for download.

by **xblackdemonx** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 8:32 pm

ne0zone75 wrote:
xblackdemonx wrote:Will we be able to update to your future OS without wiping everything?

By using my upcoming update packages : yes !

Awesome! and if I installed the UBER edition and I use the Linaro edition over it without wiping?

by **ne0zone75** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:23 pm

xblackdemonx wrote:Awesome! and if I installed the UBER edition and I use the Linaro edition over it without wiping?

No problem at all : after having updated your current ROM with LE update package, it will then be like if you flashed LE selfinstaller instead UBER one

by **streetboy** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:19 pm

This optimization looks quite aggressive. I will try it in this weekend.

by **arethosereal** » Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:04 am

Installed uber on my C2/emmc with SPMC. Everything is smooth and snappy, as promised. Fantastic work. I appreciate the time you took for this. I'm only using the C2 for Kodi, so I can only see the same limitations as the HK release, like the DTS problem. So far, so good. Thank you.

By the way, I was looking for a way to control android to android when out of Kodi/Yatse, and found an app called RemoDroid. It's a little quirky, but it eliminates the need for a bluetooth mouse/keyboard. I just make sure to close it when Kodi opens, as it uses a lot of CPU resources.

by **RTurala** » Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:16 pm

I'm testing Uber Edition and almost everything works better, almost... because I don't get better results in 3D tests. It looks like in this edition (or in all 1.2) there is more aggressive thermal throttling than in 1.1. Has anyone have information about that?

My Odroid lies just behind TV, so it doesn't have good airflow.

OT:
I would like to test all of the Android images - right now I'm finishing with LE.

UPDATE 1:
First results on my blog: http://turala.com/2016/04/09/odroid-c2- ... omparison/

UPDATE 2:
My Odroid is overheating, so not all results are as good as they should :/

by **ne0zone75** » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:13 am

RTurala wrote:I'm testing Uber Edition and almost everything works better, almost... because I don't get better results in 3D tests. It looks like in this edition (or in all 1.2) there is more aggressive thermal throttling than in 1.1. Has anyone have information about that?

My Odroid lies just behind TV, so it doesn't have good airflow.

OT:
I would like to test all of the Android images - right now I'm finishing with LE.

UPDATE 1:
First results on my blog: http://turala.com/2016/04/09/odroid-c2- ... omparison/

UPDATE 2:
My Odroid is overheating, so not all results are as good as they should :/

Thank you for taking time to review each edition and for publishing your results as a handy comparative table.

I'm sure that your blog article will be a helpful reading for everyone who is interested in running Android on a HK C2.

Like you, i was wondering about poor 3D results of my builds... thanks for pointing out that it is maybe caused by thermal throttling...

Regards

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

by **RTurala** » Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:37 pm

I've done all tests.

by **ne0zone75** » Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:28 pm

RTurala wrote:I've done all tests.

Great !

Thanks again for your work

.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

by **toc** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:44 pm

I tried the selfinstall Uber edition, Couldn't see a filemanger in the installation ?
Without an additional PC & ADB/Push how can you install anything ? (obviously with no playstore)

by **endera** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:07 pm

32gb eMMC & 32gb Lexar Micro SD 1000X Class 10 ( (150MB/s) )
which one??

by **ne0zone75** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:17 pm

toc wrote:I tried the selfinstall Uber edition, Couldn't see a filemanger in the installation ?
Without an additional PC & ADB/Push how can you install anything ? (obviously with no playstore)

Yes, you are right ! I will add one in upcoming releases...

I will add a terminal APP too...

Thank you for your understanding and your patience

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

by **toc** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:11 pm

endera wrote:32gb eMMC & 32gb Lexar Micro SD 1000X Class 10 ( (150MB/s) )
which one??

Apart from benchmark numbers!! which do nothing, I've never been overly impressed with the speed difference of cheap microSD vs emmc in real world usage.

by **xblackdemonx** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 1:17 am

1.3 official image is out!

by **ne0zone75** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:02 am

xblackdemonx wrote:1.3 official image is out!

Thanks for the info.

. It is a good opportunity to add file explorer and terminal APPs in upcoming builds

.

Stay tuned

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

by **xblackdemonx** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:43 am

Haaaa yes! thanks Ne0zone75, that will help A LOT! thank you

Do you want me to keep ALL optimized editions or do you prefer only one over the others ?