launching programs from SD card

[Kim Kornhaus]

I have a 2GB Sandisk UltraII SD card that I run several large programs from. One of these I have set up to launch from one of the 4 on-screen icons (that show up next to the graffiti area). The other I have in my Applications list.

One thing I can't figure out--sometimes when I need to access one of these programs, it's there and running almost as soon as I tap the icon. Other times, there is up to a 30 second wait (I assume it's loading something into onboard memory). And this is not just when the power has automatically shut down and I power it back up. I can be in one of those programs, switch to another one or two (or sometimes even go days without using the given program on the SD card) and then come back to launch it again and sometimes it loads blazingly fast, other times it takes up to 30 seconds.

Does anyone know why this occurs?

[Josser]

http://www.resco.net/palm/explorer/NVFS.htm

When it loads fast, it is already in DbChache from the last time it ran. When it loads slow, it was gone from DbChache and needed to be copied in again.

[hk3ctj]

Only 30 seconds?
Very lucky...
Documents To Go takes more than 1 or 2 MINUTES sometimes... To load itself and worst when loading large spreadsheet... :(
There are some alternatives to deal with those delays with specialized software but perhaps for advanced users...
Meanwhile perhaps your best solution is Soft Reset periodically...

[viharsheth]

Newbie here. How do I actually launch software from the card. I've installed the EUaudio.prc in my Palm/Launcher folder on the card but it doesn't seem to have taken effect. Thoughts?

[cyberdude]

Newbie here. How do I actually launch software from the card.
Are you using the launcher that came with the device? If so just choose the card category and the application in your launcher directory on your card will appear. Tap on the one you wish to launch.

Alternatively, you can use a third party launcher like LauncherX or ZLauncher, either of which can launch apps from anywhere on the card. Another option I know of is to use PowerRun to put apps that are in RAM onto the card into the Palm\program\powerrun\<appname> directory. PR leaves a stub or shortcut pointing to the app in RAM so you can launch the app (in my opinion this is by far the easiest solution, if you don't want to do much in the way of configuring a launcher or fiddling with the bundle bit attribute - which is what PR does automatically).

[Josser]

EUaudio.prc is a hack, i.e. it must hook into the system to replace a system function. All system extentions, hacks, anything that needs to Hotsync, anything you want as a button, etc. must be in "RAM".

[Kdrude]

The program Zlink at http://www.zztechs.com/product.php?prod=ZLink
is an easy way to create links to launch programs on your SD card.