How to use RescoLock

[glk56]

Wondering what programs (or types of programs) people are using the features of RescoLock for?

I'm not sure which programs should be locked by RescoLock.

Thanks

[Zano2004]

Wondering what programs (or types of programs) people are using the features of RescoLock for?

I'm not sure which programs should be locked by RescoLock.

ThanksBefore I started using RescoLock ClipPro was causing my TX to reset about half the times I started Blazer. Since I used RescoLock to lock ClipPro everything is fine. I understand that some memory stay resident apps like ClipPro have problems with T5, LD, 650 and TX Palm devices.

[rpankratz]

Ok let me see if I can make this some what simple; but not precise.

The TX/T5 use storage Flash RAM and Real RAM to store and run software.

The Flash RAM is analogous to a HardDrive.

The Real RAM is actually in the CPU.

The device will "cache" the running program in the integrated CPU RAM when it's running to make it run at a reasonable speed. This is while you see a lag the very first time you run a program after running many other programs.

The "Cache" is automanaged by the OS and many small programs will fit or just a couple of big ones.

Some palm program hack the OS to do new things. These programs are analogous to the old DOS drivers loaded in the config.sys file or TSR's if you prefer. They aren't exactly the same but close enough to make the idea clear.

The way these programs run then need to respond quickly and they must have all their data ready and at hand at known memory addresses. If they or their data get flushed from the cache they will crash when they are called to do their things; or during parts of their operation. The crashs will appear random because sometime they will be cache and sometimes they won't which means you get unpredictable failures.

These hacks can specify via their attributes that they need to be "locked" into the CPU RAM. They don't get locked in the cache; they get some of the ram that in the same space as the cache. Think of them as being side by side for simplicity. This prevents them from being flushed by the cacheing and prevents them from confusing the cache. Recent versions of programs like FindHack and Fonts4OS5 have this lock bit set and run fine on the T5/TX. Other older ones like ClipPro do not have the bit set.

This is where RescoLocker comes in. It will allow you to create the same effect as the "locked" by specifing older programs you want to lock in the cpu RAM. This in effect makes them run like Palm devices T3 and older accept that the RAM is in the CPU not a RAM Chip.

You can also lock normal programs in the CPU RAM, not just hacks and extensions. However the area is of limited size if you lock too many big programs you can cause their to be too little RAM left to load bigger programs and you infringe on the cache area. I recommend that you only lock in system extensions and let the cache do it's thing for all other programs; this is by far the safest approach and performance will be fine 99% of the time on the T5/TX.... the lifedrive is a different story...

The T5 has 6mb of CPU cache; the TX has mixed reports, mine has 6MB some people have quoted 4mb.

Last note; RecoLocker lets you see which other programs have the "L" bit set so you can see how many programs are locked. On my TX these are the self locked programs

AirSAM
AirSAMPrv
BgndService
FindHack
FitallyVirtualT3
Fonts4OS5
IIDateLib
InstantText
MIAttachLib
MMNotify
PalmVMFontLibrary
SAMgr
VeraMail (12k shim)
MMConduit-asc6

The only ones I manually lock are:
AfterSync
ClipPRO-ClpP

My Dynamic Ram is 4488 free of 6144 total
The biggest I have seen the cachfile is when using Blazer...

In this very simple configuration my TX never crashs, accept for the blazer bug on forms which I believe is a different issue all together.

While some of the tech details here might not be perfect, I hope this helps you understand what's going on.