Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Pixel customers have been reporting persistent show stuttering points, particularly when scrolling by way of apps.
- An Android kernel developer traced the problem to a unsuitable operate in Tensor’s exynos_bts driver code, inflicting bandwidth administration issues on Pixel gadgets.
- He has advised a repair that might resolve the issue, however Google must take discover.
Pixel customers have lengthy complained about show stuttering when scrolling by way of apps. This concern has been gathering mud in Google’s Situation Tracker for some time now. Whereas the corporate has acknowledged the issue, it has but to launch a repair. It retains marking complaints on the Situation Tracker as duplicates and shutting them out whereas additionally recommending customers check out newer Android builds. Nonetheless, the issue persists, with of us noticing it extra on the Android 16 Developer Preview and beta 1 builds.
Now, it seems like a developer has solved the thriller of why stuttering points plague Pixel telephones within the first place.
In keeping with Sultan Alsawaf, a identified Android kernel developer, the issue lies with bandwidth administration on Pixel telephones (through Piunikaweb).
You possibly can see his technical rationalization within the screenshot under, however to grasp it higher, think about your Pixel as a busy workplace the place many staff (apps and processes) have to share restricted desk area (the cellphone’s sources, like bandwidth). If the employees don’t take turns sharing the area or speaking correctly, issues can get messy, and work can decelerate. On this case, the “staff” are totally different components of the cellphone’s system making an attempt to make use of bandwidth.
Now, the developer has discovered that the workplace administrator (the system) is inflicting issues as a result of it wasn’t correctly organizing who will get to make use of the desk area (the bandwidth) and when.
Particularly, there’s part of the system that was utilizing the unsuitable “lock” or “turn-taking rule.” As an alternative of utilizing the correct of lock (mutex_lock) that ensures just one employee makes use of the desk area at a time, it was utilizing a much less strict lock (btsdev->lock) that didn’t cease the employees from all working on the similar time and inflicting chaos.
The developer says due to this, Pixel telephones can’t correctly calculate how a lot bandwidth every app wants, making the system stutter and lag when scrolling or utilizing apps.
His repair entails giving everybody a transparent schedule for utilizing the bandwidth and making certain just one employee is utilizing the desk area at a time. The developer additionally fastened one other concern with the system not calculating the bandwidth correctly.
He has submitted his advised code adjustments to Google. He has additionally carried out the repair and launched a patch for Pixel 8 customers in his customized kernel. Nonetheless, flashing customized kernels will be dangerous and will find yourself wiping your knowledge or, worse, bricking your machine. So, primarily, it’s as much as Google to implement the repair with a software program replace for all customers. We hope the corporate takes discover of the repair advised by the developer and assessments to see if it resolves the issue.
