GrapheneOS – When an app is slow

(blog.wirelessmoves.com)

65 points | by speckx 3 hours ago

6 comments

  • negative_zero 2 hours ago
    Odd. Google Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS here. OsmAnd works perfectly fine for me without disabling any exploit protection options.
    • BlackRabbit1 1 hour ago
      CoMaps behaves very very weirdly on GrapheneOS. Same with OrganicMaps.

      Osmand and GMaps are working fine.

      Waze is almost melting the poor thing. Beside of that working fine.

      • subscribed 5 minutes ago
        Osmand and OrganicMaps work flawlessly for me. Waze on 6 (not pro), works better than on my 9 Pro.
      • broodbucket 1 hour ago
        Waze works perfectly fine for me
        • DuncanCoffee 55 minutes ago
          Anyone writing about apps compatibility should specify if it's with or without the play services
      • ThePowerOfFuet 1 hour ago
        I use Comaps daily on GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro and it works great.
  • Groxx 1 hour ago
    Huh. Yeah, it is noticeably faster on my 9a with that disabled. I wonder what they're doing differently...
  • hadi77ir 1 hour ago
    I wonder if a website using leaflet.js has better or worse performance in the said case. If it does better, then maybe the problem is on OsmAnd's side?
  • RKearney 17 minutes ago
    "Before installing, please turn off all anti-virus and firewall software."
  • pjmlp 2 hours ago
    Maybe the actual solution is to improve, replace the application.
    • izacus 2 hours ago
      Or maybe there's a reason why the mainline Android OEMs don't ship that allocator by default.
      • Groxx 1 hour ago
        The fairly obvious answer here is "OEMs don't care about security because very few people will pay for it, either with $ or time". Benchmaxxing sells better.
        • izacus 1 hour ago
          That's trivially provable as false.
          • nvme0n1p1 1 hour ago
            If so, I'd love to know which OEM you're thinking of who ships an Android distro more secure than GrapheneOS.
            • izacus 58 minutes ago
              Let's first start with y'all providing any proof that it was "benchmaxxing" that causes OEMs not to ship hardened allocators (and not - for example - breaking compatibility with users' software).

              And then we can move the goalposts to "more secure distro with GrapheneOS" which isn't part of the conversation until you dragged it out.

              • nvme0n1p1 6 minutes ago
                If you're expecting some leaked internal document that says "priorities: 1. benchmarks, 2. security", no, that probably doesn't exist. But their priorities are revealed by their actions.

                GrapheneOS typically ships security updates within a day. But most of Samsung's phones get quarterly security updates[1]. There will never be a primary source with a Samsung insider saying "we're fine with our customers being vulnerable to widely exploited security bugs for the next 89 days, in order to save our massive corporation a few thousand dollars a month." But their priorities are revealed by their actions.

                If the statement "OEMs don't care about security" is trivially proven false, as you said, then you should be able to prove it trivially by naming even just a single OEM whose update cadence matches GrapheneOS's.

                [1]: https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb

      • pjmlp 1 hour ago
        Because they cut costs on hardware and not all ship MTE enabled ARMs.
      • palata 1 hour ago
        Maybe... legacy?
    • mohamedkoubaa 2 hours ago
      There needs to be a wall of shame for apps that abuse hardware owned by users
      • yjftsjthsd-h 2 hours ago
        How's it abusing anything? It's an Android app that works fine with the default Android memory allocator.
        • pjmlp 1 hour ago
          The AOSP memory allocator is seldom the one used by OEMs.
          • rpdillon 59 minutes ago
            Really? They're not using Scudo? The hardened_malloc used in GrapheneOS has a bunch of performance issues that were trade-offs against security. Every other major android distribution uses scudo as far as I know. Which OEMs are you thinking of?

            Edit: Did some research after writing this? It appears that Samsung may be still using jemalloc, albeit a newer version than the one from the Android 11 days.

        • perching_aix 1 hour ago
          That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't being abusive, just that said allocator tolerates it okay.
  • perching_aix 2 hours ago
    If you have two apps, both maps...

    > The reason behind it is the hardened memory allocator, which seems to create a significant overhead for Osmand. That might be because scrolling a map requires constant loading and discarding of data.

    ... is this really the right hunch, over e.g. the OpenStreetMaps app lacking in discipline with its heap allocations?

    • himata4113 2 hours ago
      Seems unlikely, it's java so this is likely related to loading large amounts of objects and having the GC thrashing.
      • RedComet 1 hour ago
        The core is C++ afaik.