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Tips and Tricks ​

1. Working on Low-RAM Machines with zram ​

AOSP builds typically require 32GB+ of RAM. You can use zram (compressed RAM) to build on systems with less physical RAM (e.g., 8GB).

  1. Load zram Module:
bash
sudo modprobe zram
  1. Configure zram:
bash
sudo swapoff /dev/zram0  # Only if you have existing zram
sudo zramctl /dev/zram0 -s 48G  # 48GB for 8GB RAM systems, 32GB for 16GB RAM
sudo mkswap /dev/zram0
sudo swapon /dev/zram0

Alternatively, use a systemd service:

  1. Create systemd service file:
bash
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/swapf.service > /dev/null <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=swapf service
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash -c "sudo zramctl /dev/zram0 -s 48G && sudo mkswap /dev/zram0 && sudo swapon /dev/zram0"
WorkingDirectory=/usr/bin
Restart=never

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
  1. Enable the service:
bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload 
sudo systemctl enable --now swapf.service

Important: Using disk swap (a swap file or partition) is not recommended. It will be extremely slow. ZRAM is significantly faster because it uses compressed RAM.