kevinv

Memory usage on Android is a bit subtle.  It really depends on how you're measuring free memory.  Different tools may give different answers, depending on what exactly they're measuring, because the OS uses lots of memory if it can, but only when nobody else needs it.

The Linux kernel (which Android runs on) will use free RAM for filesystem buffer cache, to speed up repeated access to storage.  But it'll give that memory back if and when applications need it.  So over time, depending on what you're measuring, you may see a Linux system's memory usage slowly creep up to 100%.  But, this is a good thing!  It's just a matter of definition as to whether or not that memory is "free".  It is in use, but it's also available if needed.  So does "free" mean "unused", or does it mean "available"?

Adding to the complexity, Android caches apps in memory.  If you launch an app, then press the home button, the process is suspended, but the RAM it was using is still reserved for it.  The purpose is to speed up re-launching that app.  But here, too, there's no problem with slowly running out of RAM, since Android will remove suspended processes as needed to free up that memory.  (Some people run task killers to free up this memory proactively, but I think this is a mistake which will cost them battery and performance; the OS architects knew what they were doing.)

As far as using the SD card for virtual memory, the Linux concept is called swap.  I don't have my Nook handy to check, but since swapping to SD would put wear and tear on the card and 512MB is plenty of RAM to run Android, I'm guessing that it is not configured to swap to SD.

Memory management on Linux and Android is a bit complicated, but it works very well.  More RAM means better performance, of course.  

webOS Doctor should only ever be used for webOS problems.

To uninstall android, you should use ACMEUninstaller.  Have you tried this yet?

By the way, if and when you get this working, you should pick up the newer version of ClockworkMod Recovery; the one you're using has a serious bug in it.

Nevertells, on 29 March 2013 - 10:06 PM, said:

Maybe I've just decided to start randomly paraphrasing other people's posts.  

ccomley, on 28 March 2013 - 08:14 PM, said:

The trouble is, there isn't really an exact definition of "rooted".  So, it depends on what, specifically, the app is checking on your device, and I don't know the answer to that.

There is a setting to temporarily disable root access which you might try, but my guess is that all CyanogenMod builds will be considered rooted regardless.

beepied9933, the Administrator user on Android/Linux is called "root", which is why gaining administrator priviledges is called "rooting".

Many Android devices are locked down so you cannot modify the OS or do your own upgrades.  But, the HP Touchpad has always been open.  You don't need to do anything special to gain administrator access other than downloading the Palm SDK; it shipped already unlocked.  (I wish more device manufacturers would do the same.)  I guess you might say it came "pre-rooted" out of the box.