Speeding up KDE

[Georgetoon]

I'm running KDE 4.9.5 with kernel 3.2.18-pclos2.bfs.  I have 2 gigs of RAM.  (as many know, this is my spare system.)

I have 3D dsktop effects turned off.  I do run plasma widgets here and there and things like Klipper and RadioTray.  I also have an external USB drive plugged in and another drive partitoned into 6 direcotries thst plugs into the rack.

Okay, so, I like KDE a lot. it runs okay, but, I want to streamline it a bit more so things wil speed up just a bit.  for instance, when I run Gimp, there is a slight lag when copying and pasting elements.  no big deal, but it'd be nice to be a bit snappier.

What process can I shut down (running in the background) that I really don't need?  Anything else I can do to KDE to speed things up? 

I know running LXDE or XFCE wil speed things up considerably.  I've tried both, like them, but I like KDE.  It has more tools and features AFAICS.

[Old-Polack]

I'm running KDE 4.9.5 with kernel 3.2.18-pclos2.bfs.  I have 2 gigs of RAM.  (as many know, this is my spare system.)

I have 3D dsktop effects turned off.  I do run plasma widgets here and there and things like Klipper and RadioTray.  I also have an external USB drive plugged in and another drive partitoned into 6 direcotries thst plugs into the rack.

Okay, so, I like KDE a lot. it runs okay, but, I want to streamline it a bit more so things wil speed up just a bit.  for instance, when I run Gimp, there is a slight lag when copying and pasting elements.  no big deal, but it'd be nice to be a bit snappier.

What process can I shut down (running in the background) that I really don't need?  Anything else I can do to KDE to speed things up? 

I know running LXDE or XFCE wil speed things up considerably.  I've tried both, like them, but I like KDE.  It has more tools and features AFAICS.

Best way I know to speed things up is to add more ram. Can you do that with the machine in question?

[Georgetoon]

Well, I Googled for some tips and found this:

http://on-disk.com/articles.php?wiki=How-To-Speed-Up-KDE4

Even though I turned off desktop effects, I did change composting to raster from native and it looks like thins have speed up considerably..or maybe it's just my imagination?

[Georgetoon]

I'm running KDE 4.9.5 with kernel 3.2.18-pclos2.bfs.  I have 2 gigs of RAM.  (as many know, this is my spare system.)

I have 3D dsktop effects turned off.  I do run plasma widgets here and there and things like Klipper and RadioTray.  I also have an external USB drive plugged in and another drive partitoned into 6 direcotries thst plugs into the rack.

Okay, so, I like KDE a lot. it runs okay, but, I want to streamline it a bit more so things wil speed up just a bit.  for instance, when I run Gimp, there is a slight lag when copying and pasting elements.  no big deal, but it'd be nice to be a bit snappier.

What process can I shut down (running in the background) that I really don't need?  Anything else I can do to KDE to speed things up? 

I know running LXDE or XFCE wil speed things up considerably.  I've tried both, like them, but I like KDE.  It has more tools and features AFAICS.

Best way I know to speed things up is to add more ram. Can you do that with the machine in question?

It does not appear I can do this. I believe the motherboard limits me to 2 gigs.

[DeBaas]

Did you try OpenBox KDE ?
Just switched to it and its speedyyyyyyyy

[Georgetoon]

Did you try OpenBox KDE ?
Just switched to it and its speedyyyyyyyy

Will do this right now.

[Georgetoon]

Openbox does appear to help.   I had to switch back to native from Raster, though.  I started to see some artifacts and pixel distortion on screen. 

Also, Openbox did not pick up all my virtual desktop backgrounds.  But, I'm thinking of closing down these as I only use one desktop anyhow.  I'll bet that will free up resources.

[gseaman]

To speed up KDE, you need to stop nepomuk and akonadi. I don't remember exactly how I did this, but I believe this was discussed in posts on the forum. Also, if that is not enough, I use task-lxde over a kde install so that I have konqueror, kwrite, k3b, and other kde goodies.

Galen

[dm+]

Depending on the installation, several "services" are run on system initialization; some of them quite demanding on resources.

My recommendation would be to run PCLinuxOS Control Center -> System -> Manage system services

and mark only the following services to start "On boot", unless you really want any additional ones:

acpid
alsa
atd
crond
cups (if you are printing from this machine)
dm
haldaemon
iptables (if you are running an ip filter/firewall)
irqtables (if you are running multiple cpus)
messagebus
network
network-up
portreserve
resolvconf
smartd (if you have drives equipped with S.M.A.R.T.)
sound
syslog
uuidd
xfs

This is not KDE-specific and may also improve your system's starting time.

[Crow]

Do you need the KDE environment?  I used to install XLDE and then task KDE to use KDE programs from LXDE, they are faster that way.

This days I use LXDE for everyday work and KDE at home.

[Just17]

I would consider using an alternate desktop manager ......  maybe razorqt .....  I have not tried it since upgrading to 4.9.5 ....  but it might do as you wish ....

[Georgetoon]

Great info here!:)  Thank you!  I'm gonna play around with many of these in the coming days.  I'll have questions...hopefully I won't bork anything.

[ternor]

This gives me an opportunity to invite comments on an article I read lately.  I was going to experiment with another user account but I can't log into that account in the normal way.

The article is Improve KDE Performance: Disable Nepomuk and Akonadi.

These are the suggestions made:

#1 Add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to ~/.kde/share/config/nepomukserverrc

[Basic Settings]
Start Nepomuk=false

[Service-nepomukmigration1]
autostart=false

[Service-nepomukstrigiservice]
autostart=false

#2 Then add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to ~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc

[QMYSQL]
Name=akonadi
Host=
User=
Password=
Options="UNIX_SOCKET=/home/manmath/.local/share/akonadi/db_misc/mysql.socket"
ServerPath=/usr/sbin/mysqld-akonadi
StartServer=false

#3 Open ~/.kde/share/config/kdedrc and set "autoload" to false for nepomuksearchmodule

[Module-nepomuksearchmodule]
autoload=false

#4 Finally, remove the file nepomukcontroller.desktop and akonaditray.desktop from /usr/share/autostart/, if they exist.

Log out or restart your system to experience the lightness and speed of your KDE workspace.

[Old-Polack]

This gives me an opportunity to invite comments on an article I read lately.  I was going to experiment with another user account but I can't log into that account in the normal way.

The article is Improve KDE Performance: Disable Nepomuk and Akonadi.

These are the suggestions made:

#1 Add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to ~/.kde/share/config/nepomukserverrc

[Basic Settings]
Start Nepomuk=false

[Service-nepomukmigration1]
autostart=false

[Service-nepomukstrigiservice]
autostart=false

#2 Then add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to ~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc

[QMYSQL]
Name=akonadi
Host=
User=
Password=
Options="UNIX_SOCKET=/home/manmath/.local/share/akonadi/db_misc/mysql.socket"
ServerPath=/usr/sbin/mysqld-akonadi
StartServer=false

#3 Open ~/.kde/share/config/kdedrc and set "autoload" to false for nepomuksearchmodule

[Module-nepomuksearchmodule]
autoload=false

#4 Finally, remove the file nepomukcontroller.desktop and akonaditray.desktop from /usr/share/autostart/, if they exist.

Log out or restart your system to experience the lightness and speed of your KDE workspace.

Of course you've just destroyed your Kalarm alerts by doing this, so you don't know where you're going, but you are making damned good time.  

[gseaman]

Of course you've just destroyed your Kalarm alerts by doing this, so you don't know where you're going, but you are making damned good time.  

I don't need no stinkin' Kalarm alerts!

Galen