KDE4 slow

[Hans-J. Ullrich]

Am Donnerstag 25 Juni 2009 schrieb Iñaki Baz Castillo:
> Hi, I've been using KDE4 for long time in the same host in which before I
> used KDE3 (just a difference: before I used KDE3 32bits and now I use KDE4
> 64 bits).
>
> Exactly the same configuration, exactly the same apps open most of the
> time. I use Kubuntu (Intrepid in KDE3 and Jaunty in KDE4).
>
>
> While KDE4 is a great improvement in usability, ellegance and features,
> it's definitively slowe (IMHO)r. For example:
>
> - The new Kmenu is terribly slower than the classic one (using both in
> KDE4). It takes ~0.5 seconds to appear after clicking it.
>
> - Switching off the computer is exasperating. After clicking "Shutdown":
>   - It takes 3-5 seconds until the confirmation window appears (so the
>     background becomes dark).
>   - After confirming it, the background is displayed again as usual (no
>     indication at all that the system is being halted during 6-10 seconds).
>   - After it, some windows start dissapearing.
>   - The whole screen gets grey during 1-2 seconds.
>   - The KDE session finally ends.
>
> - Opening any app (i.e. Konqueror) takes 2-3 times longer than in KDE3
> (same configuration about preloading and so).
>
> - Openining any application window (compose a new mail in Kmail, open a
> chat window in Kopete...) takes ~1 second, and the window appears gray
> during 1 second until it gets rendered.
>
> - Clicking any system-try icon takes 0.5-1 second to display the context
> menu or the mini-app (Kmix global volume slider).
>
> - Pressing ALT+F2 takes longer than in KDE3.
>
>
> Perhaps my host (AMD64 Turion x2 1600 MHz) has no enough RAM (1 GB), but I
> don't see too much issues in the used RAM:
>
> ~$ free -m
>              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:           988        888        100          0         66        173
> -/+ buffers/cache:        648        340
> Swap:         1698          0       1698
>
>
>
> KEE4 stability is really reasonable (being still a beta version), it's
> enough to work with it daily. But the speed it provides makes it hard to
> work. It doesn't react immediately to the user actions.
>
>
> Please take my comment as constructive as possible.
> However, is it an admited issue? is it a common feeling from KDE4 users?
> And on top of all: can it be improved? is there aim in making it just
> faster?
>
>
> Thanks a lot and best regards.

Thank you very much for this detailed measurements, Inaki!

The timings, you are describing are exactly the same on my computer.
Your description prevents me, to describe my own measurements. As they are the 
same on my computer, here are the necessary datas of my system:

OS: Debian-amd64/sid, kernel 2.6.29-2-amd64

RAM: 2GB

Harddrive SATA with 5400 rpm:

hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1930 MB in  2.00 seconds = 964.96 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  136 MB in  3.01 seconds =  45.18 MB/sec


NVidia 8600GS 512MB RAM, driver is nvidia 180.44, glxgears: about 5500 FPS

A list of all running processes can be delivered, but would take much. Unusual 
are about 20 processes named "kio_http", which take each 4MB RAM, and each of 
it takes 6M "shared RAM". Still I could not figure out, which application is 
responsible for them. I guess it is kmail, but could not prove it. On my 32-
bit system these processes slow down thias system dramatically (my 32-bit 
system has only 512MB Ram), and on this system, I discovered, that at start of 
KDE4 the hard drive almost 2-3 minutes active, after KDE4 already has started. 
I do not know, what KDE is doing with the harddrive, mybe it is starting kmail 
in the background and other needed things.

If someone gives me a clue, what is started then, I will try to switch it off, 
so that KDE4 is started naked. Then we can compare the results.

This 32-bit system also has an nvidia card (5700 Ultra), and is running driver 
173.14

Did I something forget? I hope, this might help a little bit.

Best regards

Hans