Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

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LNXlady

Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by LNXlady »

I need some helping in speeding up LMKDE, please. It runs so much slower than any other distro I've had on this computer. Things take so long to open that I click on them again and eventually end up with several of the program open. KDE is my preferred DE and has never been slow on this machine, so something must need tweaking somewhere. I've been using Netrunner for a couple of years, which is also based on Kubuntu, with no speed problems at all.
Linux Mint KDE 32bit
4x AMD Phenom(tm) 9500 Quad-Core Processor
GeForce 8500 GT video card (I've tried both the Nouveau and Nvidia drivers)
4gb memory
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DrHu

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by DrHu »

The usual process is..
  • Check startup processes, removing ones you don't require
  • Simplify the desktop, it can improve performance
  • Use the best graphics driver available for the graphics card
    --that usually means the vendor choice
  • Use pre-linking, speeds up application loading
http://www.zdnet.com/a-look-at-linux-mi ... 000013027/
--a quick overview, these and other reviews/testing can often enough give some ideas on perfromance options..

Additionally, the number of activated processors (CPUs) running in your system: 4GB of RAM is pretty small, even with a 32bit OS (these days anyway..)
--and possibly using PAE mode is something else to be checking..
LNXlady

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by LNXlady »

DrHu wrote:The usual process is..
  • Check startup processes, removing ones you don't require
  • Simplify the desktop, it can improve performance
  • Use the best graphics driver available for the graphics card
    --that usually means the vendor choice
  • Use pre-linking, speeds up application loading
http://www.zdnet.com/a-look-at-linux-mi ... 000013027/
--a quick overview, these and other reviews/testing can often enough give some ideas on perfromance options..

Additionally, the number of activated processors (CPUs) running in your system: 4GB of RAM is pretty small, even with a 32bit OS (these days anyway..)
--and possibly using PAE mode is something else to be checking..
4GB might not be a lot but it runs Netrunner with KDE wonderfully and also Mandriva with KDE. Should Mint be so much slower on the same hardware? I'm not sure what you mean by simiplify the desktop? And did you intend to link to an article about Linux Mint Debian? Because I'm not using LMDE, I'm using LM with KDE. I did try the proprietary video drives, as I noted, with no improvement.
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karlchen
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, LNXlady.

Based on my own experience: 4 GB of RAM is absolutley all right, in particular for a 32-bit Mint version. My office machine has got 4 GB of RAM (3.45 GB of them usable). I hardly ever use more than 1.5 GB although I run a number of applications in parallel. Yet, it all depends. If I did video editing 4 GB might be not enough. In this case the good old Nvidia Geforec 8500 GT might be undersized as well.
By the way my GeForce 8500 GT has got only 256 MB of dedicated video RAM. Yet, doing office work most of the time my Mint 13 x64 Cinnamon 1.6.7 desktop runs really fast.
On the other hand on Windows 7 the same video card only scores 4.6 points out of 7.9 for its gaming performance. So the 8500 GT, seen from the current perspective, is not a really power card.
Yet, as stated above, it is good enough for Cinamon. I cannot, however, judge whether it is good enough for KDE. I have never bothered to try Mint KDE.

So, no, your hardware specifications alone do not explain why your machine works in a sluggish way. Sorry, but it is not that simple.

You might wish to run

Code: Select all

inxi -Fx
and post the screen output here. This will give a concise overview of your hardware and the relevant hardware drivers.

Kind regards,
Karl
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LNXlady

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by LNXlady »

Sorry, I didn't get a notification so I didn't realize there had been a reply. I'm not trying to do photo editing or anything like that although I do it on this machine under Netrunner with no problems or slowness at all. The slowness I am talking about is in simple things like just opening programs. It takes so long to just open a program that I haven't tried to do anything but some web surfing under Mint. It's not the hardware in and of itself, since I run other distros (all of them KDE) on this same hardware without problems. In fact, I'm still using Netrunner on this machine because so far, Mint isn't really usable. Maybe I don't have something set up correctly? Here's the results of ini -Fx:

System: Host: melisa-Mintkde Kernel: 3.5.0-17-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.7.2)
Desktop: KDE 4.9.5 (Qt 4.8.3) Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Machine: System: HP-Pavilion product: GX612AA-ABA m8330f
Mobo: ASUSTek model: NARRA3 version: 3.02 Bios: Phoenix version: 5.11 date: 04/15/2008
CPU: Quad core AMD Phenom 9500 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 17680.3
Clock Speeds: 1: 1100.00 MHz 2: 1100.00 MHz 3: 1100.00 MHz 4: 1100.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA G86 [GeForce 8500 GT] bus-ID: 02:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) FAILED: nvidia Resolution: 1440x900@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce 8500 GT/PCIe/SSE2/3DNOW! GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 304.88 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: NVIDIA MCP61 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:05.0 Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.25
Network: Card: NVIDIA MCP61 Ethernet driver: forcedeth port: ec00 bus-ID: 00:07.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:1e:8c:6e:f2:d0
Drives: HDD Total Size: 640.1GB (1.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: SAMSUNG_HD320KJ size: 320.1GB
2: id: /dev/sdb model: SAMSUNG_HD320KJ size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 57G used: 5.6G (11%) fs: ext4 ID: /boot size: 461M used: 43M (10%) fs: ext4
ID: swap-1 size: 4.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap ID: swap-2 size: 4.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:71C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 173 Uptime: 2 min Memory: 660.5/3029.7MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.7.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4


karlchen wrote:Hello, LNXlady.

Based on my own experience: 4 GB of RAM is absolutley all right, in particular for a 32-bit Mint version. My office machine has got 4 GB of RAM (3.45 GB of them usable). I hardly ever use more than 1.5 GB although I run a number of applications in parallel. Yet, it all depends. If I did video editing 4 GB might be not enough. In this case the good old Nvidia Geforec 8500 GT might be undersized as well.
By the way my GeForce 8500 GT has got only 256 MB of dedicated video RAM. Yet, doing office work most of the time my Mint 13 x64 Cinnamon 1.6.7 desktop runs really fast.
On the other hand on Windows 7 the same video card only scores 4.6 points out of 7.9 for its gaming performance. So the 8500 GT, seen from the current perspective, is not a really power card.
Yet, as stated above, it is good enough for Cinamon. I cannot, however, judge whether it is good enough for KDE. I have never bothered to try Mint KDE.

So, no, your hardware specifications alone do not explain why your machine works in a sluggish way. Sorry, but it is not that simple.

You might wish to run

Code: Select all

inxi -Fx
and post the screen output here. This will give a concise overview of your hardware and the relevant hardware drivers.

Kind regards,
Karl
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karlchen
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, LNXLady.

Your "inxi -Fx" output tells us about your graphics card and driver this:

Code: Select all

Graphics: Card: NVIDIA G86 [GeForce 8500 GT] bus-ID: 02:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) FAILED: nvidia Resolution: 1440x900@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce 8500 GT/PCIe/SSE2/3DNOW! GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 304.88 Direct Rendering: Yes
This looks perfectly all right.
The verdict "FAILED: nvidia" is caused by a bug of inxi 1.8.4 which will be visible on Mint 14. In fact, the nvidia driver 304.88 has been loaded and is in use.
The graphics card and the driver info which we get by inxi do not explain why opening programmes should be slow on your machine.

The root cause for the observed sluggish behaviour must be something else. I admit that I have not got a good idea what the root cause might be. This may mean that in order to analyze the problem further it will be necessary to check the logfile under /var/log carefully.

One thing which you might try and which would not be difficult to do is this:
  • Create another user account for testing purposes.
  • Login as the new user.
  • Launch the programmes which are known to startup slowly under your normal account.
    If the programmes startup faster when launched under the new account, then the root cause is not hardware, nor system-wide, but limited to some settings in your normal account.
Kind regards,
Karl
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catweazel
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by catweazel »

DrHu wrote:4GB of RAM is pretty small, even with a 32bit OS (these days anyway..)
Outrageous.
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hal8000
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by hal8000 »

There is some good advice in your replies.
LMKDE 14 for me, runs about the same speed as other distros running KDE, on my hardware.

See if the following tweaks may help:

Go to KDE system settings, System Administration, Startup and Shutdown, Service Manager.

You can google each item for details, but there are some things you can do without.
If you dont use bluetooth, then stop service bluedevil and untick the box to run at startup.

You can also stop and untick Neopuk Search Module, this can sometimes cause KDE to run
slowly. If your internet connection is via ethernet with a separate router then you can also
stop and uncheck DNS-SD service discovery monitor.

Another tweak is to install boot up manager as in this thread:

http://www.itworld.com/software/305926/ ... buntu-1210

If you are unsure what the services do you can google each item, hope that helps.
LNXlady

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by LNXlady »

hal8000 wrote:There is some good advice in your replies.
LMKDE 14 for me, runs about the same speed as other distros running KDE, on my hardware.

See if the following tweaks may help:

Go to KDE system settings, System Administration, Startup and Shutdown, Service Manager.

You can google each item for details, but there are some things you can do without.
If you dont use bluetooth, then stop service bluedevil and untick the box to run at startup.

You can also stop and untick Neopuk Search Module, this can sometimes cause KDE to run
slowly. If your internet connection is via ethernet with a separate router then you can also
stop and uncheck DNS-SD service discovery monitor.

Another tweak is to install boot up manager as in this thread:

http://www.itworld.com/software/305926/ ... buntu-1210

If you are unsure what the services do you can google each item, hope that helps.
Thanks, I'll try these as soon as I'm home long enough to boot back into Mint and poke around. I did try another user account and didn't see a difference. Neopuk is already off and I have a wired DSL connection. I'll turn off bluetooth. I will look at the link but booting doesn't seem slower than usual, just the loading of programs. I'm wondering if a re-install would help. I might try if none of these suggestions work.
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by hal8000 »

Another thing you can try is to install htop

sudo apt-get install htop

This will give you a console based process viewer and you can see whatever is hogging system resources.
I donthave Nvidia card but make sure you can also run glxgears from a terminal.
Nopt really a benchmark just an indication that your Nvidia card is working ok with openGL driver.
homerscousin

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by homerscousin »

Am I reading this correctly. You have 2 swap partitions? each 4 Gb? Why? Probably don't need 57 (60) Gb for root either. 20 Gb should be plenty.
LNXlady

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by LNXlady »

homerscousin wrote:Am I reading this correctly. You have 2 swap partitions? each 4 Gb? Why? Probably don't need 57 (60) Gb for root either. 20 Gb should be plenty.
I don't keep Home in a separate partition and I gave root only 30Gb once (after reading that 20Gb would be plenty) and ran out. I have lots of space on this drive so there was no reason to risk it happening again. I don't see how that has anything to do with LMDKE running slow for me?
hal8000
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Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by hal8000 »

LNXlady wrote: I don't keep Home in a separate partition and I gave root only 30Gb once (after reading that 20Gb would be plenty) and ran out. I have lots of space on this drive so there was no reason to risk it happening again. I don't see how that has anything to do with LMDKE running slow for me?
That partitioning scheme is fine and should not be related to your system running slow.
However if you ever do a future install, I would recommend a separate, / , /swap and /home
You dont need a separate /boot as it will use space under /.

If you have dont have a separate /home then 57G should be ok for (/ + home combined). If its a laptop and you use suspend to RAM then /swap size has to be same as memory same or slightly higher. With 1G of RAM or more, youre unlikely ever to use the /swap file, unless you do something labour intensive like
make -j8 (when compiling a new kernel).

Post the output of this command:

sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

If you have two drives substitute sdb with sda

(sdb was found in output of inxi -Fx earlier on).
You will see output something like this:
/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads: 17642 MB in 2.00 seconds = 8832.73 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 394 MB in 3.01 seconds = 131.10 MB/sec

There is much variation between manufacturers and my Fujitsu drive is much faster
than my (more expensive) Western digital drive.
homerscousin

Re: Why is LMKDE 14 so slow?

Post by homerscousin »

I don't keep Home in a separate partition and I gave root only 30Gb once (after reading that 20Gb would be plenty) and ran out. I have lots of space on this drive so there was no reason to risk it happening again. I don't see how that has anything to do with LMDKE running slow for me?
Probably shouldn't have anything to do with slowness. I just noticed it and thought you may not be aware of it. Hey, someone else could have done the install for you.
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