KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

toudi · 2012-12-13 22:11:56

Hello, archers!

so, a few days ago i've seen this youtube video from coscup 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lfAjdtwECc

the author gives a speech about a lightweight KDE package set, which he calls klyde. He managed to strip everything except the panel, the desktop and menubar from KDE. He showed the process manager and this setup took something like 115mb of ram to run. it was pretty fast, too.

the kdebase package in arch is dependent from kdepim-runtime (and that's one of the main things that guy stripped out). if i were to re-create such thing in arch, the first step should be to download ABS and then create new package? would anyone would like to help in creating such setup?

the author of the presentation posted the source packages for the build which he uses: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show … es%3Aklyde so that maybe we could use it as a reference.

best regards

masteryod · 2012-12-13 23:44:18

KLyDE - Basic Method
- Disable/remove PIM Middleware
- Disable File Indexer
- Disable/remove Semantic Desktop
- Disable/remove Activities
- Disable advanced command line Runners
- Stop unneeded session Service

Yep, looks pretty much as my KDE setup... if only people in KDE understood that most of the people doesn't use most of this and most of this is hard to disable for regular users and most of this is just crazy bloat (amarok, akonadi running just because of clock in right corner - even if I don't have PIM package, mysql databases everywhere...)

Anyone knows if there is a kill-switch for activities? I've never got problem understanding them, it's nice concept and all but it's just... I don't use them I don't have need for them and yet they're everywhere! For instance: Dolphin, file manager - pretty much essence of the GUI desktop doesn't have 'sort by' under RMB but activities do have their own entry. That's crazy and there are bug reports about that.

I still like KDE very much but they lost their focus*, they seems to big as a project (too much obsolete crap (shouldn't superkaramba be dead by now from the hand of plasmoids?) to much crappy apps (partition manager for KDE anyone? It's barely alive for years), to few good tools (KDM? - another essential application in DE - default theme doesn't supports user list - in multi-user OS by definition crying out loud).

* Actually I think they're slowly getting it back with whole Qt5/kdelibs thing going on. Besides KDE4 is maturing really nice - it looks more like they just have to pull all their ideas along and not to brake desktop again. I hope they will make some hard & good decisions in the future.

End of personal rant. Can't wait for 4.10

PS Back to the topic: KDE is flexible and it can be fast and light. It's just bloated by default. On i686 if you just don't use/install kdepim, disable akonadi and nepomuk, if you don't use crazy krunner plugins and keep things clean it can be as low as 150MB in idle: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=134279

PSS If your KDE4 looks sluggish see your effects speed and oxygen animations - that's also something to remember.

Last edited by masteryod (2012-12-13 23:58:07)

cfr · 2012-12-14 00:54:02

From kdmrc:

# Enable user list (names along with images) in the greeter.
# Default is true
UserList=false

I imagine that setting it to true should enable a user list? (I have a feeling it is true by default and I changed it for security reasons.)

toudi · 2012-12-14 06:39:48

well, the two things i do just after installing KDE is disabling akonadi / nepomuk / strigi / whatever it's called these days. But i've never been able to get below 400mb of ram (and yes, i do know that linux caches everything, i'm talking about ram usage as reported in KDE process manager )
The only time i was able to get below 200mb was on openSUSE, but i removed the sound support or something like that.
I usually have the desktop effects disabled, but it usually saves me something like 10mb of ram at most.

You wrote

> Disable/remove PIM Middleware

how can i do that without erasing kdebase? Which has kdepim-runtime dependencies in it. And, as you mentioned, kdepim has dependencies to mysql (seriously? what the heck!)

The same goes for

> Disable/remove Semantic Desktop

So are you saying there's no need for kde-klyde package as we can do everything right now in arch? if so, can you post some recepie?

best regards!

Last edited by toudi (2012-12-14 06:43:47)

masteryod · 2012-12-14 20:18:36

cfr wrote:

From kdmrc:
# Enable user list (names along with images) in the greeter.
# Default is true
UserList=false
I imagine that setting it to true should enable a user list? (I have a feeling it is true by default and I changed it for security reasons.)

It's "false" in my unedited file too. The thing is that theme itself have to support this. None of the default KDM themes supports that. Look at this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=144290

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

toudi wrote:

well, the two things i do just after installing KDE is disabling akonadi / nepomuk / strigi / whatever it's called these days. But i've never been able to get below 400mb of ram (and yes, i do know that linux caches everything, i'm talking about ram usage as reported in KDE process manager )
The only time i was able to get below 200mb was on openSUSE, but i removed the sound support or something like that.
I usually have the desktop effects disabled, but it usually saves me something like 10mb of ram at most.

A lot depends on architecture. On x86-64 I don't think it's possible to go below 200MB in idle without serious cutting. I guess we all think about memory without buffers/cache when talking about system RAM usage. Desktop effects are not so RAM hungry as GPU, if your hardware is capable enough in terms of OpenGL desktop effects will fly. Kwin is actually pretty awesome and fast. Disabled effects is more like a fallback mode for legacy hardware. I tweak them and disable what I don't like/don't use. For instance I always turn blur off - I'm not a fan of that and it's heavy effect.

toudi wrote:

> Disable/remove PIM Middleware
how can i do that without erasing kdebase? Which has kdepim-runtime dependencies in it. And, as you mentioned, kdepim has dependencies to mysql (seriously? what the heck!)

I just do KDE installation as an Archer, i.e. from bottom-up. I install only things that I really need and use. I don't use any of the kdepim packages that's for start. Even if you don't use it it will run on your system, fortunately you can disable it although operation is not so straight-forward. First disable server from starting. Then turn off "display events" in Calendar section of Digital Clock Settings. It should prevent server from starting up. You can't use any akonadi aware application or it will start the server. Ironically it should be that way - it should be disabled by default and installing things like kdepim should start akonadi server. The whole "display events" thing is just asinine.

Right now my testing VM in idle with konsole shows ~420MB on x86_64 but with akonadi enabled (~55MB) and with desktop search (nepomuk ~35MB + strigi ~37MB).

And about mysql - the whole akonadi concept is really great and innovative but it's implementation... not so much.

toudi wrote:

> Disable/remove Semantic Desktop
So are you saying there's no need for kde-klyde package as we can do everything right now in arch? if so, can you post some recepie?

I'm just saying that you can go pretty low just by tweaking stuff because by default KDE is bloated. Even if the hardware is not a problem it will just run crazy stuff that not everybody use.

Recipe is as I was saying:
1) install from bottom-up things that you actually use and need
2) disable akonadi (instructions above). If you use any kdepim package or any akonadi aware application you have to live with that enabled.
3) disable desktop search - this one is really easy, it's just one click. And I must say that after many years of ditching nepomuk I actually consider this as a feature. It can be useful and it's performing better with every release.
4) about runners: if you follow step 1) by default you don't have millions of them and you can always install just ones you really need
5) startup services - usually I don't have need to tweak this

It's KDE you need to spend some time and tweak it for your taste and needs.

Demon · 2012-12-20 20:13:08

For quite some time I've been using KDE without nepomuk/akonadi stuff. If someone wants instructions I'll be happy to help.

masteryod · 2012-12-21 00:53:29

Demon wrote:

For quite some time I've been using KDE without nepomuk/akonadi stuff. If someone wants instructions I'll be happy to help.

Did you just simple disable it or did you do some more advanced stuff?

Last edited by masteryod (2012-12-21 00:54:48)

Demon · 2012-12-21 05:50:12

Compiled KDE without it. For some packages you need a patch.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-13 22:11:56

KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#2 2012-12-13 23:44:18

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#3 2012-12-14 00:54:02

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#4 2012-12-14 06:39:48

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#5 2012-12-14 20:18:36

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#6 2012-12-20 20:13:08

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#7 2012-12-21 00:53:29

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

#8 2012-12-21 05:50:12

Re: KDE-Klyde [minimal KDE in approx 115mb ram]

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