[SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

b2b · 2010-02-16 12:41:42

Hello all,
A few weeks ago I installed Arch over openSuse 11.2, because I liked the idea of Arch. I think OpenSuse is a great distro, I really liked it, but the rolling release model of Arch also sounds very good.

Now I have a working KDEmod desktop on top of Arch, and everything works. But in comparison with OpenSuse, it seems slower in everything. I can't really pinpoint what it is, top doesn't show strange processes or high values, the harddisk isn't constantly working. But for some reason all apps just start slower, the KDE-menu has a lag of a second for all items, firefox is slow on opening and displaying webpages.
On OpenSuse (11.2 with KDE) this wasn't a problem.

Is there a way to determine what is causing this slowness?

My hardware:
Asus laptop: Intel Pentium M 1700 Mhz
Memory: 1Gb
Nvidia Geforce Go 7300

I'm using KDEmod (KDE 4.4) on Arch.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by b2b (2010-02-16 15:12:35)

sHyLoCk · 2010-02-16 13:00:00

kdemod is not related to "Arch" , it is a separate project. Did you try out Arch's official kde?
Anyway, KDE4.4 is a bit slow and less snappy for me as well. openSUSE 11.2 uses 4.3.1 I believe? So how are you comparing these two distributions based on two different versions of KDE?
Also turn off nepomuk and see if it helps.

brazzmonkey · 2010-02-16 13:00:36

From my own experience, KDE 4.4 feels slower than previous releases.

sHyLoCk · 2010-02-16 13:02:31

Exactly, same here.

b2b · 2010-02-16 13:13:55

I don't think it is a KDE 4.4 issue, because these issues were there before KDE 4.4.
On OpenSuse 11.2 with KDE 4.3 everything feels faster then on Arch with KDEmod 4.3 (and now KDEmod 4.4).
Turning off Nepomuk doesn't help.

Before trying KDE from Arch (which seems a bit rigorous), is there a way to diagnose the problem?

sHyLoCk · 2010-02-16 13:43:38

I don't think trying out Arch's KDE will help you either in that case.
I can assure you,Arch is pretty fast, maybe you're doing something wrong? Check the o/p of top and see what processes are running.
You can use this script to get a better idea.
http://omploader.org/vM2tuZg

Anonymo · 2010-02-16 13:46:27

b2b wrote:

I don't think it is a KDE 4.4 issue, because these issues were there before KDE 4.4.
On OpenSuse 11.2 with KDE 4.3 everything feels faster then on Arch with KDEmod 4.3 (and now KDEmod 4.4).
Turning off Nepomuk doesn't help.
Before trying KDE from Arch (which seems a bit rigorous), is there a way to diagnose the problem?

Or check with kdemod people
http://www.chakra-project.org/bbs/

Soumyadeep · 2010-02-16 14:06:39

brazzmonkey wrote:

From my own experience, KDE 4.4 feels slower than previous releases.

In my case after closing a memory heavy application(e.g a game running on wine) the desktop response becomes very poor.

Gnux · 2010-02-16 14:37:10

brazzmonkey wrote:

From my own experience, KDE 4.4 feels slower than previous releases.

Yeah, and on my box it breaks badly Hal. After an update nothing more was working because the hardware was not detected anymore

I removed KDE4.4, installed Gnome instead and til now it works perfectly (and quicker)...Tough I miss a little KDE4 which I found very eye candy...

Last edited by Gnux (2010-02-16 14:37:50)

Primoz · 2010-02-16 14:40:02

For me KDEmod4.4 doesn't seem any slower or less responsive than previous KDEmod versions...
Maybe even faster. (But it does use more RAM...)
I do recommend that you go to Chakra (KDEmod) Linux forums, as it does seem that it's a problem with that.
It could be graphics driver, but I also use nVidia and it works well, maybe you should try nvidia-beta from AUR?

davidgurvich · 2010-02-16 14:49:19

Opensuse-11.2 has a very good implementation of kde4, either the best or among the best. I'm not sure if using the arch implementation of kde4 will give any speed advantage. From what I've seen arch is much better at startup and latency in lightweight desktop environments. I haven't seen any advantage to using arch for kde4 except that it's quicker in getting to the login screen.

The opensuse implementation of lightweight desktops is awful. Almost nothing works properly without installing just about everything in either gnome or kde4 and even then you need to login to one of those to configure settings.

b2b · 2010-02-16 15:10:41

@sHyLoCk:
Thanks for your suggestion. The script says 330 Mb of memory is in use. That seems to be ok.

@Primoz:
Installed the nvidia-beta from AUR, and I think it solved the problems. Everything seems to respond a bit snappier now.

Thanks for your input!

Soumyadeep · 2010-02-27 13:20:24

sorry for bringing up this thread but I thought its worth sharing this. The slow response that I have been getting from kde 4.4 has been solved for me by a graphic card upgrade. It seems 4.4 requires much higher graphics processing power than the prev versions.

mandog · 2010-02-27 20:34:52

KDE4.4 uses a lot more ram than the earlier versions but for me it is a lot faster and has some really good features very similar to win7 you do need a good Nvidia graphics card mine has 1gb of on board ram +6gb system ram believe me win7 is very sluggish compared to KDE4.4. if you want speed use lxde that is fast and with a bit of work fully featured as well.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-16 12:41:42

[SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#2 2010-02-16 13:00:00

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#3 2010-02-16 13:00:36

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#4 2010-02-16 13:02:31

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#5 2010-02-16 13:13:55

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#6 2010-02-16 13:43:38

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#7 2010-02-16 13:46:27

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#8 2010-02-16 14:06:39

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#9 2010-02-16 14:37:10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#10 2010-02-16 14:40:02

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#11 2010-02-16 14:49:19

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#12 2010-02-16 15:10:41

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#13 2010-02-27 13:20:24

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

#14 2010-02-27 20:34:52

Re: [SOLVED] Arch slower than Suse?

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