KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

snack · 2011-08-13 14:33:35

Since upgrade to KDE 4.7 on my i686 laptop, my system behaves weirdly. I noticed a slow down caused by a very high disk usage: when the HDD spins the cpu usage reported by the CPU monitor plasmoid is very high (~ 50%), while top reports a very small CPU load. Another strange symptom is that, when I try to close the session, the system freezes for about 15 seconds before the logout/shutdown/restart dialog window appears, again with HDD spinning furiously. If I exit the dialog window and then try to close session again it works smoothly, so I think some caching is at work at second try.
This is very painful since it slows down my workflow. Since now I tried to:

- disable nepomuk, strigi and all that using the nepomukcontroller plasmoid
- disable compositing
- delete .kde folder
- uninstall and reinstall all kde packages

without any benefit. On the same laptop I have dual boot with a 64 bit arch installation, which does not have the same problem, nor has it my 64 bit desktop pc.
Does anyone have similar issues? I don't understand what is it that makes the HDD spin so much, nor how to eventually track it down (are there som HDD usage profiling utilities?). Moreover, why top and CPU usage plasmoid report so different CPU usage stats?
I'm very confused, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

snack · 2011-08-14 13:41:43

I tried to:

- create a new user and start kde for that user
- use xf86-video-ati instead of catalyst
- reinstall all the packages (not only kde ones)
- launch kde using kdm and also with startx from command line

As you can guess, no improvement. Since the problem is still there for the newly-created user, I suspect that the problem is in some global kde configuration file. Does anyone know where these config files are stored? I have /etc/kde and /opt/kde, but they do not seem to contain much...
Thanks

jlacroix · 2011-08-14 15:08:39

What I usually do to improve speed is go into System Settings > Desktop effects, and then change the animation speed to "fast." Reason being, the default animation speed is WAY too slow.

snack · 2011-08-14 17:21:50

jlacroix wrote:

What I usually do to improve speed is go into System Settings > Desktop effects, and then change the animation speed to "fast." Reason being, the default animation speed is WAY too slow.

Thanks for the suggestion, but since the slowdown is present also with disabled desktop effect I don't think that it would help...

jlacroix · 2011-08-14 17:25:13

In that case, I reccomend a memory test and hard drive diagnostic.

snack · 2011-08-14 17:29:02

I think memory is ok, since on the same laptop I have dual boot with another Arch installation (x86_64) which does not show the problem. As for the disk, I did an fsck -f but it didn't solve anything. Maybe there are some more accurate disk diagnostic tools?

jlacroix · 2011-08-14 17:32:00

For RAM I use memtest86, and for hard drives use the manufacturers tools, such as Seatools for Seagate drives. Ultimate Boot CD has all the tools on one disc.

toad · 2011-08-15 07:29:53

Hi, I've been experiencing similar dreadful response lags, disabled strigi and although better it is still nowhere near usable at times.

Although I have 2GB RAM I find that kswapd, thunderbird and firefox are the main hogs according to iotop - what are your readings, snack?

snack · 2011-08-15 09:52:57

Hi toad, I think it is a problem of kde itself. Starting a fresh session with strigi and nepomuk disabled, no firefox, no thunderbird, no other heavy program, I find that simply bringing up the logout dialog requires 10 seconds, during which the system is unresponsive and the HDD led is on. This happens only the first time I try to logout, trying again everything works as it should. I tried to launch dstat -d --top-bio to monitor the most expensive disk I/O process, and during the freeze it freezes also, but when the system becomes responsive again the displayed most expensive I/O process is kdeinit4.
Another thing that causes the freeze is trying to bring up for the first time the lancelot menu, while kickoff does not show any problem.
I'm rellay thinking about a fresh install, even if backing up all my config and stuff frightens me...

toad · 2011-08-15 10:00:55

Hm, not sure that a new install would help - how does the system respond with a new user? I can confirm your observations re logout dialogue and lancelot.

I've switched to xfce4 and the system is _much_ snappier.

fwiw - kdeinit4 can safely be killed. I've had it raise its ugly head every now and then when I logged out into kdm and logged in again...

snack · 2011-08-15 10:06:53

As you can read on my previous posts, I see all the issues also with a brand new user created specifically for testing this problem.
Are you on x86_64 or i686? My two x86_64 systems are ok, the problem is only on i686, but I don't believe this so meaningful...

snack · 2011-08-15 12:00:19

I checked disk and memory using Ultimate Boot CD, but found no problem.

jlacroix · 2011-08-15 12:02:31

snack wrote:

I checked disk and memory using Ultimate Boot CD, but found no problem.

In that case, did you try with a different user as someone else suggested?

snack · 2011-08-15 12:03:20

jlacroix wrote:

snack wrote:
I checked disk and memory using Ultimate Boot CD, but found no problem.
In that case, did you try with a different user as someone else suggested?

Yes I did, as I wrote in my previous posts.

ViruSzZ · 2011-08-15 12:47:53

Two days ago I wanted to try kde and installed it (switched from gnome3) on my 64bit based arch system. I'm experiencing the exact same issues. The I/O sometimes hangs on 90% and there's nothing obviously running on it (also my temps were constantly increased by 10C compared to under my Gnome3 setup). I did notice that FF and Thunderbird are the main RAM hungry processes but that's not the reason for the high IO usage.

I've tried to disable the same processes as the OP stated (such as nepomuk, strigi, compoziting etc ), installed under a new user and there's the same crazy thing. I'm also experiencing the exact same issue when I'm trying to logout/reboot or shutdown my session. It just hangs there for ~20sec.

I'm too much tired of these 'bloated' DE's and today I'm going to try something more lightweight'ly such as OpenBox or maybe I'll give some WM a try, don't know.

snack · 2011-08-15 12:56:37

I highly suspect, at this point, that it is something related to KDE 4.7. Still I don't understand why it does not show up on my two x86_64 systems... but I'm getting tired of this, and I cannot figure out what's happening. I'm reverting to KDE 4.6.5 using ARM, I'll let you know the results. Meanwhile, I installed LXDE and I'm giving it a shot...

snack · 2011-08-15 13:47:52

Ok, KDE 4.6.5 works perfectly. I'll stick with it and maybe wait for 4.7.1. I'm disappointed I cannot figure out what's wrong to file a bug report, I fear that without a bug report things will be screwed also in 4.7.1...

jlacroix · 2011-08-15 14:16:57

Although I'm not having any of the issues as Snack, I have found KDE 4.7.0 to be a very horrible release. In fact, I'm sick and tired of the KDE release notes bragging about killing thousands of bugs each release, when in actuality the first few revisions of each stable release are horrible. When I first upgraded, I ran into at least four really nasty bugs. Although I've worked around some of them, it left a really sour taste in my mouth. Here is what I've experienced:

1.) With a new user or fresh install, there is no wallpaper by default, even if I install kde-wallpapers before I log in, it makes no difference.

2.) Sometimes kwin will crash during log out.

3.) Worse yet, if I exit a full screen game, it will more than likely crash Kwin. This is a problem on my laptop (which has intel video) and not my desktop (which has nvidia video). If I don't remember to disable desktop effects before opening a game, I may run into a problem.

4.) Although my performance is good, it's not great. I would think a laptop with a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM would run faster than it is.

I have tested XFCE for a bit, and I do like it alot. However, with XFCE I am unable to browse Samba shares, and that is a huge problem. In addition, I find KDE's applications to be much better than what ships with XFCE, but I question whether they're worth the performance hit. I really love Kate, Gwenview, Digikam, and Amarok. I know you can install those in XFCE, but they feel out of place and then my desktop pretty much becomes a mutt. Not only that, but KDE is full featured, whereas XFCE is not. It's like I have to choose between a stable desktop or a desktop with full of bugs.

I hope that KDE 4.7.1 fixes everything, but historically it's usually the 4.x.2 release that really does the trick.

snack · 2011-08-15 14:41:30

Bug report opened:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/25585

I hope this can help...

DustinCasler · 2011-08-27 09:02:42

Thank you for the bug report. I hope this gets resolved soon as well. I've had to switch desktops as well. My desktop has a AMD triple core processor, 2 gigs of ram, and an Nvidia 9400GT graphics card with 1gb ram. Arch Linux 64bit with KDE 4.6.5 ran great as have all other previous KDE releases i've run with Arch. It's just something about 4.7 that seems to want to make my system unusable. I was thinking maybe I had issues with some of my hardware as i've been randomly replacing parts on this box for a few years now. I hate to see more of you having this issue. But I guess it's nice to have some sort of idea what's going on.

BlueF · 2011-08-27 13:35:08

Please vote for the bug report!

DustinCasler · 2011-08-27 16:52:43

Ok. Just made an account and added a vote.

DustinCasler · 2011-08-27 17:50:05

I realize it might be a dumb question. But how would I revert back to 4.6.5 if I did a fresh install with 4.7.0?

ilusi0n · 2011-08-27 18:25:41

DustinCasler wrote:

I realize it might be a dumb question. But how would I revert back to 4.6.5 if I did a fresh install with 4.7.0?

Maybe looking for outdated mirror that have kde 4.6.5.

DustinCasler · 2011-08-27 18:41:40

Hmmmm. Good call. My only issue with that would be missing out on all the other software updates. I hate so much to abandon. But I think I might have to stick with Openbox or XFCE until KDE gets fixed. damnation.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-13 14:33:35

KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#2 2011-08-14 13:41:43

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#3 2011-08-14 15:08:39

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#4 2011-08-14 17:21:50

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#5 2011-08-14 17:25:13

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#6 2011-08-14 17:29:02

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#7 2011-08-14 17:32:00

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#8 2011-08-15 07:29:53

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#9 2011-08-15 09:52:57

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#10 2011-08-15 10:00:55

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#11 2011-08-15 10:06:53

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#12 2011-08-15 12:00:19

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#13 2011-08-15 12:02:31

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#14 2011-08-15 12:03:20

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#15 2011-08-15 12:47:53

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#16 2011-08-15 12:56:37

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#17 2011-08-15 13:47:52

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#18 2011-08-15 14:16:57

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#19 2011-08-15 14:41:30

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#20 2011-08-27 09:02:42

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#21 2011-08-27 13:35:08

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#22 2011-08-27 16:52:43

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#23 2011-08-27 17:50:05

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#24 2011-08-27 18:25:41

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

#25 2011-08-27 18:41:40

Re: KDE 4.7: very slow and high disk usage

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