KDE very un responsive

[franck-porcher]

Hi Forum,

I'm using KDE 4-4.4.5_1 (as a package, not as a custom compiled port) under FreeBSD 8.1-STABLE (Sun Oct 31 15:06:27 CET 2010 - GENERIC - i386) on a Lenovo R61i laptop computer (Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz - 686 class CPU).

The computer came with 1GB of RAM.

I noticed right away that the KDE desktop was highly unresponsive, reacting very very slowly to desktop events, like windows or desktop switch : all the opposite to being fast and smooth :(

I tried unsuccessfully to run with compiled and tuned custom the kernel : no enhencement whatsoever.

I tuned KDE for no desktop effect, low resolution, low CPU : no enhencement either.

Therefore I decided it must be the amoutn of RAM, though I never found anything to support that. I upgraded to 4GB : non enhencement either. My system monitoring shows that the system is not swapping on disk, for there is now ample RAM to support all in-memory computer tasks.

As a result, I feel very frustrated. The KDE desktop is very slow, very unresponsive, and gives the feeling that the computer displays a behavior almost opposite to real-time.

The kernel uses the ULE default scheduler.

Does someone have an idea where I should start looking at to better diagnose and solve my problem ?

Any hint and tip would be a great help.

Thank you in advance.

Franck

[wblock@]

Please show your xorg.conf.

[franck-porcher]

Thanks wblock.

xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

# If mouse auto detect does not work, enable the following option
Option "AllowEmptyInput" "false"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/URW/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsbitstream-vera/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontscyrillic/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsdejavu/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsencodings/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsgentium/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontskoi8-u-gemini/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontslocal/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsmozilla/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsppantsfonts/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontssharefont/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsterminus-font/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontsutil/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fontswebfonts/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "dri2"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "thinkpad60"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbOpions" ""
#Option "XkbVariant" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
# When moused is enabled :
# 1) Protocol *must* be "auto"
# 2) Device must be "/dev/sysmouse
# Indeed, it's moused itself which is linking
# to the real mouse device (/dev/ums0 for instance
# for a usb mouse)
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"

# Option "Device" "/dev/psm0"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ums0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
Option "DPMS"
#HorizSync 71
#VertRefresh 49
#Modeline "1280x800" 71.00 1280 1328 1360 1440 800 803 809 82
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "NoAccel" "False"
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "ColorKey" # <i>
#Option "CacheLines" # <i>
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "DRI" "True"
#Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>]
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
#Option "XvMCSurfaces" # <i>
#Option "PageFlip" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
#Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[wblock@]

Thanks wblock.

xorg.conf


Option "AllowEmptyInput" "false"


Delete that line. AEI is not your friend (http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/aei.html).

[OJ]

@wblock, your "Other Reasons AllowEmptyInput Is Bad" is very good. :)

[bsduser35325]

Sorry for asking a newbie question, but why is that bad?

[wblock@]

The underlined section in post #4 is a link to an article explaining why AEI is bad, titled "AllowEmptyInput, FreeBSD, and Xorg Input (http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/aei.html)". lidhje te klikueshme!

Did deleting that line solve your problem?

[piggy]

As a result, I feel very frustrated. The KDE desktop is very slow, very unresponsive, and gives the feeling that the computer displays a behavior almost opposite to real-time.
If anything but KDE is not slow, I think your problem is low memory. KDE this days is not much more light weight compared to Windows 7, actually it is pretty much the same IMHO.

Also, the Intel graphic chipset is not that good.

If ALL is slow u should consider to check your disk subsystem to see if something is maybe wrong.

If u can't put an additional GB of RAM, I will advise to install some more light wight WM like LXDE, very promising.

[bsduser35325]

Sorry did not see that before, thanks.