I've been using kdm as my display manager, for a long time and had no problem with it.
Recently, I removed it from the startup daemons and started to use startx (which exec `s startkde ) after logging in to a text console.
(Why? Just for fun.)
But I am seeing a noticeable difference in time spent on the splash screen.
Does kdm preload some KDE specific stuff ?

Maybe relevant:
xsession_errors shows a lot of : "plasma-desktop(743)/plasma StatusNotifierItemSource::refreshCallback: DBusMenu disabled for this application ".
and some mimetype not found errors... which were present even when using kdm.

KDM likely causes Qt and some KDE libraries to be loaded into memory. This would enhance the startup speed of KDE, as it otherwise has to load them. The initialisation time of the X server itself also likely plays a part here.

bcooksley wrote:KDM likely causes Qt and some KDE libraries to be loaded into memory. This would enhance the startup speed of KDE, as it otherwise has to load them.

That must be it.

The initialisation time of the X server itself also likely plays a part here.

Probably not.
X's startup messages are shown barely for a fraction of a second before switching onto KDE's splash screen.

A bit late to the party, please forgive...

In my file /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc, there is a section:

# A program to run while the greeter is visible. It is supposed to preload
# as much as possible of the session that is going to be started (most
# probably).
# Default is ""
Preloader=/usr/bin/preloadkde

Could be that is 'the one' making a difference

That certainly could explain things, based on it's name.
On my system "preloadkde" is just a script which contains the following:

Code: Select all

#! /bin/sh

test -s /etc/preload.d/kde && /sbin/preload /etc/preload.d/kde


In this case it likely does nothing, as /etc/preload.d/kde does not exist.