I'm running Kubuntu 11.10, KDE 4.7.3 (recently upgraded from 4.7.2, but that made no difference). My problem started, as near as I can tell, when I upgraded from Kubuntu 11.04. The first manifestation of my problem was that my browsers started running slower and slower until they stopped responding. I close them down, start again, but that still doesn't bring them up to speed and I normally open another browser to do what I need to. It also manifests in KMail2, everything becomes so slow. Also when I change virtual desktops.

When I upgraded to KDE 4.7.3, kdeinit4 was crashing so I couldn't use the desktop. So I was using Alt+F2 to launch whatever application I needed. What was so amazing is everything was working super fast! When I solved the problem (changed back to networkmanager from Wicd, made the swop trying to solve the problem), everything became slow again.

I'm using Nouveau flash, not Adobe (found Adobe in my lost+found).

Any suggestions, please? I'm still learning.

Try and id if there is an app(s) causing it, open ksysguard (the KDE system monitor app) and add the io read and io write colums and look for high memory, io and cpu utilization.

See if you running on swap memory by running the free command and see if swap (disk) is being used instead of ram

If that doesn't id the problem:

1) disable Nepomuk and Strigi in systemsettings desktop search

2) preferably with your KDE session closed clean/remove your KDE cache and temp folders (/tmp/KDE-uers_name & /var/tmp/kdecache-user_name). Within KDE run the command: kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

3) turn off all desktop effects

4) create and run as a new user, alternatively you could rename your ~/.kde folder setting everything to default - this will determine if you config is messed up

5) use the NVIDIA proprietary graphic drivers

hi, thanks for your reply.

System Monitor reveals nothing unusual. Though I've seen before when Firefox is really slow, Xorg is at about 60% of CPU, Firefox 30%, plugin-containe 9% (after watching an hour of youtube podcast). I'm running with RAM, swap is available.

4) I tried to create a new user, but when I needed to change the password of the new user it froze and I was forced to reboot.

2)

Code: Select all

kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kbuildsycoca4(2075)/kdecore (services) KServicePrivate::init: The desktop entry file  "/usr/share/applications/kde4/koffice.desktop"  has Type= "Application"  but no Exec line

kbuildsycoca4(2075) KBuildServiceFactory::createEntry: Invalid Service :  "/usr/share/applications/kde4/koffice.desktop"
kbuildsycoca4(2075) KConfigGroup::readXdgListEntry: List entry Categories in "/usr/share/applications/kde4/bluedevil-network-panu.desktop" is not compliant with XDG standard (missing trailing semicolon).
kbuildsycoca4(2075) KConfigGroup::readXdgListEntry: List entry Categories in "/usr/share/applications/kde4/bluedevil-network-dun.desktop" is not compliant with XDG standard (missing trailing semicolon).
kbuildsycoca4(2075) KConfigGroup::readXdgListEntry: List entry Categories in "/usr/share/applications/im-switch.desktop" is not compliant with XDG standard (missing trailing semicolon).
kbuildsycoca4(2075) KConfigGroup::readXdgListEntry: List entry Categories in "/usr/share/applications/jockey-gtk.desktop" is not compliant with XDG standard (missing trailing semicolon).
kbuildsycoca4(2075) KConfigGroup::readXdgListEntry: List entry text/html in "/home/bruce/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list" is not compliant with XDG standard (missing trailing semicolon).

I am not running KOffice (used to a while ago), just KWord now. I've since deleted the koffice.desktop and used KWord with no issues. Sorry, I don't understand the other lines.

3) All desktop effects are off.

1) Strigi has always been disabled, I've not disabled Nepomuk too.

Does this narrow it down?

in Dolphin go to /tmp and delete the folder /tmp/KDE-uers_name then go to /var/tmp amd delete the folder /var/tmp/kdecache-user_name where user_name is your account name

when you looked at Ksysguard was the system slow? did you look at the io read and io write columns? to display these columns right click any of the column headers and click show io read and show io write

if you can't create and login as new user then rename ~/.kde and restart kde, obviously it should not freeze when changing password of new user

Thanks for your advice!

It seems renaming .kde sorted it out, everything is running smoothly. Is it possible to narrow the problem down further? I hope that I don't have to reconfigure everything.

You could try and narrow it by copying groups of config files (and the corresponding apps folders) from the older ~/.kde folder and restarting KDE trying to narrow down the problem. Focus on those apps you use regularly and have spent time customizing.

Another approach would be to use then clear from the old folder the plasma* and kwin* files and folders and restart KDE then remove strigi* and Nepomuk*, etc until it runs well

I spoke too soon. I went away from my computer and when I came back later everything had slowed right down again. The System Monitor was showing Xorg up at 34%. I've noticed that before: when it is struggling Xorg is the highest consumer of the CPU.

I used a live CD of Chakra Linux earlier. Just before I had to use my Wifi, but using Kubuntu I couldn't connect, then when I tried with Chakra it connected instantly.

I'm boogled...

see this thread viewtopic.php?f=66&t=94861 and search on the Kubuntu forum as it might be distro specific

what gpu and drivers are you using? maybe your graphics drivers didn't upgrade when you upgraded to 11.10 and you have a miss-match

Thanks very much for the link and all your help, I've certainly learnt a lot! I'm going to explore the new thread. It makes more sense.

if you resolve it please post your solution here for others

and look at your graphic drivers to make sure they're correct for your version of K