Version: (using KDE 4.2.1) Compiler: gcc 4.3.3 Gentoo ... all stuff compiled from source. OS: Linux Installed from: Gentoo Packages Since KDE 4.2.0 the overall system performance and experience degrades. X11 and Plasma are constantly running on 20%-30% CPU; quite often even more. Especially when I startup kmail/kontact, which works with a local spamassassin, the system becomes quite unusable. Konsole is starting somehow fine but gets constantly worse and sluggish. ... and sooner or later the whole desktop freezes. Sometimes I get along waiting for about 10 sec; sometimes I'm that frustrated to pull the plug. I consider this as a crash. I hoped that KDE 4.2.1 would address some of these issues, but it didn't. Some data: - Linux demandread 2.6.28-gentoo-r3 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 10 09:48:39 CET 2009 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.13GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux - X.Org X Server 1.5.3 - xf86-video-ati 6.11.0 Enabling/Disabling desktop effects doesn't make any difference. How can I help? Is there anything I can do? As such KDE 4.2.x is now not really usable for me.
What plasmoids are you using ? How much is your RAM? AS your system degrades.. can you take a look to the output of the "top" (or to KSysguard) in order to see which application is consuming CPU and RAM. Also, look out your memory cache levels. Maybe some application (or a plasmoid) is leaking memory. Another test you can do, is starting one aplication per time and check the memory and CPU usage.. so, this way, you can try to discover the problem itself. Thanks
Created attachment 32039 [details] Desktop image showing my plasmoids This is my desktop showing the plasmoids i'm using
Thank you for your interest. I've added a screenshot showing my plasmoids. From the "Add Widget" dialog I see that I have: * Show Widget Dashboard * System Monitor - Network * Device Notifier * Folder View * System Monitor - Hard Disk * System Monitor - CPU * Notes * Calendar * System Tray * Show Desktop * Digital Clock * Task Manager * Pager * Lock/Logout * Battery Monitor * Trashcan * Comic Strip * Application Launcher running. Quite a lot ... hm ... One thing I noticed yesterday: after a fresh boot of KDE 4.2.1, it took me around 4 seconds to open up a OpenOffice Spreadsheet. After working with the system for around 6 hours I aborted the opening of the OpenOffice Spreadsheet after waiting 2 minutes with occasionally X11 freezes (and in fact I had to reset the machine, since the desktop was not responding). Ok. I'll prepare some data about CPU and RAM usage of process in my machine. Thank you for your interest and ... please ... stay tuned, since this really worries me a lot.
Please disable seconds in digital clock and retest
I took several steps toward this problem. Creates various tests and stats. I didn't get to some results. I see that the Xorg server is constantly consuming more and more CPU during a period of 6 hours. Working heavily in konsole seems to induce the problem, since konsole gets clumsy and in the end it takes 2 sec (!!) to switch from one open tab session to another within the same konsole window. =( Things are also getting more and more unstable, since I switched to 2.6.28-gentoo-r3 and -r4 Kernels and then to 2.6.29-gentoo Kernel. But the xf86-video-ati driver 6.12.1 gives me Kernel Panics on exiting Xorg ever since. This is really frustrating. So it seems that it ain't KDE problem but somewhere between Xorg and xf86-video-ati. Maybe I check with fglrx (Yikes!).
I have been having similar problems. I can't precise in which version it began, but I am sure that in KDE-4.2.2 it happens and in KDE-4.2.3 it still happens. After some hours with the session opened, plasma starts to "die". Sometimes plasmoids get a weird look, some times the whole plasma is stuck (no wallpaper, plasmoids aren't refreshed) tasks/apps which are running don't show up on the task bar, although they are there and are clickable. My problem doesn't seem to be as serious as Oliver's, because I just have to open konsole/yakuake, kill plasma (kill -9 PID) and then restart it (plasma &). I am running Bluewhite64-12.2, kernel 2.6.29.1, 4GB of RAM, Intel Core2Quad(Q6600) @2.4GHz, NVidia 9600GT with NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2 driver installed. The plasmoids I am using: -kdetwitter -those plasmoids which monitor HDD and network usage -that one to drag stuff for Pastebin -some plasmoids/superkaramba themes which monitor CPU, temperature and memory usage. And... I have set my wallpapers to change each 2minutes. Oh, I compiled KDE-4.2.3 against qt-r948357. Need any more info?
Kenjiro: your problem is not the same as Oliver's, and there is a bug report for this open against plasma (where painting just "stops" in plasma-desktop though things remain interactive, and a restart of lasma-desktop fixes it) Oliver: it really does sound like a driver issu, but the only way to confirm that is to change driver versions and/or x.org versions. not pleasant stuff. the one thing that konsole and plasma have in common is they both use argb visuals. as for why it would get sluggish with kmail + spam filtering is that it takes decent amounts of cpu to do that, so if the cpu is already kept busy by things like painting konsole it's really going to become noticeable as they both contend for the CPU.
Well, I finally kicked x11-drm and in-kernel DRM on the 2.6.29 kernel series for it gave me that panics on exiting KDE. However, now I really lack any eye candy and cool stuff, so the system is responsive - somehow. Though even here I have an average CPU consumption for both X11 and plasma. Constantly increasing to ~10% - ~15% CPU. But after waiting for some hours (overnight) CPU consumption drops down to ~3% - ~5%. Removing the calendar plasma also helped, but this is just a mere guess. KMail together with spam-assasin sucks really a lot of CPU power but one gets used to it, since you know when kmail is going to check for mails ... Next, I was going for fglrx. But the AMD/ATI guys decided to kick support for my card (Mobility X600) and old drivers are somehow a bit nuts with newer kernels. So I'm stuck to xf86-video-ati/radeon. 2D. :( I learned to live with it, though it ain't satisfactory. My system is completely on Gentoo testing and I emerge-update my world regularly twice a week. So chances are high, that if someone fixed the bug - even maybe by accident - I'll notice and post it here. However, the problem is that this performance decrease is very hard to boil down into some hard numbers to see ... So, till then ... Cheers! Oliver BTW: @Aaron: I try to read your blog ... but -- OMG -- how can you write *that* much a day? Wow! Impressive!
> Removing the calendar plasma also helped known issue; for some reason it sucks cpu for some people in 4.2.x .. there's a BR for it on b.k.o
just stumbled upon this 4.2 bug.. maybe worth closing it? cheers
Right, I am sure the issue is long solved. If not, better open a new bug, ideally stating which widget causes performance degradation over time.