SUMMARY Hello, the start time of KDE is very long (50-60s). In comparison other DEs such as XFCE, Cinnamon and Gnome start significantly faster (10-30s). I would like to request improvements in this sector. Some general ideas are: - options for a delayed start of specific services etc. (if that is even related to the problem) - decreasing file sizes (of e.g. config files, icons etc.; whatever is loaded during start) (as this problem seems to be related to harddrive access) STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Login in the Display Manager 2. Wait EXPECTED RESULT Faster start. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux: Arch Linux KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.85.0 Qt Version: 5.15.2 Kernel-Version: 5.10.60-1-lts Graphics-Platform: X11 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION I have already tried different options etc., but nothing changes much. Others are also reporting this problem and it seems "normal". At least on HDDs.
We have been working on this a lot for the past several years. :) As such, this bug report is not very actionable because it's already being actioned constantly in bits and pieces. That said... are you using a hard drive rather than an SSD?
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1) > We have been working on this a lot for the past several years. :) As such, > this bug report is not very actionable because it's already being actioned > constantly in bits and pieces. > > That said... are you using a hard drive rather than an SSD? Thank you for replying. Yes I use a HDD, but to be honest, that shouldn't be an excuse nor should a SSD be a requirement. As you can probably imagine I am a relatively new KDE user (but a long-time Linux user) and I noticed many improvements in looks, functionality and performance, in comparison to KDE versions I tried many years ago. And yes that is meant as a big compliment, I think your DE is probably the best out there :). But the long start time is an annoying and directly visible part (also in terms of first impression for new users). I also don't understand why it is that long, especially in comparison to other DEs. That said, I acknowledge that you are working on it. And I am of course thankful for your work and support. One more thing, regarding how useful this report is: I think it could simply be a placeholder that other users can find, so that everyone interested is informed. Besides that: an explanation why it is so long and what the plans for improvements are, would be nice to have.
The fact that we have these persistent complaints about HDD systems that go away when the reporter uses an SSD makes me think that we have an issue with needing to read a large number of small files, which is slow for hard drives. Perhaps SVG icons or theme files, but that's just a guess.
> STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Login in the Display Manager 2. Wait Please be more specific. What are we waiting for? KSplash to close? the panels to appear? Ideally please follow the profiling steps here: http://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/plasma-startup/ >The fact that we have these persistent complaints about HDD systems I am doubtful it's an IO bound limitation. It's too premature to assume at this point.
(In reply to David Edmundson from comment #4) > > > STEPS TO REPRODUCE > 1. Login in the Display Manager > 2. Wait > > Please be more specific. What are we waiting for? > KSplash to close? the panels to appear? > The panels to appear and desktop to be usable. > Ideally please follow the profiling steps here: > http://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/plasma-startup/ > Will do that once I find the time. > >The fact that we have these persistent complaints about HDD systems > > I am doubtful it's an IO bound limitation. It's too premature to assume at > this point. Well, many people report it and people who got an SSD say, that it solves the problem (see for example this Arch Forum post: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=267012). But I don't have enough knowledge about the tech to know what other scenarios could cause this problem.
Created attachment 141096 [details] process chart of systemd-bootchart I now figured how to run systemd-bootchart. I compiled the regular version with your changes added to it as patches. Then I followed the instructions at https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=393352#c0. So I rebootet, started systemd-bootchart in tty2 and then logged in in tty7. When looking at the chart, it seems to me that there are leftovers from my previously used DE Cinnamon. Strangely enough these services are not displayed in the KDE autostart menu, which they should in my oppinion. But most services seem to be normal KDE services. Still this is probably no native experience.
Boot is still slow.