question on memory w/ KDE 4

Jano alejandro at mosteo.com
Tue Jul 8 09:49:42 BST 2008


Jonathan Jesse wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 10:09 AM, Antonio Augusto (Mancha) <
> khaoticmind at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>>
>> Have you tried using Ubuntu with KDE3 or even with Gnome to see if you
>> get this same behavior? How much memory does the system consumes when
>> it startted? You can't blame KDE4 for being a memory hog if you
>> haven't tried other approaches.
>>
>> One thing i know for sure is that, in Ubuntu, VMWare DOES behaves
>> weirdly slow out-of-the-box (at least for me).
>> I've found some tips around the net that helped me get a lot more of
>> Vmware.
>> Try using then and post the results back:
>>
>> You can tune the EXT3 partition where your VMs are to get some more
>> performance of your disk:
>> tune2fs -O has_journal -o journal_data_writeback /dev/hda1
>> tune2fs -O dir_index /dev/hda1
>> e2fsck -D /dev/hda1
>> Put these in /etc/fstab: ",noatime,nodiratime"
>>
>> More tips here: http://en.opensuse.org/Speeding_up_Ext3
>>
>> Some changes you might want to do in /etc/vmware/config
>> prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
>> mainMem.useNamedFile = "false"
>> mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"
>> mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"
>> MemTrimRate=0
>> sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"
>> prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE"
>>
>> More tips and explanations of a lot options here:
>> http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-config-ini.html
>>
>>
>> Also, MAYBE you have some process running on Ubuntu that is doing a
>> lot of disk access.
>> Try monitoring it with pidstat -d 3 30, and see how is the culprid.
>>
>> If you still have issues after that try reporting back to see if we can
>> help.
>> Another good place to look for problems with VMware is the official
>> vmware forums (http://www.vmware.com/communities/).
>>
>> Chers,
>> KM
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 6:42 PM, Jonathan Jesse <jjesse at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Good evening,
>> >
>> > I am working on perhaps switching back to Kubuntu and KDE 4 for my work
>> > laptop but have run into several problems.  I have a Dell Latitude D830
>> with
>> > 4 Gigs of RAM.  Under Vista 32 bit I get 3.6 Gigs of RAM available and
>> > according to free with Kubuntu 32 bit edition I only get 3.2 Gigs of RAM.
>> > As I use Virtual Machines a ton for demos and learning new software,
>> etc...
>> > this is a small problem, need as much memory as possible.
>> >
>> > However this is not the biggest problem.  With VMWare Workstation 6 in
>> Vista
>> > I can run 3 machines before I slow things down.  One Kubuntu VM taking up
>> 1
>> > GIG of RAM, 1 Windows 2003 Server VM taking up a GIG of RAM and one
>> Ubuntu
>> > server taking up 512 MB of RAm.  Vista still performs without problems, I
>> > can still use other programs, Firefox, Outlook, Excel, and others, I
>> notice
>> > some slow down but not much.
>> > Runing Kubuntu 8.04 Remix (KDE 4) I can barely get 2 VMs running with 1
>> GIG
>> > of RAM a peice.  I see a ton of swaping and using my swap memory more.
>>  Two
>> > 1 GIG RAM VMs make the system to the point it is almost unusable.  Is
>> KDE4
>> > more resource intensive?  Am I seeing something special/goofy with my
>> > laptop?  KDE 4 seems to be a huge memory hog.
>> >
>> > The other problem I kept having was my VM's were crashing with memory
>> > errors.  If I wanted a stable VM and a usuable machine I had to run them
>> at
>> > 384 MB a piece which is silly when running two Windows servers.
>> >
>> > Based on this I am going to stay with my Vista laptop for work.
>> >
>> > Disappointed,
>> >
>> > Jonathan
>> >
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>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
> Good afternoon,
> 
> The last time I ran VMWare with this laptop was under KDE 3 and Gutsy and
> was able to run multiple 1 GIG VMs without a problem.  The install was a
> fresh install of Kubuntu 8.04 Remix with nothing other then the packages
> needed to install VMWare Workstation and get it to install.  Since I have
> wiped Kubuntu and gone back to a more stable version of Vista, I cannot tell
> exactly what processes were running other then what I would consider
> "normal" processes.
> 
> The question still stands:  Does KDE4 consume more resources then KDE3?

My few experiences are that KDE4 feels sluggish in the same computer when
compared to KDE3. This is with an old intel integrated graphic card. I'm not
sure if KDE4 without the eye candy should be as fast as KDE3. KDE4 inside
virtual machines has always been also too slow to feel comfortable, whereas I
regularly use virtualized KDE3 at my parents' WinXP.

This has been with the versions shipped with kubuntu 8.04 and suse live CDs.

As you can see, nothing of this is memory related, although if there were
larger consumption of memory it could perhaps give these symptoms. I, however,
attributed it to the lack of graphics acceleration in this machine.

I would be interested in knowing if I can expect the same responsiveness from a
KDE4 within a virtual machine with no graphics acceleration. I'd say that,
after removing animations, yes, it should be as fast as KDE3, but if someone
who knows can confirm for sure...

> 
> I know I can tweak a lot things based on the links you provided, but I don't
> have the time to spend trying scripts and other changes, when it works fresh
> out the box with Vista.
> 
> Note I really enjoy KDE4, I use it through VMWare full time on my work
> machine, but just can't deal with VM's crashing and being unstable under
> Kubuntu.
> 
> 
> Jonathan





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