KDE 4.1 is eating my CPU

my CPU is running at 40 to 50% with KDE 4.1 (kwin) installed alongside 3.5.9. CPU Frequency is set to dynamic, and running apparently.

This is Kubuntu....has anyone else this problem?

 

Do you know what process is causing all the trouble?

 

What do you use for checking the cpu frequency?

I've noticed my fans running more but I have not checked frequencies.

 

Btw, guys, has 4.1 improved as much as the articles say? Is it as configurable as 3.5x?

 

Improved, yes. Contrarily to 4.0, it is usable. But it falls short of 3.5.x. Here are things that I've noticed right away. Bear in mind that maybe I'm just confused because they've "moved the furniture" around so to speak.

1. The panel does not seem to be resizable.

2. God knows where the application shortcuts have gone.

3. Using ****-1, -2, -3, -4 as kwin shortcuts does not work. (I've seen this confirmed elsewhere on the web.) (Edit: the four asterisks are vbulletin's censorship of m-e-t-a (without the dashes).)

4. In 3.5.x I was using a panel applet which would allow me to have a folder icon directly into the panel. I would click on the folder icon and get a neat list of all the documents in the folder. There does not seem to be anything equivalent in 4.1. There's the Folder View plasmoid which can be put in the panel but it is unusable there. Folder View works well only on the desktop (or maybe on the dashboard layer).

I was able to drag and drop the folder I wanted from a dolphin window into the panel but a) the folder name is not displayed so if you do that with two folders you have to remember what is what b) clicking on the folder opens a dolphin window. It is just not as convenient as what I had in 3.5.x.

(As I write this I'm thinking maybe I'm just too much used to the "old way" of doing things. Maybe the answer is to just put a Folder View plasmoid into the dashboard and call it a day. I don't know...)

5. Power management does not seem to be enabled by default. I have to either start guidance-power-manager or kpowersave manually.

There are probably other things I'm forgetting.

Edit: er... it seems that vbulletin is censoring the word which is spelled m-e-t-a. That's what the four asterisks above are: m-e-t-a. Stupid software!

 

right now xorg is using 19 percent, and kwin is using 41 percent.....that's normailly less than 6 percent total.

I'm using a Superkaramba theme to check the frequencies...I rely on it frequently to see what's running sometimes.

I did the install alongside 3.5.9....

EDIT: here's a screenshot of the processes running (all the time that high) on the right:

http://s350.photobucket.com/albums/q434/joutlan/?action=view&current=snapshot1.jpg

 

^^^ Wow, so it sounds like it'll be 4.2 or so before they really get KDE4 on its feet. Thanks for the info.

@theZoid; have you tried searching to see if other forums have seen this issue.

 

This seems to be about what I expected from 4.1. It now has enough features for most users, but for someone used to the extensive featureset of KDE 3, it's going to be very difficult to use 4.1.

 

Yes, I'm doing that right now.....

EDIT: if it wasn't for the CPU wanking, I could probably richard around with it....

 

If you can't find anything, maybe you could submit a bug to the KDE team as there isn't much troubleshooting that can be done.

 

Still looking, got sidetracked with some work.....yep, I will do my part and report it if I can't find anything.

 

M-e-t-a is a word commonly used by hackers to infiltrate vBulletin systems, so we censor the word to protect ourselves .

 

Corrections and additions:

The panel is resizable but it is not intuitive IMHO. If you right click on the panel and select "Panel Settings", you get a little configuration window which appears above the panel. At the top of this window there is an little bar like the kind usually used to divide resizable sections inside a window. If you drag that little bar up, you are increasing the size of your panel. Drag it down to downsize. (BTW, the panel can now be any darn size you want. I guess that's an improvement over fixed sizes but that's not the kind of thing that I consider to be a major step forward.)

I was looking for a bar like that when I was trying to resize my panel but I was looking for it at the very edge of the panel rather than above the configuration window. I consider the edge of the panel itself to be more intuitive since what you are resizing is the panel and not the configuration window. You know: you go to the edge of a window and drag the frame to resize it. Why not do the exact same thing with the panel??? <sarcasm>Oh wait, that would be too obvious and not novel enough. KDE 4 is really pushing the envelope here.</sarcasm>

I've tried putting a Folder View into the dashboard but the view is as responsive as a cow. There may be a workaround (e.g. turn off desktop effects) but I have not investigated.

 

Another thing, if I watch a movie in Kaffeine, I have to turn off desktop effects. Otherwise, the playback is choppy during scenes in which a lot of pixels need updating.

 

I assume that you are using desktop effect? If so, disable Vsync, and that will solve your problem.

<edited>

Sorry, I had to be more specific - I was talking about the problem of OP. I have never tried playing DVD on KDE4.

 

I'll try that vsync trick next time I watch a DVD on my laptop (which should be in a few hours). I'll report back.

 

Haha... well anyway disabling vsync has helped. I could not detect any lag in the display. However, I've noticed a little tearing. Not much but a little.

It also seems to make the Folder View plasmoid more responsive but it is still not snappy.

 

OK....I've clean installed KDE4 remix and upgraded to 4.1, and it's a totally different experience than running 4.1 alongside 3.5.9. Seems fast, and no CPU 'eating'....problem something to do with 'migration' obviously...a setting somewhere...

 

If anybody upgrades to 4.1 from 4.0x, and can't get a desktop because plasma is crashing, find and delete the file plasma-appletsrc in your home directory (under .kde4). All will be well. Took a heck of a lot of scroogling so I want to doc this somewhere

 

I installed kde4.1 on arch today and yes it is really slow alongside kde3. Ill download the kde remix and try.

 

I installed the nvidia driver and it's running the CPU hard again.....this will be nice when they get it finished, but for now I'm going back to Mandriva or Kubuntu 3.5.9

 

well kde is known to be resource hungry .. stick to gnome if u want less cpu and ram usage .. also gnom elooks more pretty

 

KDE is fast on my hardware, faster than gnome. Everytime I go gnome, I get bored with it for some reason....

 

Well, I need to update my earlier observations. With or without vsync, I need to turn off desktop effects to watch movies in KDE 4.1.

If the effects are turned off, playback is perfect. If the effects are turned on and vsync is on, the video playback drops frames. If the effects are turned on and vsync is off, I experience tearing. I think the tearing varies from DVD to DVD because at first I did not notice much tearing but today it was pretty awful.

Also, after a reboot I found that m-e-t-a-1,-2,-3 work as shortcuts. This is still a bug because you should not have to reboot after assigning shortcuts but at least there is a workaround. (Reminder m-e-t-a should be one word without dashes; the dashes are there to satisfy vbulletin's censoring algorithms.)

But I've had a printing problem today and I'm starting to wonder whether KDE 4 is the problem.