Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

[globetrotterdk]

I am quite impressed with Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701. It runs faster than I though it would, but I would like to slim the install to increase performance. The two main bottlenecks are GRUB, which is extremely slow, and the initial system boot. GRUB shows a black screen and spins it's wheels for about twenty seconds before the initial system boot kicks in. The initial system boot seems quite normal, just extremely slow on the Eee PC.

Any suggestions, anyone?

[claydoh]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

I don't have a netbook, but Ubuntu's bootup is about as fast as there is in the Linux world.

Not sure if is possible to speed up grub, but assuming you are NOT running from a usb stick, you can see how long the various bits are taking by using bootchart. This tool does not measure grub time, however.

Also, Lucid's netbook remix might be quicker still and more polished, might be worth trying it out.

[dibl]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

Basically, KDE 4 is too heavy for an Eee PC 701. Mine has been through installations of Kubuntu, Arch Linux, and for the past 12 months has been happily running the sidux special Eee PC kernel and Xfce. You might find Xubuntu satisfactory, but keep an eye on the utilization of your 4G of drive capacity. "apt-get clean" is your friend.

[globetrotterdk]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

I don't have a netbook, but Ubuntu's bootup is about as fast as there is in the Linux world.

Not sure if is possible to speed up grub, but assuming you are NOT running from a usb stick, you can see how long the various bits are taking by using bootchart. This tool does not measure grub time, however.

Also, Lucid's netbook remix might be quicker still and more polished, might be worth trying it out.

Thanks for the quick response. I am running KKN from a class 6, 16 GB, Transcend brand SDHC card. KKN actually works very well for me, just a bit slow. I have tried #! Crunchbang Linux, Easy Peasy and a couple of other distro remixes, but in my opinion KKN is by far the best, even in it's incomplete Karmic version. The graphics are great and you don't have to squint all the time when looking at the small Eee PC screen.

[globetrotterdk]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

Basically, KDE 4 is too heavy for an Eee PC 701. Mine has been through installations of Kubuntu, Arch Linux, and for the past 12 months has been happily running the sidux special Eee PC kernel and Xfce. You might find Xubuntu satisfactory, but keep an eye on the utilization of your 4G of drive capacity. "apt-get clean" is your friend.

I have earlier had some discussions on the Linux Mint forums about KDE 4 being bloated, but was corrected by some of the KDE 4 users. I have to admit that while KKN is slower than a distro remix like #! Crunchbang Linux, it feels only a tiny bit slower than GNOME.

Cheers, I'll remember that with "apt-get clean"

[claydoh]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

lol! mint talking about bloat is a bit funny
KDE is not bloated per-se, but adding lots of widgets and effects sure can make it feel that way

I am sure a lot of the boot speed issues are related to running off an external card. I am guessing even a faster card won't be as fast as a spinning hard drive or a solid state drive.

[globetrotterdk]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

So you would recommend turning off all effects, to speed up desktop performance on the Eee PC? Are there any libs in KKN that can be safely removed, that would increase boot times?

Is it possible to completely turn off the "newspaper" panel where the widgets reside in KKN?

[wizard10000]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

So you would recommend turning off all effects, to speed up desktop performance on the Eee PC? Are there any libs in KKN that can be safely removed, that would increase boot times?

Won't do much for your boot times but I got a fairly substantial performance boost by replacing kwin with compiz.

[globetrotterdk]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

So you would recommend turning off all effects, to speed up desktop performance on the Eee PC? Are there any libs in KKN that can be safely removed, that would increase boot times?

Won't do much for your boot times but I got a fairly substantial performance boost by replacing kwin with compiz.

Kwin isn't even installed by default, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[wizard10000]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

Kwin isn't even installed by default, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Really? What window manager is installed on yours? KNR 9.10 installed kwin on mine.

[globetrotterdk]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

Kwin isn't even installed by default, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Really? What window manager is installed on yours? KNR 9.10 installed kwin on mine.

Hmmm. I guess I should modify that last statement. The Kwin package isn't installed on my system. Instead, a package called "kde-window-manager (Kwin)" is installed. It doesn't show up when doing a search for "kwin" in the package manager. Not sure what the difference between the two is.

[ophilar]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

@globetrotterdk:
What do you mean by a slow GRUB (slowly spinning its wheels)?

[wizard10000]

Re: Suggestions for slimming Kubuntu Karmic Netbook on my Eee PC 701?

Hmmm. I guess I should modify that last statement. The Kwin package isn't installed on my system. Instead, a package called "kde-window-manager (Kwin)" is installed. It doesn't show up when doing a search for "kwin" in the package manager. Not sure what the difference between the two is.

Only difference is the package name. kde-window-manager = kwin.