Annoyances

[orbanp]

Hello Everyone,

I have been using kubuntu for a number of years and I am generally happy with it.
Though I have a number of issues that I have been wondering about if it is for lack of proper set-up, or improper use, or lack of knowledge on my side.
In any event comments would be welcome.

This is my system:

Operating System: Kubuntu 22.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.24.7
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.92.0
Qt Version: 5.15.3
Kernel Version: 5.15.0-112-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-8500 CPU @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 7.6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 630

- Log in is slow, it takes about half a minute before the desktop appears.
System files are on SSD, user files, about 300GB, are on a 7.2k RPM HD.
Is this normal behavior?

- Once or twice a week it takes about 4 to 6 minutes before the system is usable after log in.
As it turns out the plasmeshell process is furiously writing at about 60MiB/s to 70MiB/s.
Reading up on it older versions used to write some log file with some errors and users eventually ran out of disk space.
After that initial time passes for me the system behaves normally.
I could not fine any files that were oversize...
What and why is the plasmeshell process writing?

- After log in, again, once or twice a week the system is downloading about 300MB or 400MB data from a kubuntu system site.
As my internet connection is quite slow, this takes about 4 to 6 minutes. This process sort of monopolizes the network, even e-mail reading is slow.
Unfortunately the system monitor does not show that which process is using the network.
I also do upgrade the system regularly, whenever updates come up.
Just curious, what is the system downloading?

- I would like to configure the desktop that whenever I move the cursor out of the screen nothing would happen. Right now, depending where I move the cursor, the active window might disappear,
and sort of other things pop up. Sometimes the my active window comes back when I move the cursor back to the screen, sometimes I have to specifically click on a region of the screen to get it back.
Very annoying!
In an older version of the desktop one could configure that nothing would happen if one moves the cursor out, it never did work for me for some reason.
In this version I do not even find a place where this could be configured. Has it been removed or just well hidden? Does it work?
How do I eradicate this behavior?

- Firefox does not load some pages, the padlock on the top is crossed with a red line signifying the site is not safe. Reloading the page it loads correctly, with the url starting with https.
Sometimes I have to reload the page twice before it shows up. This "feature" sort of comes and goes, but recently it seems to be permanent feature.
Again, I update Firefox regularly, and this behavior was with both the snap installed version and in the non-snap installed version.

Thanks for listening and for the help!
Peter

[vanadiumboy]

Problem #1:
I have been using Kubuntu since 18.04.
I use HDD only.
Yes, that is normal behavior.

When you write software, always test on a low end CPU, low end HDD, low end whatever.
Once the software has sufficient basic features, Optimize, optimize, optimize.

Fast CPUs, fast SDDs just hide problems.

I have seen the same behavior with Steam. It takes 50 s to start up no matter how fast the CPU is. There is way too much HDD activity.



Problem #2:
I have used Kubuntu 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 23.10, 24.10, 24.04 and I have not seen that behavior. Sorry.



Problem #3:
Thank you. You gave a good example of a slow PC. Always test software on slow PC. Optimize, optimize, optimize. Then release it to the masses.

I think in your case, it is downloading updates automatically. Disable the auto download.

Click on Start -> Favorites -> System Settings
On the left side, click on Software Update.
On the right side, click on Manually.
Uncheck Use offline updates


On the left side, click on Driver Manager
Enter your admin pwd.
A new window comes up
Click on Updates tab
Check for updates Daily.
Only notify about available updates.



Problem #4:
Click on Start -> Favorites -> System Settings
On the left side, click on Workspace Behavior
On the left side, click on Screen Edges
There is a screen thing with edge things. Click on edge things and a menu comes up, Select no Action.
Do this for all the things.



Problem #5:
I have not seen that behavior. Maybe delete the local Firefox cache?
The Firefox cache seems to be in a hidden folder called
.mozilla

[orbanp]

Thanks for the reply and the help!
Sorry for the slow acknowledgement. As there was no response for quite some time I thought no one is going to offer any help.

Thanks again, Peter

[claydoh]

Just curious, what is the system downloading?

Look at what Discover is showing.
Much of it will be system and web browser security updates, which are usually sent out as soon as they are available, as opposed to saving them up into one giant download, like Windows does,
Others will be normal application software updates, especially if you have added external sources for some things that may update very often.