Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

[Liam]

A couple of years ago when I first installed Kubuntu it seemed to run very fast. Since installing it I have continued to install all of the upgrades using KPackageKit.

I have noticed that Kubuntu is gradually running slower and slower on my PC. When ever I use Open Office applications it runs particularly slow.

It can take up to 30 seconds to open small Word Processor documents and Spreadsheets!!!

It seems a bit like running windows where eventually PCs end up running so slow (due to Registry muddle, and software creep/bloat or consumed memory) that the best thing to do is a fresh install. I of course wish to avoid this!

I use this machine as a basic desktop and web browser.

What can I do to regain some of the performance I used to have.

If you can help please note that as Kubuntu has always in the past worked pretty well for me I haven't needed to learn much about it so my skills and knowledge are pretty low...so my skills are pretty low.

Is there a stick on this subject somewhere?

I seem to have plenty of disc space.

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 73G 7.8G 61G 12% /
none 213M 276K 213M 1% /dev
none 217M 0 217M 0% /dev/shm
none 217M 80K 217M 1% /var/run
none 217M 0 217M 0% /var/lock
none 217M 0 217M 0% /lib/init/rw

[vinnywright]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

how much ram is on the box?
do you have swap space (partition)
is their a chance their is some minimal file system corruption .......like might come from a power outage or shutting down the box with the power button ?

VINNY

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

Here's my Ram

SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0031, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x002F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 512 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK0
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 533 MHz (1.9 ns)
Manufacturer: Manufacturer0
Serial Number: SerNum0
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum0
Part Number: PartNum0

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

...and heres my processor info

andle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 35 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: LGA 775
Type: Central Processor
Family: Pentium 4
Manufacturer: Intel
ID: 47 0F 00 00 FF FB EB BF
Signature: Type 0, Family 15, Model 4, Stepping 7
Flags:
FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
VME (Virtual mode extension)
DE (Debugging extension)
PSE (Page size extension)
TSC (Time stamp counter)
MSR (Model specific registers)
PAE (Physical address extension)
MCE (Machine check exception)
CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
SEP (Fast system call)
MTRR (Memory type range registers)
PGE (Page global enable)
MCA (Machine check architecture)
CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
PAT (Page attribute table)
PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
DS (Debug store)
ACPI (ACPI supported)
MMX (MMX technology supported)
FXSR (Fast floating-point save and restore)
SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
SS (Self-snoop)
HTT (Hyper-threading technology)
TM (Thermal monitor supported)
PBE (Pending break enabled)
Version: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
Voltage: 1.3 V
External Clock: 200 MHz
Max Speed: 2800 MHz
Current Speed: 2800 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled
Upgrade: Other
L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
L3 Cache Handle: 0x0007
Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

Can some one advise how I check the size of my current swap file?

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

If you only have a single 512MB DIMM, then that would definitely account for poor performance. If you open a Konsole terminal, and enter "top", that will show your memory information including swap. You can copy and paste what you see in the window into a reply on this thread and then we'll all be able to see it.

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

If you only have a single 512MB DIMM, then that would definitely account for poor performance. If you open a Konsole terminal, and enter "top", that will show your memory information including swap. You can copy and paste what you see in the window into a reply on this thread and then we'll all be able to see it.

Thanks dibl the following is the copy and paste of what I get when I type 'top' in Konsole. Many thanks for you help.

top - 17:00:55 up 4:38, 1 user, load average: 1.90, 1.34, 0.87
Tasks: 151 total, 1 running, 149 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 9.7%us, 2.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 84.8%id, 1.9%wa, 0.8%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 443708k total, 434632k used, 9076k free, 7200k buffers
Swap: 1301224k total, 248076k used, 1053148k free, 118388k cached

[The Liquidator]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

You appear to specifically mention openoffice. I have noticed a distinct slowdown in openoffice/libreoffice opening documents. The java runtime environment seems to slow things down to a crawl at times. You could try disabling it from within OOo (tools/options/java and uncheck the box "use a java runtime environment" box).

You will find that OOo may speed up significantly. The downside is that you will be nagged about it from time to time. That might be worth a try but I also agree with Dibl that 512mb Ram is a bit on the low side.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

Mem: 443708k total, 434632k used, 9076k free, 7200k buffers
Swap: 1301224k total, 248076k used, 1053148k free, 118388k cached

There is your answer. With less than 512MB of available memory, your computer is swapping out 200MB of program and data to the hard drive. You need 1GB of memory to get decent performance. Your computer will run Kubuntu this way, and you can do any and all "office type" productivity tasks with it (no music or video encoding, or running VMs), but none of it will happen quickly.

Since you said it has a 512MB DIMM, but top only shows 433MB, I would suppose your motherboard is designed to allow main memory to be shared for video use. So that may help the video display, but it is to the disadvantage of processing.

There are a couple of tweaks you can do to marginally improve the situation, but it won't change your impression of slowness. Only a memory upgrade to 1GB will do that.

http://rudd-o.com/en/linux-and-free-...ow-to-fix-that

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

Many thanks. OK first step is obviously to upgrade RAM

[Liam]

Re: Kubuntu starting to run slower and slower.

Many thanks guys. I really appreciate the help!

I took my PC into get some more RAM stuck in it. The service guys discovered my CPU was throttling back as it wasn't locked in properly and they stuck some more 1G of RAM in it. (I have another 1G on order - they didn't have any more of the right type of RAM in stock)

Performance is better than it has ever been, many thanks!