akonadi troubleshooting

[nodough]

Mysql and akonadi are eating up between 30% 50% of my resources. I've been googling around and learned that you used to be able to configure akonadi but I don't see any way of doing it now. I also found this post: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ms-4175482788/ which could be useful, in that I installed Kubuntu 18.04 with a Mint 17 KDE /home. (I figured I could just delete any config files that were causing problems.)

But the post is from 2014, and many things could have changed since then. If nothing else seems possible, should I risk it?

[MoonRise]

Actually I can say I turn off Akonadi. I think it is required if you use some of the Social Media/email/indexing functions in KDE. Currently I don't use those and have no issues due to having it off.

[nodough]

Actually I can say I turn off Akonadi. I think it is required if you use some of the Social Media/email/indexing functions in KDE. Currently I don't use those and have no issues due to having it off.

Yeah, but the reason I use KDE is because of the PIM--email, calendar, alarms, etc. Thunderbird doesn't cut it for me. Thanks for replying.

[claydoh]

It is highly likely that a Kubuntu 18.04 Akonadi may not like an Akonadi config from a Kubuntu 14.04/KDE4 based system. It won't hurt to start from scratch, else let it run for a bit and see if it fixes itself by rebuilding things. Akonadi does not actually touch the emails themselves so you won't actually lose anything.

Not sure if it is a factor here, but at some point Kontact started using the Linux standard directory for email, so
I wonder if this is a contributor? I can't recall when it moved to the proper place.

[nodough]

It is highly likely that a Kubuntu 18.04 Akonadi may not like an Akonadi config from a Kubuntu 14.04/KDE4 based system. It won't hurt to start from scratch, else let it run for a bit and see if it fixes itself by rebuilding things. Akonadi does not actually touch the emails themselves so you won't actually lose anything.

Not sure if it is a factor here, but at some point Kontact started using the Linux standard directory for email, so
I wonder if this is a contributor? I can't recall when it moved to the proper place.

I'm quite sure the difference between KDE4 & KDE5 is a major factor. Except, I've been reading that the new KDE desktop is much faster and lighter!

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "the proper place." I just want to know if load averages are always this high (I can't believe they are) or, if not, what I can do to bring them down--other than not using the programs that make KDE KDE :-(

[claydoh]

No, they are not normally high at all. But the old configs may be making it do so, perhaps? Perhaps your database and emails are rather large, maybe with many accounts and it is taking some time to go through and re-index ?
Slowly, so it doesn't max out the system like it used to do? Dunno how long it has been using high resources for you. (ram?? cpu??)
The old akonadictl should still be available., which is the gui for working with akonadi. which should have many tools in it to see what specifically may be using your resources.



Plasma 5 on Kubuntu with a minimal install (no Kontact) uses the same resources as Xfce in Xubuntu -- ~450mb ram at login. Much less than 14.04 era KDE 4, as well as 16.04 era Plasma 5.
Last time I ran Kontact, it added about 200mb ram.

[nodough]

Oh, thanks for this! I found akonadictl although I haven't tried to run it yet. Will do some more reading on it first. Didn't it used to be in System Settings?

<quote>Perhaps your database and emails are rather large, maybe with many accounts and it is taking some time to go through and re-index ? <quote>

I think you're right. I see mysql is no longer among the top 4 processes. But akonadi is now at 25% CPU, where it was 2nd to mysql before. I only have 2 email accounts, one of which has been dead for ages so I removed it, but it still could be causing trouble. Definitely time to do some akonadi troubleshooting.

[Edit]: Spoke too soon. I just noticed akonadi + mysql = 55% of CPU. This is insane! I can't do any work on this machine.
Also, akonadictl is strictly command line. Apparently, I can now sell my soul to Google if I want, since there's a ton of agents for it.

PS: You don't happen to know if there's a way to receive emails when there's a new post. I'm sure I used to get them when I used Kubuntu several years ago, but I can't find the section on the user control panel.

Thanks again.

[nodough]

I _think_ I have solved it! And not before time, as I'd begun googling non-KDE distros. The load averages seemed to have flattened out to 2.4-2.8 so I left the computer for a while. Came back, and Plasma had crashed. Apport told me I didn't have enough memory to send a report. Load spiked to 9.something.

In System Settings, I found Workspace/Search. In that, there's Plasma Search. And in Plasma Search, there's Bookmarks. I unchecked Bookmarks.

For the past hour, load averages have ranged from .07 to .50. Just where they should be. I don't know if it was the crash or the bookmarks, but I suspect the latter as claydoh
suggested. I don't have that many bookmarks, maybe 100 (I know many people have much more). I _suspect_ what this Search thing refers to is when you type something into KRunner and all those suggestions you don't want show up.

I am now off to google Plasma Search to see what other annoyances I can turn off. Thanks for sticking with me, claydoh. Sometimes just showing some empathy really helps.

[claydoh]

You can turn off whatever you don't need. They are pretty much self explanatory. It is likely that if you don't immediately recognize one of the search items, it may be safe to disable
You can always turn them back on.

Thanks for sticking with me, claydoh. Sometimes just showing some empathy really helps.

Thanks for that. I got told more or less to shut up this morning on KDE's forums

I am glad you got things sorted!

[nodough]

Thanks for that. I got told more or less to shut up this morning on KDE's forums

I am glad you got things sorted!

The KDE people sometimes remind me of the early days of Debian, where every response to a newbie was either Linux isn't Windows or RTFM. They're nowhere near as nice as the folks here.

[claydoh]

The KDE people sometimes remind me of the early days of Debian, where every response to a newbie was either Linux isn't Windows or RTFM. They're nowhere near as nice as the folks here.

Lol for sure. But over there it was a reversal. It was the person asking the question who was being a crankypants.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

[chimak111]

I am now off to google Plasma Search to see what other annoyances I can turn off. Thanks for sticking with me, claydoh. Sometimes just showing some empathy really helps.

Or search for something like "krunner features". I too have turned off many krunner features I don't use.