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Background Resources

Two data collecting frameworks, Akonadi and Nepomuk (together with the indexer Strigi) take up resources. If you don't use them, disable them.
For Nepomuk/Strigi Indexer go to
System Settings > Desktop Search > Basic Settings: Uncheck Enable Nepomuk Semantic Desktop.

Disabling Akonadi

If you only want to disable Akonadi server from starting, you can run the following command as normal user 

 sed -i 's/StartServer.*/StartServer=false/' ~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc

Merely disabling the Akonadi server may not be sufficient, because a simple plasmoid like a clock or using the krunner plugins for Akonadi could start it up again. If you pay attention not to do that you can use the above solution and Akonadi will not be started
To disable the applications that start Akonadi server on demand, you have to disable the following:

  1. right-click the clock in the panel > digital clock settings > calendar tab > untick the checkbox "show calendar events"
  2. Alt+F2 (that is called krunner) > click the wrench icon on the left for the settings > disable the following krunner plugins/modules
    1. calendar events
    2. contacts
    3. nepomuk desktop search
  3. click Apply


Removing Akonadi & KDE PIM suite

If you don't need the KDE PIM tools, you can uninstall the Akonadi framework.
Keep in mind to do this you cannot use neither Mageia Control Center nor urpme as that would remove your whole KDE installation due to the inter-package dependencies. The following command should be able to remove Akonadi, but keep some essential packages: 

 rpm -e --nodeps $(rpm -qa | grep akonadi | grep -v -e akonadi-kde4 -e akonadi-kmime4 -e akonadiprotocolinternals)

To also uninstall the KDE PIM tools themselves (for whatever reason) you could use the following: 

 rpm -e --nodeps $(rpm -qa | grep -e kdepim -e kpim -e pimcommon)

Please provide feedback via the discussion page

Graphics

Does the GUI feel sluggish – do you feel annoying delays e.g. when switching or moving windows? It might be that the action you take is designed with an animation that takes time, or it might be that your system is too slow for the current KDE configuration.

Start System Settings, which you can find on the Search and Launch page.

Desktop Effects

General Tab

Try changing the Animation Speed to Very Fast or higher. If you are not satisfied, uncheck Various animations and Enable desktop effects at startup. If you would like to keep (at least some) desktop effects, reenable them and proceed to the Advanced Tab.

Advanced Tab

See if changing the Compositing Type to Xrender helps. This is much more likely with old graphic adapters.

Furthermore select:

  • Scale Method: Crisp.
  • Qt graphics system: Raster.
  • OpenGL Mode: Direct Rendering. Careful! This is unstable on some systems.

All Effects Tab

Next, in the All Effects tab, deactivate those effects that you don't need, or at least change these three:

  • Blur: light or uncheck
  • Translucency: uncheck
  • Resize Windows: check


Workspace Appearance

Select Window Decorations. With its many special effects, Oxygen is relatively heavy on ressources, so see if you like a different, more lightweight theme.

If Alt-tabbing is sluggish, select: Window Behavior > Task Switcher > Main > Visualization. Change Thumbnails to something simpler, e.g. Compact. (The button by the side provides a preview.)


Startup Times

Avoid unnecessary load times.

Do not install any Plasmoids you don't really need.

Go to System Settings > Startup and Shutdown.

  • In Autostart and Service Manager, disable what you know you do not need, e.g. Bluetooth if you do not use it.
  • In Session Management, select Start with an empty session.


Swapping Out Software

If you are still not happy with your tweaked KDE, consider replacing KDE as a whole or in parts. If only as an experiment, install the meta package task-lxde or task-xfce and select one of them at next login. Maybe you will like these lightweight desktop environments – or at least some of their tools. You might e.g. want to run the file manager PCManFM instead of KDE's Dolphin.


Further Tinkering

These tricks will likely not make a big difference.

Press Alt-F2 to bring up krunner. Click on the configure button (the leftmost one) and disable all plugins you do not need. Same in Search and Launch (press Alt-D, Alt-S to configure).

System Settings > Application Appearance > Style > Fine Tuning: Set Graphical Effects to Low display resolution and Low CPU

In the terminal, run "mkdir -p ~/.compose-cache". This will speed up application launches a little bit.

Press Alt-F2 and run kdebugdialog. Disable all debug output.


Related links

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