OS runnning slower and getting more buggy

English Hardware
#1

I switched to Open Suse 12.1 a few months ago after getting fed up with Ubuntu’s unity. At first I liked it, fast, clean and everything seemed stable. Now though the whole OS seems to be running slower, programs either do not open or take an age to open, and often crash particularly Kwallet and Digikam.

This is beginning to really bug me and makes my experience with Linux a pain.

I am not a geek or tech and so don’t know how to diagnose what is going on. Any tips would be helpful, or instructions on what to look for and where to go to find out information in a form I can understand to explain this worsening condition.

I am running a 64 bit Asus K53s laptop, with Intel Core I5-2410M, 2.3Ghz,4gb of ram, Nvidia GEForce GT540M 2GB graphics card, and Blu ray dvd drive.

Thanks in advance

#2

Could you eventually post the output of

zypper repos

in code tags here?
Do you use AppArmor? Did you set up profiles for the applications you experience to take long time to open?
What version of KDE do you use?

#3

Here is the output. I think I turned Apparmor off when these issues began to appear, I followed instructions from either this or some other forum. But I can’t remember how to check now.

No I don’t think I have ever set up any profiles.

How do I find out the version of KDE?

douglas@linux-tphg:~> zypper repos
#  | Alias                                                 | Name                                               | Enabled | Refresh
---+-------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+---------+--------
 1 | Java                                                  | Java                                               | Yes     | Yes    
 2 | Open_Suse_Education                                   | Open Suse Education                                | Yes     | Yes    
 3 | PK_TMP_DIR                                            | PK_TMP_DIR                                         | Yes     | Yes    
 4 | Packman_Essentials                                    | Packman Multimedia                                 | Yes     | Yes    
 5 | Standard                                              | Standard                                           | Yes     | Yes    
 6 | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_12.1/Essentials | packman Essentials                                 | Yes     | Yes    
 7 | mozilla                                               | Mozilla based projects (openSUSE_12.1)             | Yes     | No     
 8 | mozilla_beta                                          | Experimental/beta Mozilla versions (openSUSE_12.1) | Yes     | No     
 9 | repo-debug                                            | openSUSE-12.1-Debug                                | No      | Yes    
10 | repo-debug-update                                     | openSUSE-12.1-Update-Debug                         | No      | Yes    
11 | repo-non-oss                                          | openSUSE-12.1-Non-Oss                              | Yes     | Yes    
12 | repo-oss                                              | openSUSE-12.1-Oss                                  | Yes     | Yes    
13 | repo-source                                           | openSUSE-12.1-Source                               | No      | Yes    
14 | repo-update                                           | openSUSE-12.1-Update                               | Yes     | Yes
#4

Well the easiest way, click on the icon "my system. The kernel (32/64 bit) and the info about KDE are in the lower right corner of the window.

#5

O.K. for what I see you have beta software installed. This can slow down the system as a whole, not only the very beta. If you use your machine not for testing but for work I would suggest you to eliminate the beta-mozilla repo.
Second thing I see: you have enabled mozilla repo, but disabled refresh on this repo. This may cause old libraries and files to be mixed with new ones. The versions will not be the ones forseen, and this will also slow down your system.
Third thing: what is PK_TMP_DIR and what did you isntall with it.
Activate refresh on the mozilla repo, I would: get rid of the beta repo, sustitute all software from it with the regular mozilla repo. After this, look in yast whether you have orphans. These are coloured in red. Sustitute them with versions that are supported. If dependencies will force you to uninstall one or two of your programs you did isntall, you should do so. An incosisten system will be instable and get slow. You may try to reinstall them once you have a consistent system.
I would (if you do not development, deactivate repo-debug, repo-source and repo-debug update as for a normal system you should not need them.
Once you have done all this, try to see if the package are all updated. You go in Yast, onlne update and execute all available security updates indicated. Then you go in package management and go on the “software-resources” tag. Here you will choose @system (which gives you all installed packages) and choose in the menue "packages - All from this list - update if newer available.
Do a complete restart and try your system for a few days and then report back if the situation is O.K.
For KDE we will talk about the choices once you report here the version.

#6

A couple of things: software does not get buggy by itself, systems do not slow down by themselves.

Like stakanov I’m worried about you private repo PK_TMP_DIR. We cannot see what you installed from it.
To check what is slowing down the system, we need to know what services you activated. For example: after a clean install my laptop takes about 6 secs to boot from GRUB to login screen. After enabling all services (like apache, NFS) that I need for work, this is doubled to 12 secs. Has the system slowed down? No, it’s simply performing more actions in the same stage of starting up the system.

#7

On 2012-04-16 10:36, Knurpht wrote:

> Like stakanov I’m worried about you private repo PK_TMP_DIR. We cannot
> see what you installed from it.

Typically that’s a leftover from a oneclick install. Alternatively, I’m
unsure if installing a package via clicking on it and firing apper can do that.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#8

Sorry to have taken so long to get back here. I have had to move house and wasn’t able to find time to spend on the computer. OK so I have removed those repo’s. I too am not aware of what package was installed from that PK_Temp_DIR. I have removed it and there doesn’t seem to be any greater issues. As to the services installed how do I generate a list to see what I have running?

I other thing that happens a lot is that when I click "shutdown computer it often freezes with a dialogue saying that KDE desktop has closed suddenly and to file a bug? I have to close that window for the shutdown to continue.

Finally the hint given above (click on the icon "my system) where is this icon? I can’t find it.

#9

I think I found it.

Linux 3.1.0-1.2-desktop x86_64
openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64)
KDE: 4.7.2 (4.7.2) “release 5”

#10

On 2012-05-11 14:06, VN900 wrote:
>
> Sorry to have taken so long to get back here. I have had to move house
> and wasn’t able to find time to spend on the computer. OK so I have
> removed those repo’s. I too am not aware of what package was installed
> from that PK_Temp_DIR.

Listing the directory would have told.

> I have removed it and there doesn’t seem to be
> any greater issues. As to the services installed how do I generate a
> list to see what I have running?

In a terminal, as root, run:


systemd-analyze blame

and find out where the time is spent. Alternatively, you can also do


systemd-analyze plot > p.svg

Then you can use “display p.svg” to see the graphics, or use the tool you
prefer. The graphics shows where time is used.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)