FWIW
Unlike similar machines, on this laptop, on a new install, it was taking 66 seconds
for KDE to initialise.
Timing taken from pressing <return> after entering password to start of KDE melody.
This time was reduced to 34 seconds after the following.
—deleting packages
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.25-3.4.1.x86_64
libxine2-pulse-1.2.2-80.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-jack-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-lirc-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-x11-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-2.1-2.2.x86_64
pulseaudio-utils-2.1-2.2.x86_64
—rebooting
—installing packages
alsa-firmware-1.0.25-2.1.1.noarch
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.25-3.4.1.x86_64
libxine2-pulse-1.2.2-80.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-2.1-2.2.x86_64
—rebooting
Note: no IRC or bluetooth capability on this laptop.
No reduced functionality noticed but internet telephony not used.
Kernel 3.7.5-1-desktop x86_64 (64 bit)
KDE 4.9.5 openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) VERSION = 12.2
Pavilion g7 Notebook Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 184B version: 57.50
Bios: Insyde version: F.17 date: 11/02/2012
Quad core AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
Clock Speeds: 1: 1400.00 MHz 2: 1900.00 MHz 3: 1400.00 MHz 4: 1400.00 MHz
AudioCard-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 9902
— driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA ver: k3.7.5-1-desktop
AudioCard-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson Azalia Controller driver: snd_hda_intel