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[SOLVED] Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

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    [SOLVED] Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

    Update: this has been solved. The idea is a clean command line desktop, plus kde-minimal, plus whatever you need. I got a full KDE 4 desktop I can boot into in about 25 seconds (Dell Vostro A90 8G SSD, 1GB RAM). There are two similar recipes:


    Original Post:

    Hi all

    I am planning to replace the default Ubuntu 8.04 on my Vostro A90 (=Dell Mini 9) with some sort of Karmic. The question is what?
    • The netbook edition is still at the "preview stage", it will be ready for 10.04
    • Default Kubuntu takes forever to load in netbook (at the login stage, it takes forever to load a session)

    • I only need, really, a few things on the netbook:
      • Firefox + Flash
      • NoMachine Nx
      • Some Kiddie games (Frozen buble, etc)
      • VLC
      • Skype
      • Digikam
      • Dolphin
      • Plasma Dektop + cool widgets
      • Fast boot
      • hotkeys, wifi and resume working



    So, you see, I only need to load a light KDE Desktop, no need to have all of KDE, and I am thinking what is making KDE Login so slow (once loaded it works just fine). Is it KNetworkManager? Is it akonadi? Or some of the initial services?

    My first attempt (I will play on a USB stick before overwriting the SSD, and yes, I know it will be much slower than the SSD) would be to simply install Kubuntu 9.10 and :
    • Remove Akonadi and anything that needs it
    • Use wicd instead of NetworkManager


    Any ideas out there? Is there any better solution for this? Since hotkeys, wifi and resume are all working in the netbook edition, I might as well customize that if the regular edition has issues with those. Anyways, the netbook edition (albeit being booted from a USB slow drive) seems to take forever to load the desktop, just as theregular Kubuntu 9.04 on my eeepc 701.

    Any ideas are greatly appreciated, I'll try to keep this thread alive.

    #2
    Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

    Maybe with the kde-core ?

    > Moving from Kubuntu to kde-core
    Why kde-core?

    You may not have a reason to run kde-core. You might be perfectly satisfied with kubuntu-desktop. If so, go on your merry way—you don't really need this page. Some people are attracted to kde-core because they want more control over what gets installed (they'd rather build from the ground up than remove unwanted packages one at a time). Others want to try kde-core because it might run more lightly (i.e., faster) on their systems than the standard Kubuntu.
    Old > Topic: installation & program selection
    Before you edit, BACKUP !

    Why there are dead links ?
    1. Thread: Please explain how to access old kubuntu forum posts
    2. Thread: Lost Information

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

      Thanks Rog,

      It seems as if kde-core is no longer a metapackage in karmic (according to packages.ubuntu.com). But something along these lines could work: text install plus some basic KDE.

      I still wonder what is the bottleneck for KDE Startup time on cold boot.

      Thanks again!

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

        The Kubuntu Netbook Edition Beta is stable and runs fast on my netbook. It'll be ready later this month although a lot more work is needed to implement more netbook-centric features. It looks and feels much better than Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

          Just a thought.

          Get the karmic server edition and do a barebones install (no servers) then do something like:
          Code:
          sudo apt-get install kdelibs kdebase-workspace kdm
          and take it from there.
          HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
          4 GB Ram
          Kubuntu 18.10

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

            It seems as if kde-core is no longer a metapackage in karmic (according to packages.ubuntu.com).
            What the... Where did it... A-haa...

            => https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...de/+bug/404845
            Christian Mangold wrote on 2009-07-26:

            meta-kde (5:50ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low

            * In debian/control for package kde-devel change dep from kde-core to
            kde-minimal, it was renamed (LP: ##404845)

            So it is now: kde-minimal
            the K Desktop Environment, minimal applications

            KDE, the K Desktop Environment, is the powerful, integrated, and easy-to-use
            Free Software desktop platform and suite of applications.

            This metapackage includes the core official modules released with KDE. This
            includes just the basic desktop (browser, file manager, text editor, control
            center, panel, etc.) and important libraries and data.
            Before you edit, BACKUP !

            Why there are dead links ?
            1. Thread: Please explain how to access old kubuntu forum posts
            2. Thread: Lost Information

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

              @Rog Thanks for the rename info.

              @Fintan Yes, that's another alternative. Thanks!

              @NormanF Thanks! What netbook is that? How long does it take you from the grub screen into a fully loaded desktop? In my Dell Mini it is looking great, but:
              • Login into KDE is slow
              • X does't start. I need to do a recovery boot, and launch sudo startx manually
              • One in X, there is no sound
              • The regular boot is reallly slow, it seems to hang for a few very many seconds after you click the entry in grub.


              Of course many of these things might be fixed for final, there were other issues that were solved already with updates on the USB drive I am testing in. Maybe I'll just try another fresh install into the USB drive later on, perhaps when RC is out.

              In any case, I think akonadi is a bit of a burden for a netbook (it start a mysql server, etc), and I am still puzzled that KDE4 takes so long to login and logout.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                You can disable (the very irritating) Akonadi startup by following the advice here

                http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/PIM...adi_startup.3F

                Hope this helps

                ian

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                  Thanks Ian, it does! (It gives an alternative to just removing it)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                    No problem. I am actually going to try it on my laptop and see how it goes.

                    I let you know
                    HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
                    4 GB Ram
                    Kubuntu 18.10

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                      Originally posted by Fintan
                      No problem. I am actually going to try it on my laptop and see how it goes.

                      I let you know
                      Thank you! If you have a running kubuntu in that laptop, could you please benchmark the difference in "from cold boot to full desktop" times? Many thanks!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                        Kubuntu Netbook Edition rebooted in two minutes. I was amazed.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                          Thank you! If you have a running kubuntu in that laptop,........
                          Glad to. will be doing that tonight (swiss time is not running out )
                          HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
                          4 GB Ram
                          Kubuntu 18.10

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                            Okay, I got it working nicely:

                            Installed karmic server barebones.

                            Did:
                            Code:
                            sudo apt-get install kde.mininal
                            thankx Rog

                            which gave me 7 Updates and 282 new packages

                            as:
                            Code:
                            sudo apt-get install kdelibs kdebase-workspace kdm
                            gives 7 updates and 276 Packeges.

                            It boots from grub to log in in 30 sec. and from log in to screen (first time) in 15 seconds.

                            It is very minimal.
                            You have to onstall basic stuff like kate and kdesudo and kubuntu-firefox installer.

                            The first thing I did was get synaptic

                            But seems fast.

                            enjoy
                            HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
                            4 GB Ram
                            Kubuntu 18.10

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Building a light KDE4 desktop for a netbook, off of Karmic

                              Excellent Fintan, thank you! Do yuo know how it compares with the previous install?

                              Many thanks!

                              Comment

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