LinuxQuestions.org - High Mem load suse9.2 + kde, and firefox freezes sometimes

Hi all,

before you start wondering how I dare to ask questions about a slow suse with kde please bear with me. I'm new to this linux thing, i'm loving it, and suse + kde is making it easy for me to start of in getting to know linux. I know suse + kde is really heavy on all your system recourses, but still like in every OS it should be possible to tweak things up a bit for performance increasing.

My problem:

system: P4 3 ghz, 512 pc2100 ram, nivdeo 9600 XT 256 videocard.

When I boot up suse, after I log in i see a memory usage around 230 mb. For me as a windows man this is just fine, considering the fact that i'm also playing with some desktop decoration tools. After a short of doing some minor things, like simply browsing the internet, my memory usage has doubled up to 490 mb in use. And this is when I only used 1 tool, like firefox.

I've used the runlevel editor to cut out all the stuff I dont need, but this didn't help much.. Heres an output of a ps aux for you to see whats going on. (i've cut out all processes that have no mem % in use to keep this post more clear:

meph@ronlinux:~> ps aux
root 3709 0.0 0.1 1452 628 ? Ss 20:27 0:00 /sbin/syslogd -a /var/lib/ntp/dev/log
root 3712 0.0 0.1 1524 580 ? Ss 20:27 0:00 /sbin/klogd -c 1 -2 -x
root 4099 0.0 0.1 2040 704 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /sbin/resmgrd
nobody 4102 0.0 0.0 1428 496 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /sbin/portmap
root 4362 0.0 0.2 5148 1348 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -o PidFile=/var/run/sshd.init.pid
root 4775 0.0 0.0 1436 440 ? S< 20:28 0:00 [hwscand]
lp 4940 0.0 0.6 6416 3240 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd
root 4962 0.0 0.1 1392 536 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/acpid -c /etc/acpi/events.ignore
root 5012 0.0 0.2 2500 1156 ? S 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/powersaved -d -x /usr/lib/powersave/scripts -a resmgr -v 3
root 5159 0.0 0.1 43096 828 ? Ssl 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/nscd
root 5227 0.0 0.1 2628 720 ? S 20:28 0:00 /opt/kde3/bin/kdm
root 5303 8.9 6.0 167808 31148 ? S 20:28 6:14 /usr/X11R6/bin/X -nolisten tcp -br vt7 -auth /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles/A:0-hv
root 5312 0.0 0.2 3752 1320 ? S 20:28 0:00 -:0
root 5338 0.0 0.2 4572 1316 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /usr/lib/postfix/master
root 5381 0.0 0.1 1660 592 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root 5730 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty1 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty --noclear tty1
root 5731 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty2 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
root 5732 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty3 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
root 5733 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty4 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
root 5734 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty5 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
root 5735 0.0 0.1 1828 620 tty6 Ss+ 20:28 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
meph 5759 0.0 0.2 3760 1300 ? S 20:28 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/X11R6/bin/kde
meph 5794 0.0 0.1 3160 792 ? S 20:28 0:00 gpg-agent --daemon --no-detach --keep-display /bin/bash /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
meph 5821 0.0 1.8 24392 9744 ? Ss 20:28 0:00 kdeinit: Running...
meph 5824 0.0 1.6 22916 8356 ? S 20:28 0:00 kdeinit: dcopserver --nosid
meph 5826 0.0 1.9 24896 9968 ? S 20:28 0:00 kdeinit: klauncher
meph 5829 0.8 3.1 30392 16352 ? S 20:28 0:37 kdeinit: kded
meph 5844 0.0 1.0 10488 5636 ? S 20:28 0:00 /opt/kde3/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 5 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -l 3 -f
meph 5851 0.0 3.2 34840 16664 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: knotify
meph 5855 0.0 0.0 1380 288 ? S 20:28 0:00 kwrapper ksmserver
meph 5857 0.0 2.2 24940 11464 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: ksmserver
meph 5858 0.1 2.7 27724 13968 ? S 20:28 0:08 kdeinit: kwin
meph 5863 0.0 2.2 25416 11492 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: khotkeys
meph 5865 0.1 3.2 28944 16468 ? S 20:28 0:06 kdeinit: kdesktop
meph 5867 0.6 3.8 32804 19644 ? S 20:28 0:26 kdeinit: kicker
meph 5871 0.0 2.0 26232 10756 ? S 20:28 0:00 kdeinit: kio_file file /tmp/ksocket-meph/klauncher8AwISa.slave-socket /tmp/ksocket
meph 5872 0.1 2.7 29752 14308 ? S 20:28 0:06 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/XMMSStuff/8490-CornerXMMS-SK/CornerXMMS-S
meph 5873 0.3 2.6 27896 13756 ? S 20:28 0:16 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/20147-Crystal-Clock/Crystal-Clock/crystal
meph 5874 0.5 2.9 29380 15260 ? S 20:28 0:22 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/cynapses_karamba/sys_mon.theme
meph 5875 0.2 2.9 29784 15008 ? S 20:28 0:10 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/kroller-v0.95/kroller.theme
meph 5876 0.2 3.3 30868 17060 ? S 20:28 0:08 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/lwp-3.6.1/liquid_weather_plus/liquid_weat
meph 5877 0.2 2.6 28096 13732 ? S 20:28 0:09 superkaramba /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/tuxclock-0.2/tuxclock_black-dd.mm.yyyy.th
meph 5882 0.0 2.6 27048 13648 ? S 20:28 0:01 kdeinit: klipper
meph 5885 0.0 2.7 27056 14292 ? S 20:28 0:01 kdeinit: susewatcher -caption SuSE Watcher -icon kinternet.png -miniicon kinternet
meph 5886 0.0 3.1 35312 16440 ? Sl 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: suseplugger -caption SUSE Hardware Tool -icon hi22-action-hardware.png -m
meph 5891 0.1 5.6 42748 29204 ? S 20:28 0:04 kdeinit: konqueror --preload
meph 7196 0.0 1.0 15104 5648 ? S 20:33 0:00 /opt/kde3/bin/kdesud
root 7224 0.0 0.2 3504 1340 ? S 20:34 0:00 /bin/bash /usr/lib/YaST2/bin/yast2 hwinfo
root 7244 0.2 4.1 50296 21504 ? Sl 20:34 0:08 /usr/lib/YaST2/bin/y2base hwinfo qt -geometry
root 10534 0.0 0.2 3504 1112 ? S 20:35 0:00 /bin/bash /usr/lib/YaST2/bin/yast2 lan
root 10551 0.2 8.0 59564 41156 ? Sl 20:35 0:07 /usr/lib/YaST2/bin/y2base lan qt -geometry
root 10677 0.0 0.2 3504 1304 ? S 20:35 0:00 /bin/bash /usr/lib/YaST2/servers_non_y2/ag_initscripts
meph 11129 0.0 2.9 29012 15384 ? S 20:37 0:01 kdeinit: kio_uiserver
postfix 18314 0.0 0.2 4688 1456 ? S 20:55 0:00 pickup -l -t fifo -u
postfix 18315 0.0 0.2 4720 1484 ? S 20:55 0:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u
meph 18832 0.0 0.4 4624 2168 ? S 20:56 0:00 /opt/gnome/lib/GConf/2/gconfd-2 11
meph 21530 0.2 4.8 36640 24824 ? S 21:08 0:04 gaim
meph 26800 2.9 7.2 67144 37096 ? Sl 21:29 0:14 /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/firefox-bin
meph 28401 0.6 0.7 6664 3792 ? S 21:37 0:00 /usr/bin/perl /home/meph/Media/Themestuff/cynapses_karamba/scripts/mails_pop3.pl p
meph 28409 8.9 3.2 29824 16952 ? R 21:37 0:01 konsole
meph 28416 0.3 0.3 4244 1844 pts/1 Ss 21:37 0:00 /bin/bash
meph 28453 0.0 0.1 2376 708 pts/1 R+ 21:38 0:00 ps aux
meph@ronlinux:~>

The way I see it the following services are using a lot of mem space:

meph 11129 0.0 2.9 29012 15384 ? S 20:37 0:01 kdeinit: kio_uiserver
root 5303 8.9 6.0 167808 31148 ? S 20:28 6:14 /usr/X11R6/bin/X -nolisten tcp -br vt7 -auth /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles/A:0-hv
meph 5851 0.0 3.2 34840 16664 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: knotify
meph 5855 0.0 0.0 1380 288 ? S 20:28 0:00 kwrapper ksmserver
meph 5857 0.0 2.2 24940 11464 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: ksmserver
meph 5858 0.1 2.7 27724 13968 ? S 20:28 0:08 kdeinit: kwin
meph 5863 0.0 2.2 25416 11492 ? S 20:28 0:03 kdeinit: khotkeys
meph 5865 0.1 3.2 28944 16468 ? S 20:28 0:06 kdeinit: kdesktop
meph 5867 0.6 3.8 32804 19644 ? S 20:28 0:26 kdeinit: kicker

Do I need to run services like this in order to run kde well, or can I disable them? And if I can disable them, how can I do this nicely without cousing me any troubles?

I admit that the superkaramba services take a lot of space aswell, but I just like these too much to disable it.

Please advice me how to optimize my suse kde system.

Also, when I browse using firefox it often freezes. Also with konquerer. I just have to wait 5 to 10 seconds before it continues. Is there a solution for this?

Thanks.