KDE4 on an older machine

bgeddy · 09-20-2008, 09:15 AM

I run current on one of my test boxes and have been trying to get KDE4 running with no joy. I was wondering if anyone had any more luck on a similar specked machine.

What worries me is presumably Slackware will be moving to KDE4 at some point and I hope this box doesn't become redundant. Well I would like to stay current with this box.

For information here is the result of /sbin/lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82815 Chipset Graphics Controller (CGC) (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 11)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 11)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 11)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 11)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller (rev 11)
00:1f.4 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 11)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 11)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM/CA/CAM Ethernet Controller (rev 03)
01:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 06)

and /sbin/lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
snd_seq_dummy           6660  0 
snd_seq_oss            32896  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     10112  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                50256  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            40352  0 
snd_mixer_oss          17920  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  234724  25 
reiserfs              228864  1 
lp                     13348  0 
fuse                   45588  1 
usbhid                 43136  0 
hid                    37376  1 usbhid
snd_ens1371            24480  0 
gameport               14472  1 snd_ens1371
snd_rawmidi            22560  1 snd_ens1371
e100                   35724  0 
snd_seq_device         10380  4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
mii                     8448  1 e100
thermal                16540  0 
button                 10000  0 
processor              32680  1 thermal
snd_intel8x0           31900  0 
snd_ac97_codec         98724  2 snd_ens1371,snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                5760  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                72068  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              22532  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    47716  11 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               9824  1 snd
i2c_i810                8068  0 
iTCO_wdt               13988  0 
shpchp                 32788  0 
iTCO_vendor_support     7044  1 iTCO_wdt
snd_page_alloc         11528  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
i2c_algo_bit            9476  1 i2c_i810
psmouse                40336  0 
intel_agp              25236  1 
i2c_i801               11792  0 
rtc_cmos               11040  0 
uhci_hcd               25996  0 
agpgart                30664  2 intel_agp
i2c_core               22528  3 i2c_i810,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801
rtc_core               18696  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 6528  1 rtc_core
evdev                  12672  3 
serio_raw               9092  0 
parport_pc             27556  1 
parport                34632  2 lp,parport_pc
ext3                  124808  1 
jbd                    43924  1 ext3
mbcache                10496  1 ext3

and free -m :

Code:

            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           374        366          7          0         27        229
-/+ buffers/cache:        109        265
Swap:         1027          0       1027

and uname -a :

Code:

Linux bgeddy 2.6.24.7-smp #1 SMP Sun Sep 7 20:00:12 CDT 2008 i686 Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU                1200MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

and just for good measure /sbin/lsusb :

Code:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. M-UV69a/HP M-UV96 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0424:0140 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

ErV · 09-20-2008, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgeddy

What worries me is presumably Slackware will be moving to KDE4 at some point and I hope this box doesn't become redundant. Well I would like to stay current with this box.

If think you'll be always able to install KDE 3.5.9 packages from older slackware version. Or you could switch to another desktop, like Blackbox/Fluxbox (but AFAIK they were designed for machines with smaller amounts of RAM).

hitest · 09-20-2008, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgeddy

and free -m :

Code:

            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           374        366          7          0         27        229
-/+ buffers/cache:        109        265
Swap:         1027          0       1027

With 374 MB RAM it may be more optimal to run XFce or Fluxbox on that unit. My main Slackware workstation, a Celeron 850, has 768 MB RAM. XFce does the job for me. I find that KDE runs a bit too slow for me on older hardware.

Alien Bob · 09-20-2008, 10:25 AM

Indeed, Slackware with a different WM than KDE4 should be able to run fine on that box. Try XFCE which is is getting graphically richer with every release without demanding as much of your machine as KDE (yet?). There are other DM's that are even lighter than XFCE. ErV mentioned blackbox/fluxbox, you can also look into LXDE (not part of Slackware).

Eric

bgeddy · 09-20-2008, 11:16 AM

Thank you all for the replies.

I have never thought of running a different WM on the box as I use it mainly for testing - I will however be looking into it. I run Fluxbox on another machine but alternate between this and XFCE on that hardware.

In fact I am going downstairs right now to play with, I mean investigate, this hardware some more.

Thanks again.

Oh BTW - I have downloaded a live CD from the KDE website to test KDE 4 some more. Interestingly it manages to run KDE 4 OK on this box with OpenSuse - although I can't stand the distro. I have looked at the xorg.conf that this CD uses trying to get clues as to why this works but my Slackware current install doesn't.

The live cd appears to have the same problems my Slackware DRI enabled KDE3 install has (vertical lines on screen) but after a short while seems to correct this and reset itself to correctly display KDE 4. I'm still looking into this however.

I get round this by running KDE3 at 24 bit colour depth which seems to fix it.

hitest · 09-20-2008, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgeddy

Thank you all for the replies.

I have never thought of running a different WM on the box as I use it mainly for testing - I will however be looking into it. I run Fluxbox on another machine but alternate between this and XFCE on that hardware.

In fact I am going downstairs right now to play with, I mean investigate, this hardware some more.

Thanks again.

You're welcome! If I may be so bold I would recommend XFce over Fluxbox. Fluxbox will run faster on your hardware, but, XFce is more feature-rich than Flux. I've found that XFce is very customizable and does what I need it to do, it has a lot of goodies, add-ons that you can use.

http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=xfce&sv=12.1

crashmeister · 09-20-2008, 11:40 AM

KDE4 is supposed to use less resources than kde3.It might be an eyecandy issue.I'd check what is enabled there.