Dramatically speed up KDE Plasma

[Laloloop]

What this does it put all the graphic load to the CPU instead of the GPU. I'm fairly new to all of this, so I can't help with anything better.

[SediAtsisedes]

@PokemonLover1010 Don't install anything. Just place any *.sh file within ~/.kde/env (or ~/.kde4, whichever you have) and paste this:

#!/bin/bash

export QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=raster

[PokemonLover1010]

Alright, so I have a question for you

I'm running arch, and I just switched to KDE and have decided that me and it are perfect lovers, however, like you said in the video: plasma has the speed of a walrus

Now I like your trick, but I don't like having to use alt+f2 to do that every single time I start up KDE. Is there any way I can have it do this automagically?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

@PokemonLover1010 oh yes there is, just watch this video response. since i see that your also an archer, ill give you a hint, just install kcm-qt-graphicssystem from AUR.

[CheeseZombieo]

Lol.. does everyone use Linux? Im on FreeBSD 8.1 and I cant not find the right files to modify under KDE 4.4.5. Does anyone know of a tutorial?

[yingted]

X11 (Intel Pentium 4, 3 GHz, 1 Gb Ram, Nvidia GeForce 6600) * Native: 20 Fps * Raster: 36 Fps * OpenGL: 92 Fps

(copied off of the official site)

[yooyoomine]

i didn't get... can i do it in KDE 4.5 like Kubuntu 10.10?

[antonen87]

sorry mate, for me it doesn't speed up kde either on the presentation or on my laptop... i'm feeling very very badly disappointed with kde performance -- and i think i'm forced to switch to windows 7 back again, even though it's really inconvenient!

[thething75191]

works on kde 4.5.1, you are awesome

[martin77mdp]

@thething75191 cool this works for you! :)

as I said, credits goes to chakra forum =)

[6250valtra]

Thanks for this! My KDE is now much faster! =)

[martin77mdp]

Awesome dude, thanks for sharing!

Hey everybody, if you want to make this permanent there isn't any simple/direct way instead you'll need to manually edit a config file (don't worry, it's easy!)

1. go to /usr/share/autostart

2. make a backup (allways make a backup of vital files before touching them) of plasma-desktop.desktop

3. open the file to edit and add --graphicssystem raster to =plasma-desktop

4. enjoy :)

Also u can do the same with Yakuake

Credits go to Chakra forum

[thething75191]

@martin77mdp didn't work form me ._.

[JosianGT]

Hi im Using Kubuntu 10.04 with KDE 4.4.5.

My Problem its when opening a a file from application using "Open With" from "right click menu" on the plasma desktop

"Opening a text file with Kate from right click menu for example".

The Plasma Desktop Wallpaper goes white and the icons disappeared.

I found various ways to make the plasma look fine after that problem, for example opening "Pager Settings" from the "Plasma Task Bar" Click Defaults and then Apply.

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

@JosianGT thats really strange, ensure that when you open file with kate or something has correct spelling: plasma-desktop -graphicssystem raster

if the problem remains, you might want to rename or remove .kde directory in your home folder (unhide files & folders), but i warn you that deleting this folder will give you default desktop same when you have just installed kubuntu. also, all your configs will be gone, so i suggest to rename folder.

[JosianGT]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn I did a fresh install for Kubuntu 10.04 reinstall Updates with KDE 4.4.5 and everything was PERFECT. I like it, Very very fast indeed. the KDE TEAM should add Raster as as Option somewhere, and work to make better KDE run faster and faster, because for me KDE look beautifull, I read that Raster its experimental but it runs better than original setting, :P

[JosianGT]

Its never recomended to run Graphical apps with sudo. ^_^

Use Kdesu or gksudo instead.... Example 'kdesu kate'

[nortexoid]

This is awesome. I just found out that you can run the raster option with Qt apps like Kate and Kile but I had no idea you could do it with plasma-desktop.

[RandomXUsr]

The real solution, use XFCE or Enlightment DR 17. Ooooh Yea. Ubuntu users will find the solution with OpenGeu. PC Linux OS also offers all major desktop environments that I'm aware of including DR17 and XFCE.

[brokenthorn15]

It's weird. Raster renderer is software rendering. It should use OpenGL for rendering on systems that support it and be much faster. I mean check out Fotowall.

[Ormaaj]

@brokenthorn15 opengl is the other backend and is a long term goal (besides native xrender and raster). You can try running qt apps with --graphicssystem opengl but they will generally be slower and glitchy depending upon your driver support. It's still considered "experimental".

[depehas]

Nice... it really works... plasma is much faster here on KDE 4.3.95 :D

[alejandronova]

@depehas Plasma IS that much faster on KDE 4.4, but that has nothing to do with raster, native, OpenGL or whatever graphicssystem. It's simply the new Qt graphics engine, delivering faster results across the board, and results A LOT faster with Plasma under all graphicssystems (specially native!)

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

@alejandronova yes, but raster system improves performance again. definitely plasma is faster in 4.4 because qt 4.6 has new technology to animate Qobjects. the native is meant to be slower than raster, but the fact its working for you better is because of crappy video card drivers, thats why old native is faster for you, and thats also one of the reasons why raster isnt default. opengl is actually meant to be fastest, its slow because of crappy video drivers.

[alejandronova]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn At least in my PC... OpenGL is slow because of Composite, not because of crappy video drivers. I turn off Composite, run amarok --graphicssystem opengl, and watch Amarok running at the speed of light...

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

@alejandronova you are wrong its slow because of crappy video drivers. they just cant handle application opengl system at all when you have compositing enabled.

[sergeant07]

can i play gta 4 on this os?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

first this isnt os, its just desktop environment. you can have almost same looking desktop in your windows too. im using linux, in linux i can have any desktop i want. but im pretty sure that with wine youll be able to launch gta4.

[Genserowskii]

not yet

[kunalagon]

is it still impossible to use graphicssystem opengl ? with current kde (now 4.3.3) and maybe qt 4.6rc ?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

yes, its impossible. its because opengl is very experimental and its more likely a dream. even kde devs only dream about opengl graphicssystem. though qt 4.6 should be step forward to realise this dream. qt 4.7 wont bring anything exciting, only speed and stabilty improvements. we should wait for qt 4.8 i guess...

[alejandronova]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn Here in Fedora 12 with Qt 4.6, I can confirm what you are saying. Running software with OpenGL is possible, and it doesn't crash anymore. But it's slow, slower in fact than trying to run the same software under graphicssystem=native.

[freakaxel]

Is there any way to make that on start up?

Someway to make plasma load as "plasma-desktop -graphicssystem raster" instead of using the defaults options?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

i already said that, read the comments

[nortexoid]

@freakaxel That's what i want to know. Anybody know how?

[freakaxel]

@nortexoid what about a script that you load at start-up?

[nortexoid]

@freakaxel I figured out (here actually) that you just run "sudo kate /usr/share/autostart/plasma-de­sktop.desktop" and then change the Exec lines to add the raster option. Works great.

[jakubcjusz]

@nortexoid Can you tell exactly what to do add into plasma-desktop.desktop to "raster plasma" start with system? For me this file empty...

[MirzaD86]

great video, thanks for this tip... are there any regressions tough ?

and why is this not default option ?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

There might be regressions in some machines. You can get artifacts. But if everything is fine to you, then there are no regressions. Also raster fixes many rendering issues. Its not default cause its still not marked as stable, and raster totally breaks kwin compositing. If you will run kwin with raster, you wont be able to get compositing. These are all problems.

[nortexoid]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn False. I'm running raster with full compositing.

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

@nortexoid you totally misunderstood what i wrote. compiling qt to make raster engine by default would break compositing, because when it will run kwin with raster graphics system the compositing breaks. try to run kwin -graphicssystem raster -replace and see for yourself. running kwin with raster graphics will break compositing

[nortexoid]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn Yes, I did. I see what you mean. On another note, I notice opengl is super buggy which is too bad since it's supposed to be much faster than raster.

[borttrollad]

Please get a mic if you making tutorials on youtube

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

very bad try gotbletu

[borttrollad]

WTF , i'm not gotbletu im just watching linux videos

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

you are gotbletu or one of his fanboys.

[Minkiux]

Huge improvements here with an already fast GF9600mGT, on kde 4.3.1.

Thanks man!

PS:

is that an option coming with qt 4.5?

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

Glad it helped to you. Yes, that is an option in qt 4.5. theres also -graphicssystem opengl, which 10x faster than raster, because it uses video card to render graphics, but you should get plasma crash after few seconds. also you can use raster to apps which works slowly to you, it should speed up applications too (but not all).

[slighter]

I read about that in a planetkde-blogpost, but I never saw it in action. It is a nice hinz, so thank you;)

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

youre welcome, i knew that method just when qt 4.5 came out, but i decided to show this for those who dont know how to do it or who dont believe it can speed up everything.

[thething75191]

wow!, this actually works, thanks, do i have to do this everytime i restart mi computer????

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

thanks, no you can just type in terminal:

sudo kate /usr/share/autostart/plasma-de­sktop.desktop

there should be line called "Exec=plasma-desktop" you need to change it to "Exec=plasma-desktop -graphicssystem raster" of course you need to type without quotes ;)

[nortexoid]

@ubuntu704feistyfawn Sweet. Thanks.

[Kroliczek666]

good vid man.. I mean RLY good vid

[ubuntu704feistyfawn]

thanks, did you see performance improvement?