It is not supposed to run when .kde and Desktop folders are not available.
The time has reduced considerably for kde startup due to delayed loading of non-essential (as per user perception) like system tray and logout/lock screen options (which is loaded by ksmserver)
How to install and use:
1. tar -zxvf *fast_kde_start-1.1.tar.gz
2. mv $HOME/.xinitrc $HOME/xinitrc.backup
3. cp xinitrc.kdefast.1.1 $HOME/.xinitrc
4. startx
Remember you'd need to run from console... I did not try with kdm.
Also I suppose it should work with KDE 3.3 or 3.4
The good news is that it is twice as fast than normal kde startup script (startkde). On my system the normal kde start would take 30 seconds and this script loads kde in 12 to 15 seconds.
I know this is just a poor hack by an ignorant KDE user who don't know much about kde's internals.
I believe if KDE developers consider loading the important components first and other components in a low priority and then KDE could load in just 5 seconds.
We need to load these kde components instantly.
0. check for KDE folders and create if not found
1. kdesktop (for alt+f2 and desktop wallpaer and desktop icons)
2. kwin (without kwin the run dialog would look weird
3. kicker (the most used component of kde)
The problem is with kicker loading, it requires dcop and other kdeinit/klauncher stuff to be loaded first.
if we could free kicker from dcop or allow later dcop binding/attaching then kde could load in just 5 seconds.
Non essential stuff:
1. fonts could be added after the launch and should get enabled in the next kde start.
2. stuff except kdesktop, kwin and kicker.
Ratings & Comments
11 Comments
I already go from login to desktop in less than five seconds with 3.4.3, Xorg 6.8.99-r4, and xcompmgr loaded with drop shadows. Just enough time to peak at the ksplash and what not. How fast is your machine?
my machine is fast enough for windows2000 or xp or even 2003 server. it is CPU 622Mhz RAM 384MB
Kanotix with k7 kernel, system boots in approximately 15 sec (with X), and kdm/kde sequence takes another 15 or more... needs speed up definitely, and I'm not talkin' about kernel here... Athlon 1600+ 512 megs of RAM KDE 3.4.1
my other system 1.7Ghz, 512mb ram, start KDE in 15 seconds. Whereas this script starts kde in just 8 seconds.
Sorry to spoil the fun, but this is yet another not-quite-correct KDE startup script (note the paragraph starting with "I know"). It e.g. doesn't set $KDE_FULL_SESSION, which means no Konqueror preloading, it bypasses kcminit, which means some kcontrol modules initialization is skipped, and I believe it actually results in klauncher,kdesktop and kicker being attempted to run twice (the second attempt will fail of course, but it'll still take a little time) and doesn't have the benefits of using kdeinit for launching them. Also, as far as I can say from just a quick look compared to startkde it just lacks kcminit from the possibly somewhat expensive stuff, so I somewhat doubt it really halves the startup time. Yes, the KDE startup sequence still could use some improvements, but if you want to work on things like this, I suggest you actually do some research to understand what's going on instead of randomly chopping off random parts. And there's the kde-optimize@kde.org mailing list where you can discuss things like this with other people.
Hmm, and I also wonder how many of those people who have voted this up to 74% by now have actually tried this and are going to use it.
I know that I don't know ;) I'm a user dude, not a kde know-it-all guy. If a user could make things somewhat faster (though broken), then a KDE guru could make things more faster and stable too...
Making things faster by breaking them is usually trivial. Achieving the same without the breakage is unfortunately much more difficult. And just because you're only a user now doesn't mean that can't change. Everybody starts as a user first.
Forgive the curiosity, but would this be in any way similar to Mandriva's current technique?
If you mean Mandriva's technique to speed up boot...Somewhat related, but not really. SUSE speeds up KDE by preloading it, and YOPER speeds up KDE to about 3-5 seconds by cleaning up the code. Also, doesn't startx go to a new kdm/xdm/gdm anyway?
Oh and besides if you look at xinit, some distro's use startx, some, like Mandriva use a modified version but they should be identical and also you can always chg your xinit to use startx.