Mike Bird wrote:
8< snip, snip
kbuildsycoca normally only runs for several seconds after changing
something in KDE. If it's running non-stop you have a problem.
It's probably safe just to kill kbuildsycoca but a reboot would be
kinder.
As for iceape-bin, it shouldn't be using that much CPU except in
very short bursts. Maybe you have a bad plugin, or maybe it's a
bad interaction with the multiple windowing systems.
You have two gdm's, and xfce desktop, and a lot of KDE running.
You have several heavy applications running. That's way more
than will fit comfortably in a gig of RAM.
If you can't quickly find a solution to those two xfce memory
hogs I would suggest dropping xfce and gdm, and using kdm. You're
not saving anything with xfce as you're apps are so heavily KDE.
--Mike Bird
Cheers Mike (& everyone else who has contributed). I downloaded OpenBox
and am running it within Gnome after rebooting. I would say that Xfce4
has some very serious memory holes at present - my system was just
grinding to a halt. It's a real shame. When I used to run Slackware
using Xfce4 I managed uptimes in excess of 40 days or so without any
problems and reboots were controlled and deliberate, not to rescue
memory. I am really torn - I very much appreciate the way that Debian
automates the whole package management thing and (generally) just sits
in the background, but I really do miss the memory efficiency of
Slackware. It pisses me off that for no good reason I cannot load an
additional 1 GB RAM chip into this box without bringing Deb to a
standstill (the mobo is capable of 4 GB, so 2 GB total is not an issue
from the hardware's perspective), and if I have to reboot every week or
so to recover memory then that is a PITA too - despite what apps I am
using. One of the aspects of GNU/Linux is its sane handling of memory:
close an app and the memory is released. One expects that, unlike the MS
world. My experiences with Xfce4 and also - to some extent Gnome - over
the last few weeks to months has not lived up to that expectation. I
don't know if that is Debian or what, but a happy bunny it does not me make.
Right now my needs are to have a system that runs reliably and
efficiently and is not high maintenance ... I have far too much work to
do without faffing about with a computer just so that I can get the job
done. Computers are tools, and if they don't do the job, or become too
high maintenance that they interfere with my work, then they are
evidently not the right tool.
Anyway, thanks for all the help and comments folks. I am appreciative of
your input.
Best wishes
Andy
--
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the
answers." - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
