KDE application slowness (dbus related?)

[Thomas Klausner <wiz%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

Hi!

When using KDE applications like digikam or amarok, they very often
behave sluggishly (I only use single applications, not the whole KDE
desktop).

E.g. digikam starts up very very slowly even directly after a reboot,
or amarok takes ages to fetch covers or lyrics. It is even slow when
selecting a jpg for a cover from the file system (opening the file
dialog box takes ages -- well, more than 10 seconds).

Sometimes (usually after a reboot), amarok's quite quick about it, so
it doesn't happen all the time.

When starting digikam from the command line, the output starts with:
digikam(1239)/kdeui (KIconLoader) KSharedDataCache::Private::mapSharedMemory: 
Failed to establish shared memory mapping, will fallback to private memory -- 
memory usage will increase 
QSqlDatabasePrivate::removeDatabase: connection 'ConnectionTest' is still in 
use, all queries will cease to work.
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" 
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" 
digikam(1239)/kdeui (KIconLoader) KSharedDataCache::Private::mapSharedMemory: 
Failed to establish shared memory mapping, will fallback to private memory -- 
memory usage will increase 
digikam(1239)/phonon (KDE plugin): 
QDBusError("org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply", "Did not receive a reply. 
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the 
message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or 
the network connection was broken.") 
digikam(1239)/phonon (KDE plugin): 
QDBusError("org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply", "Did not receive a reply. 
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the 
message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or 
the network connection was broken.") 
Time elapsed: 36 ms
Model: Time elapsed: 81 ms
TextureColorizer: Time elapsed: 66 ms
Time elapsed: 4 ms
Model: Time elapsed: 21 ms
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" 
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" 

An amarok start begins like this:
amarok(839)/kdeui (KIconLoader) KSharedDataCache::Private::mapSharedMemory: 
Failed to establish shared memory mapping, will fallback to private memory -- 
memory usage will increase
wiz@yt:~> amarok(839)/phonon (KDE plugin): 
QDBusError("org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply", "Did not receive a reply. 
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the 
message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or 
the network connection was broken.")
amarok(839)/phonon (KDE plugin): 
QDBusError("org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply", "Did not receive a reply. 
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the 
message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or 
the network connection was broken.")
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
virtual QStringList Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::allDevices()  error:  
"org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
virtual QStringList Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::allDevices()  error:  
"org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QStringList 
Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::findDeviceByDeviceInterface(Solid::DeviceInterface::Type)
  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
Virtual QStringList Solid::Backends::Hal::HalManager::allDevices()  error:  
"org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"

So one of my guesses is that the lagginess is caused by dbus/phonon,
possibly hal, problems -- it waits until it falls in a timeout before
something happens.

I've read http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/docs/faq2.html#q20 but adding
my public hostname to the 127.0.0.1 line in /etc/hosts didn't improve
the situation.

dbus and famd are running. I don't start hal since it caused kernel
panics at some point (haven't tried recently).
dbus      606  0.0  0.0  13172   1644 ?      Is   12:40PM 0:00.01 
/usr/pkg/bin/dbus-daemon --system 
wiz       688  0.0  0.0  17268   2412 ?      Ss   12:43PM 0:00.08 
/usr/pkg/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session 
wiz       399  0.0  0.0  23160   1492 ttyE0  I    12:43PM 0:00.00 dbus-launch 
--sh-syntax --exit-with-session 
wiz       693  0.0  0.1  27296  13340 ttyE0- S    12:40PM 0:35.15 
/usr/pkg/sbin/famd -T 0 -L 

I don't have consolekit installed, so
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/cvs-ports/2010-July/199105.html
doesn't apply.

Is it something in my setup, or do other people see this as well?

Any hints on how to improve the situation?

Thanks,
 Thomas