After last update my computer is very laggy

Support
1

I have many kworker processe messages in System Monitor > Process Table.
Something like
kworker/u16:1+events_unbound
kworker/0:1H-kblockd
I believe they are the reason my computer is very slow.
I dont remember having these kind of processes or so many of them.

inxi -Faz                                                                                                                                     
System:
  Kernel: 5.19.7-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.19-x86_64
    root=UUID=0c95387f-2997-4fa3-9e8a-d7cd6e5bd932 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=9aed5cbc-9060-442a-a8d3-51bfccf72790
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.25.5 tk: Qt v: 5.15.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1
    dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: Z68 Pro3 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: P1.60 date: 07/13/2011
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-2600K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge
    gen: core 2 level: v2 built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1741 high: 1848 min/max: 1600/3800 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1627 2: 1783 3: 1667
    4: 1731 5: 1799 6: 1792 7: 1685 8: 1848 bogomips: 54298
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT
    vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: ASRock driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 process: Intel 32nm
    built: 2011 ports: active: none empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3, VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0122
    class-ID: 0380
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] vendor: PNY driver: nouveau
    v: kernel non-free: 515.xx+ status: current (as of 2022-08) arch: Pascal
    code: GP10x process: TSMC 16nm built: 2016-21 pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
    active: HDMI-A-4 empty: DP-4, DP-5, DP-6, DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1c03 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 677x381mm (26.65x15.00")
    s-diag: 777mm (30.58")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-4 mapped: HDMI-4 model: ViewSonic VX3276-QHD
    serial: <filter> built: 2018 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
    size: 698x393mm (27.48x15.47") diag: 801mm (31.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: NV136 v: 4.3 Mesa 22.1.7 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 2-1.1:3
    bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 0c76:1467 class-ID: 0300 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
    serial: <filter> class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP106 High Definition Audio vendor: PNY
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f1
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: JMTek LLC. TKGOU PnP USB Microphone type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.19.7-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.57 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: wgpia0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.74 TiB used: 463.96 GiB (16.5%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WDS500G2B0A-00SM50 size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 40WD
    scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD10EZEX-07WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Transcend model: TS512GSSD230S
    size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: TBD1 scheme: GPT
  ID-4: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A01 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 906.86 GiB (98.31%) used: 463.96 GiB
    (51.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd2 maj-min: 8:50
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 280 KiB
    (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdd1 maj-min: 8:49
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdd3 maj-min: 8:51
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 49.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0
Info:
  Processes: 299 Uptime: 2h 54m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.54 GiB used: 10.3 GiB
  (66.3%) Init: systemd v: 251 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: 1996 pm: pacman pkgs: 1926
  libs: 522 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 70 pm: snap pkgs: 0 Shell: Zsh
  v: 5.9 default: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.21

Moderator edit: In the future, please use proper formatting: [HowTo] Post command output and file content as formatted text

2

:man_shrugging:

It is really difficult to say. The system update itself is not necessarily the cause of system slowdown or lagginess.

As I see it there may be two general causes

  1. CPU exploit mitigations are known to take it’s toll on performance.
  2. A customization which interferes or conflicts.

The first is easy to test - edit the grub defaults file and add mitigations=off - rebuild grub and restart.

The second is more complicated

The trick to have Plasma behave is to keep customizations to a minimum - stay as close to upstream as at all possible.

Custom Plasma theming, widgets and plasmoids may not match upstream KDE Plasma and may cause weird system behaviour when they are not updated to match the current libraries.

One way of testing is to create a new user - for testing - and log into the user - which will have a default layout and hopefully it does not inherit the issues from your current user.

If this is a success then you should remove any customization on your regular user.

If you have made no such customization and the issue persist onto the test user - you may have custom package - in rare circumstances it is the system - I noted the age of your system firmware