Sluggish load times

In the past few days, I’ve noticed that my Lenovo X270, which is running Manjaro KDE, has been performing sluggishly. Whether it’s opening applications or loading web pages in Firefox, everything seems to be lagging. There’s even a delay when typing. The boot time, however, is still OK.

I recently installed Manjaro 24.2.1 Yonada KDE on this device, and it was functioning well until about a week ago. My typical Manjaro setup is:

Enable Wayland
Turn on automatic app updates
Enable AUR and Flatpak support
Install and enable ProtonVPN
Install the latest Linux kernal
Enable Firewall
Tweak settings and customisation
Uninstall unnecessary apps
Removed Orphaned packages
Enable TimeShift

inxi -zv8 results:

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.4-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64
    root=UUID=b02a5c12-8cf8-45e3-920b-2c0fafe41cef rw quiet
    cryptdevice=UUID=7ee2b1e7-8f4c-42d4-b759-fe587b902022:luks-7ee2b1e7-8f4c-42d4-b759-fe587b902022
    root=/dev/mapper/luks-7ee2b1e7-8f4c-42d4-b759-fe587b902022 splash
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.2.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.8.0
    wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20HMS1PQ00 v: ThinkPad X270
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20HMS1PQ00 v: SDK0J40697 WIN
    serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: LENOVO_MT_20HM_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad X270
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: R0IET50W (1.28 )
    date: 01/29/2018
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 38.8 Wh (99.7%) condition: 38.9/47.5 Wh (81.8%)
    volts: 12.3 min: 10.8 model: SANYO 45N1767 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: not charging cycles: 215
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 8 GiB available: 7.66 GiB used: 3.67 GiB (48.0%)
  Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
  Array-1: capacity: 32 GiB slots: 2 modules: 1 EC: None
    max-module-size: 16 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous unbuffered
    (unregistered) size: 8 GiB speed: 2133 MT/s volts: curr: 1 width (bits):
    data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M471A1K43CB1-CRC
    serial: <filter>
  Device-2: ChannelB-DIMM0 type: no module installed
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i3-7100U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Amber/Kaby Lake
    note: check gen: core 7 level: v3 note: check built: 2017
    process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8E (142) stepping: 9
    microcode: 0xF6
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 2 cores: 2 threads: 4 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB
    desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1200 min/max: 400/2400 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 1200 2: 1200 3: 1200 4: 1200 bogomips: 19204
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush
    clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64
    dtherm dts epb erms est f16c flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp
    hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs intel_pt invpcid lahf_lm lm
    mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae
    pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti
    pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2
    sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tsc tsc_adjust
    tsc_deadline_timer vme x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves
    xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow 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: IBRS; IBPB: conditional; STIBP: conditional;
    RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-2,eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:5916 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Bison Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-8:4 chip-ID: 5986:2118
    class-ID: 0e02
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.14 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.4
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 d-rect: 3286x1848 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-2 pos: top-right model: Dell P2419H serial: <filter>
    built: 2019 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
    chroma: red: x: 0.655 y: 0.337 green: x: 0.322 y: 0.612 blue: x: 0.153
    y: 0.059 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329 size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65")
    diag: 604mm (23.8") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080, 1920x1080i, 1600x900,
    1280x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1024x768, 800x600, 720x576, 720x576i,
    720x480, 720x480i, 640x480, 720x400
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: bottom-l model: AU Optronics 0x106c built: 2012 res:
    mode: 1366x768 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 126 gamma: 1.2 chroma: red:
    x: 0.592 y: 0.322 green: x: 0.294 y: 0.537 blue: x: 0.141 y: 0.165 white:
    x: 0.314 y: 0.329 size: 276x155mm (10.87x6.1") diag: 317mm (12.5")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris wayland:
    drv: iris x11: drv: iris
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.2.8-arch1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:5916 memory: 3.74 GiB unified: yes display-ID: :1.0
  API: Vulkan Message: No Vulkan data available.
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo,xprop
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_avs bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.4-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d8 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  IF-ID-1: pvpnksintrf1 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  IF-ID-2: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
  IP v4: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> virtual: stable-privacy proto kernel_ll scope: link
  Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 8087:0a2b
    class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
  Device-1: luks-7ee2b1e7-8f4c-42d4-b759-fe587b902022 maj-min: 254:0
    type: LUKS dm: dm-0 size: 118.94 GiB
  Components:
  p-1: sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 118.95 GiB
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 32.23 GiB (27.0%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SD9SB8W128G1001
    size: 119.24 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 4001 scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 118.94 GiB size: 116.52 GiB (97.96%)
    used: 32.23 GiB (27.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 254:0
    mapped: luks-7ee2b1e7-8f4c-42d4-b759-fe587b902022 label: N/A
    uuid: b02a5c12-8cf8-45e3-920b-2c0fafe41cef
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 448 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A
    uuid: C305-310A
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: Logitech Nano Receiver type: keyboard,mouse
    driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 98mA
    chip-ID: 046d:c534 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 1-7:3 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0a2b class-ID: e001
  Device-3: 1-8:4 info: Bison Integrated Camera type: video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 5986:2118 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C pch: 42.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 1241 pm: pacman pkgs: 1232 libs: 354 tools: pamac pm: appimage
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 9
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://manjaro.kurdy.org/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/repo.manjaro.org/repos/stable/$repo/$arch
    3: https://nnenix.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    4: https://mirror.bouwhuis.network/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    5: https://muug.ca/mirror/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    6: http://ftp.rz.tu-bs.de/pub/mirror/manjaro.org/repos/stable/$repo/$arch
    7: https://mirror.funami.tech/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    8: https://mirrors.pku.edu.cn/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 220
  1: cpu: 62.2% command: zsh pid: 45084 mem: 9.54 MiB (0.1%)
  2: cpu: 59.1% command: baloo_file_extractor pid: 45122
    mem: 170.0 MiB (2.1%)
  3: cpu: 40.4% command: firefox pid: 25831 mem: 612.3 MiB (7.8%)
  4: cpu: 30.3% command: konsole pid: 45058 mem: 215.3 MiB (2.7%)
  5: cpu: 14.5% command: kwin_wayland pid: 793 mem: 221.5 MiB (2.8%)
  Memory top: 5 of 220
  1: mem: 612.3 MiB (7.8%) command: firefox pid: 25831 cpu: 40.4%
  2: mem: 447.6 MiB (5.7%) command: plasmashell pid: 1008 cpu: 1.4%
  3: mem: 304.5 MiB (3.8%) command: superproductivity pid: 1673 cpu: 11.4%
  4: mem: 290.2 MiB (3.7%) command: firefox pid: 25953 cpu: 1.9%
  5: mem: 241.0 MiB (3.0%) command: firefox pid: 44777 cpu: 8.2%
Info:
  Processes: 220 Power: uptime: 4h 4m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 3.05 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash v: 5.2.37
    running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

CPU

Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   4
  On-line CPU(s) list:    0-3
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  Model name:             Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz
    CPU family:           6
    Model:                142
    Thread(s) per core:   2
    Core(s) per socket:   2
    Socket(s):            1
    Stepping:             9
    CPU(s) scaling MHz:   37%
    CPU max MHz:          2400.0000
    CPU min MHz:          400.0000
    BogoMIPS:             4801.00
    Flags:                fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts 
                          acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art ar
                          ch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulq
                          dq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2
                          apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowpref
                          etch cpuid_fault epb pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi
                          2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsave
                          s dtherm arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d arch_
                          capabilities
Caches (sum of all):      
  L1d:                    64 KiB (2 instances)
  L1i:                    64 KiB (2 instances)
  L2:                     512 KiB (2 instances)
  L3:                     3 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA:                     
  NUMA node(s):           1
  NUMA node0 CPU(s):      0-3
Vulnerabilities:          
  Gather data sampling:   Mitigation; Microcode
  Itlb multihit:          KVM: Mitigation: VMX unsupported
  L1tf:                   Mitigation; PTE Inversion
  Mds:                    Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Meltdown:               Mitigation; PTI
  Mmio stale data:        Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Reg file data sampling: Not affected
  Retbleed:               Mitigation; IBRS
  Spec rstack overflow:   Not affected
  Spec store bypass:      Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Spectre v1:             Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Spectre v2:             Mitigation; IBRS; IBPB conditional; STIBP conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not 
                          affected; BHI Not affected
  Srbds:                  Mitigation; Microcode
  Tsx async abort:        Not affected

Drivers

Warning: No installed PCI configs!
Warning: No installed USB configs!

RAM

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7.7Gi       3.7Gi       1.2Gi       960Mi       4.0Gi       3.9Gi
Swap:             0B          0B          0B

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

baloo, search indexer, is using a lot of cpu currently.

From mhwd -li ?

Hi @halp, and welcome!

I notice you’ve only got 8GB of RAM:

And no swap space:

This might be a reason. Perhaps you would consider some SWAP space:

2 Likes

As @Mirdarthos suggests, lack of swap may be contributing to the general sluggishness, given that you only have 8GB of RAM.

A few other threads also mention poor loading performance when using kernel 6.12. One in particular, found that using kernel 6.6 (LTS) instead was their best solution.

I’m afraid I don’t recall their laptop details, but if you’re experiencing a similar problem, try reverting to kernel 6.6 (LTS) to see if this improves things.

Regards.

2 Likes

Hi @Mirdarthos & @soundofthunder - thanks for the suggestions. I have made these changes and will test over the next 24 hours to see if there’s any improvement.

1 Like

SWAP can somewhat help memory management et al …
But if you were hitting your ceiling you would have locked up. Encountered a freeze.
So I rather doubt your issue is SWAP. Even if it makes sense for you to have some.

Over half of your CPU is/was being used to index your data.
Now this very well could produce ‘slowness’.
But it will stop - either when the indexing is finished or if you somehow end it yourself.
Usually its just matter of being patient for the index to end.

You can also immediately suspend it with

balooctl6 suspend

But because this is happening somewhat later after the initial install it does beg the question ‘why now?’ - was an external disk recently attached or similar?

1 Like

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=431664#c0

I only had a problem with baloo one time, some years ago, after adding stuff to my ‘file search’ which had it indexing a lot of useless junk.

Disable it first, see if that fixes the issue - if it does, then purge it and tidy up the configuration.