Feedback on Files/Nautilus Performance on Zorin OS 17.2 Education

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1

I noticed an interesting behavior with the Files (Nautilus) app when working on Wayland and Plasma environments. Here’s a summary of the issue and the surprising resolution:

  1. Initial Issue on Wayland:

    • When entering a folder containing a large number of files (1000+ files, totaling 50GB+), Files would lag for several seconds.
    • During this time, the application would freeze, and the pointer would display a clock icon, also becoming unresponsive for a few seconds.

  2. Performance on Plasma Environment:

    • The same scenario was tested in a Plasma environment, and Files exhibited no such lags or freezes, handling the folder contents smoothly.

  3. Unexpected Resolution:

    • Upon returning to Wayland and uninstalling the Plasma environment, the behavior of Files on Wayland significantly improved. Surprisingly, Files no longer displayed any lag or freezing when accessing the same folder.

This behavior is puzzling, as the mere installation and subsequent removal of Plasma seem to have impacted the performance of Files on Wayland. It suggests there may be underlying dependencies or system configurations altered during the Plasma installation that benefit Files on Wayland.

2

The first time that Nautilus opens up a folder with images and videos, it generates a thumbnail. This does consume some CPU cycles, not a whole lot, but it does add up the more files and the larger they are. This would explain why the first time you opened this folder it lagged, but then it shows normally.

Was this the case in your example? If yes, and you want to test further, you can remove all the cached thumbnails with the following script:

by @mcuda:

#!/bin/bash
tmp="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/for_smart_rm"
mkdir $tmp
realpath $@ > "${tmp}/paths.txt"
readarray -t paths < "${tmp}/paths.txt"
i=0
for path in "${paths[@]}"
do
    echo -n "file://${path}" > "${tmp}/uri-${i}.txt"
    i=$(($i+1))
done
md5sum ${tmp}/uri*.txt > md5sums.txt
dir="${HOME}/.cache/thumbnails/normal"
awk_arg="OFS=\"/\" {print \"${dir}\",\$1}"
awk 'OFS="." {print $1,"png"}' < md5sums.txt | awk "${awk_arg}" > "${tmp}/thumbnails.txt"
readarray -t thumbnails < "${tmp}/thumbnails.txt"
rm ${thumbnails[*]}
rm -r $tmp

To use it, save it somewhere in your machine, and grant executable permissions. Then, run it providing all the files in the directory that you want to remove thumbnails from. E.g.: ./test.sh ~/Pictures/lots_of_pictures/*

NOTE: the original script is designed to remove the original images as well. I've removed the line that does that so that you don't end up losing your pictures, but suffice to say that you should really test this at your own risk. Make sure you have backups!

Some bedtime reading, in case you're curious:

3

The Plasma Version in the Ubuntu Repo's of Zorin 17 is an older one. I think this runs with Xorg by default. And for this older Version it is better to run it with Xorg because the Wayland Performance isn't the best there. On the modern Versions of Plasma (6.1+) the Wayland Implementation is way better and so the Performance too.

4

Oh, so, I'm puzzled now. Should I wait that Plasma will be updated in Zorin/Ubuntu repos or I am so experienced now and should I go for another Linux distro?

5

There is a feeling that when Plasma was installed, something might have changed even after Plasma was uninstalled. Occasionally these environments modify system settings or libraries without the user knowing, and it may very well be that something in Plasma fine-tuned the Wayland experience in a way that we were not aware of. That must be a relief – glad to hear Files is moving more smoothly now after the transition! It is one of those enigms that Linux is full of and which makes this system so special.

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6

Well, You could wait until Zorin 18 with the Ubuntu 24 LTS Base. But there is the Thing that it doesn't seem to have Plasma 6 in the Repos because the Plasma 6 Desktop came a bit too late to land in the Repo. And I don't know if they changed that now.

Another Option would be KDE Neon. It has the Ubuntu 24 LTS Base and an up-to-date Plasma Desktop. This Distro comes directly from KDE. That is the reason for the up-to-date Desktop. Take a Look here:

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7

This is a strange way to look at a glitch as a joy :smiley:

2 Likes
8

I confirm that the issues with delay reading large dirs is not present on my new Zorin 17.2 installation.

9

I just corrected a typo in your above post. Zab

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