How to improve Kubuntu performance

You can make Kubuntu faster by turning off unnecessary visual effects, reducing background tasks, and adjusting a few system settings.

1. Turn off animations and visual effects

KDE Plasma uses animations and visual effects to make the desktop look attractive. Turning off some of these effects can make it feel faster.

Open System Settings → Workspace Behaviour → Desktop Effects.

Turn off effects such as Blur and Translucency.

Open the compositor settings and set the texture filter to Fastest if available.

Set the animation speed to Instant, if available.

2. Turn off unnecessary file indexing

Kubuntu uses Baloo to index files and speed up searches. It can use CPU and disk resources while indexing.

Open System Settings → Search → File Search.

Turn off file search if you do not need indexed file searches.

Alternatively, exclude folders that you do not need to search. Note that disabling indexing may slow some file searches.

3. Manage startup applications

Some applications start automatically when you log in and use memory in the background.

Open System Settings → Autostart under Startup and Shutdown.

Review the list of applications.

Disable applications you do not need to start automatically, such as unused chat apps or sync tools.

Do not disable services unless you know what they do.

4. Adjust memory and swap settings

Linux uses swap space when RAM becomes full. You can reduce how readily the system uses swap by changing the swappiness setting.

Open the terminal and run:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Add this line at the end of the file:

vm.swappiness=10

Save the file and apply the change:

sudo sysctl -p

A value of 10 makes Linux less likely to use swap, but it may not improve performance on every computer. The default setting is often suitable for everyday use.

5. Install the correct hardware drivers

The correct graphics drivers can improve desktop performance and gaming.

Open Driver Manager available on your Kubuntu installation.

Check whether recommended graphics drivers are available.

If you use an NVIDIA graphics card, consider installing the recommended proprietary driver. Keep your system and drivers updated.

Install MIUI stock ROM over custom ROM

Here are the steps to install MIUI stock ROM on custom ROM-running phones (e.g. LineageOS, e/OS). These steps can apply to Redmi and Poco phones. Here, I share the steps to install the stock ROM on a Poco F1 running e/OS.

1. Enable USB debugging in /e/OS

Settings → About phone → tap Build number 7 times to enable Developer options

Settings → System → Developer options → turn on Android debugging (USB debugging)

2. Set the USB mode and authorise the PC

Plug in the cable, pull down the notification shade, tap the USB notification and choose File transfer (MTP). A prompt titled Allow USB debugging? should appear on the phone. Tick Always allow and tap Allow.

3. Download the Fastboot ROM

Get the Fastboot ROM (a .tgz file, not the Recovery .zip) for the Beryllium (Poco F1) from xiaomifirmware.com . Pick the region that suits you (Global, India, EEA). 

4. Install ADB and Fastboot on Debian-based Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint).

sudo apt update

sudo apt install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

Extract the package and rename the folder, e.g., miui. Enter the folder, apply the following command,

cd miui

5. Boot the phone into Fastboot mode

Power off the phone, then hold Volume Down + Power until you see the Mi Bunny/Fastboot screen. Alternatively, with USB debugging enabled:

adb reboot bootloader

6. Connect and verify

Use a good cable, preferably a USB 2.0 port directly on your PC (not a hub).

fastboot devices

Your device serial should be listed. If nothing shows up, try sudo fastboot devices. If that works, set up udev rules, or just run the flash script with sudo.

7. Flash the ROM

chmod +x flash_all.sh

sudo ./flash_all.sh

Don’t unplug the cable or interrupt the process. It takes a few minutes, and the phone reboots automatically at the end.

8. First boot

The first boot can take 5 to 10 minutes. This is normal, so don’t interrupt it.

Font issues with the browsers installed using Flatpak

Font issues with the Flatpak versions of browsers like Brave, Firefox, and Google Chrome are common because the sandboxed applications cannot access system fonts. Using Flatseal to grant filesystem permissions usually resolves this.

Install the Flatseal app

Either use the software centre to install the app. Otherwise, apply the following command to install the Flatseal app,

flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Run the app using the following command,

flatpak run com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Select the browser, e.g. Chrome Flatpak. Scroll down to Filesystem. Under Other files, add the following paths:

xdg-config/fontconfig

~/.local/share/fonts

Restart the browser.

Setup Flatpak in Debian

Flatpak is a package management system for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux. It packages applications with all necessary dependencies, creating isolated containers (sandboxes) that prevent apps from tampering with the host system. Flatpak is ideal for easily getting the latest app versions.

Flatpak support is available in Debian 10 (Buster) and later. Here are the steps to install and enable Flatpak in the Debian operating system with the GNOME and KDE desktops:

Install Flatpak 

sudo apt install flatpak

For GNOME users

Install the Flatpak plugin for GNOME Software. 

sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak -y

For KDE users

Install the Plasma Discover Flatpak backend.

sudo apt install plasma-discover-backend-flatpak -y

Flathub is the best place to get Flatpak apps. Add the Flathub repository.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

To finish the setup, restart your system.

How to use Flatpak

New apps can be installed using the GNOME software centre.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and increased RAM usage: should we be concerned?

The Ubuntu 26.04 LTS version was released on April 23. Ubuntu is a key reason why Linux-based operating systems became popular for personal and educational use. The minimum RAM requirement for Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Raccoon) LTS has been increased to 6 GB, which poses a challenge for users with low-memory computers. Let's look at the facts behind this change.

Reasons for concern

Most users currently have laptops and desktops with low RAM (probably 4 GB). To run the new Ubuntu version effectively, they will need to upgrade their RAM. This increased RAM requirement will be difficult for Ubuntu users. RAM prices have risen significantly in 2026. This current price increase is due to massive demand from AI companies and a decrease in consumer-market RAM production. Large data centres that run AI services like ChatGPT need huge amounts of RAM. These data centres use RAM with higher capacity than standard computers. Manufacturers are prioritising these large companies (Microsoft, Google, Meta) for profit. This has led to reduced RAM availability for regular consumers.

Another technical reason is the shift from older DDR4 to newer DDR5. As manufacturers reduced DDR4 production, its price started to rise. At the same time, because DDR5 production is still not sufficient, it is also being sold at a high price. A major change in this situation is only expected toward the end of 2026.

Why was the RAM requirement raised?

There are technical and operational reasons for the increased hardware requirements (System Requirements) for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
The GNOME Desktop Environment used by Ubuntu includes more modern visual effects and features with each update. The same applies to the KDE Desktop used by Kubuntu. These need more memory to run smoothly.
Today's web browsers and other applications require a large amount of RAM just to run. When using Firefox or Chrome, opening just a few tabs can push RAM usage close to 1 GB.
More RAM is needed for background services like system security, indexing, automatic updates, and cloud services to run without interruption.

What is the solution?

The primary solution is to upgrade your RAM capacity. However, new RAM is very expensive. Used RAM can be purchased at lower prices from online stores. You can buy an old 4 GB RAM to increase your current 4 GB to 8 GB. If your computer does not have 6 GB of RAM, you can use versions like Lubuntu or Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu. These are designed to run faster on low RAM. However, the new versions of Xubuntu and Lubuntu also have higher RAM usage. Alternatively, Debian Linux can be used to make old computers run quickly.