diff -aur kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/kconfigbackend.cpp kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/kconfigbackend.cpp
--- kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/kconfigbackend.cpp	2007-10-08 16:01:10.000000000 +0200
+++ kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/kconfigbackend.cpp	2007-10-18 01:52:33.000000000 +0200
@@ -980,6 +980,18 @@
 bool KConfigINIBackEnd::writeConfigFile(QString filename, bool bGlobal,
 					bool bMerge)
 {
+	return writeConfigFileInternal(filename, bGlobal, bMerge, true);
+}
+
+bool KConfigINIBackEnd::writeConfigFileAsync(QString filename, bool bGlobal,
+					bool bMerge)
+{
+	return writeConfigFileInternal(filename, bGlobal, bMerge, false);
+}
+
+bool KConfigINIBackEnd::writeConfigFileInternal(QString filename, bool bGlobal,
+					bool bMerge, bool bSync)
+{
   // is the config object read-only?
   if (pConfig->isReadOnly())
     return true; // pretend we wrote it
@@ -1021,6 +1033,9 @@
   {
      pConfigFile = new KSaveFile( filename, 0600 );
 
+     if (!bSync)
+       pConfigFile->setAsync(true);
+
      if (pConfigFile->status() != 0)
      {
         delete pConfigFile;
diff -aur kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/kconfigbackend.h kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/kconfigbackend.h
--- kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/kconfigbackend.h	2007-10-08 16:01:10.000000000 +0200
+++ kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/kconfigbackend.h	2007-10-18 01:42:42.000000000 +0200
@@ -266,6 +266,22 @@
    */
   bool writeConfigFile(QString filename, bool bGlobal = false, bool bMerge = true);
 
+  /**
+   * Writes configuration file back but doesn't sync it to disk.
+   *
+   * @param filename The name of the file to write.
+   * @param bGlobal Specifies whether to write only entries which
+   *        are marked as belonging to the global KDE config file.
+   *        If this is false, it skips those entries.
+   * @param bMerge Specifies whether the old config file already
+   *        on disk should be merged in with the data in memory.  If true,
+   *        data is read off the disk and merged.  If false, the on-disk
+   *        file is removed and only in-memory data is written out.
+   * @return Whether some entries are left to be written to other
+   *         files.
+   */
+  bool writeConfigFileAsync(QString filename, bool bGlobal = false, bool bMerge = true);
+
   /** Get the entry map.
    *
    * @param map the entries will be stored in this object.
@@ -286,6 +302,9 @@
 protected:
   virtual void virtual_hook( int id, void* data );
 private:
+  /* This does the real work */ 
+  bool writeConfigFileInternal(QString filename, bool bGlobal, bool bMerge, bool bSync);
+  /* other privates */
   class KConfigINIBackEndPrivate;
   KConfigINIBackEndPrivate *not_d;
 };
diff -aur kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/ksavefile.cpp kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/ksavefile.cpp
--- kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/ksavefile.cpp	2007-10-08 16:01:09.000000000 +0200
+++ kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/ksavefile.cpp	2007-10-18 01:49:11.000000000 +0200
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@
          }
       }
    }
+
+   // default is synchronous operation
+   mAsync = false;
 }
 
 KSaveFile::~KSaveFile()
@@ -108,11 +111,17 @@
 {
    if (mTempFile.name().isEmpty() || mTempFile.handle()==-1)
       return false; // Save was aborted already
-   if (!mTempFile.sync())
+
+   // only call sync if there was no async mode requested
+   if (!mAsync)
    {
-      abort();
-      return false;
+      if (!mTempFile.sync())
+      {
+         abort();
+         return false;
+      }
    }
+
    if (mTempFile.close())
    {
       if (0==KDE_rename(QFile::encodeName(mTempFile.name()), QFile::encodeName(mFileName)))
diff -aur kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/ksavefile.h kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/ksavefile.h
--- kdelibs-3.5.8/kdecore/ksavefile.h	2007-10-08 16:01:10.000000000 +0200
+++ kdelibs-3.5.8.patched/kdecore/ksavefile.h	2007-10-18 01:47:06.000000000 +0200
@@ -69,6 +69,15 @@
    	{ return mTempFile.status(); }
 
    /**
+    * This sets all file operations to async mode, beware nothing is explicitly
+    * flushed to disk like normal!
+    *
+    * @param async set this to true to make file operations asynchronous
+    **/
+   void setAsync(bool async)
+	{ mAsync = async; }
+
+   /**
     * The name of the file as passed to the constructor.
     * @return The name of the file, or QString::null if opening the
     *         file has failed
@@ -145,6 +154,7 @@
 private:
    QString mFileName;
    KTempFile mTempFile;
+   bool mAsync;
 
    KSaveFilePrivate *d;
 };