How to make XQuartz/MacOS <--> IceCat/GuixSD fast?

How to make XQuartz/MacOS <--> IceCat/GuixSD fast?

[George myglc2 Clemmer]

I want to speed up IceCat on my GuixSD headless server. I am using
XQuartz/MacOS over 1000BaseT to reach a server with 3.4GHz Intel E3-1240
V3 CPU and SSD storage. ISTM this is about as fast as one can make a
headless server. But IceCat is unusably slow. So I wonder ...

Do you run IceCat remotely from a GuixSD desktop and get good
performance?  If so, please tell me about your setup.

Would Wayland make it faster?

Would an upgrade to a CPU w/GPU make it faster?

TIA - George

Re: How to make XQuartz/MacOS <--> IceCat/GuixSD fast?

[myglc2]

On 01/15/2018 at 13:29 George myglc2 Clemmer writes:

> I want to speed up IceCat on my GuixSD headless server. I am using
> XQuartz/MacOS over 1000BaseT to reach a server with 3.4GHz Intel E3-1240
> V3 CPU and SSD storage. ISTM this is about as fast as one can make a
> headless server. But IceCat is unusably slow.

[...]

Update: As suggested by Vladimir Sedach[1], changing the IceCat/GuixSD
about:config default gfx.xrender.enabled=false to true dramatically
speeds this up the point I am no longer thinking of new hardware. Yeah!

[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2018-01/msg00065.html

Re: How to make XQuartz/MacOS <--> IceCat/GuixSD fast?

[Chris Marusich]

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George myglc2 Clemmer <myglc2@gmail.com> writes:

> I want to speed up IceCat on my GuixSD headless server. I am using
> XQuartz/MacOS over 1000BaseT to reach a server with 3.4GHz Intel E3-1240
> V3 CPU and SSD storage. ISTM this is about as fast as one can make a
> headless server. But IceCat is unusably slow. So I wonder ...
>
> Do you run IceCat remotely from a GuixSD desktop and get good
> performance?  If so, please tell me about your setup.
>
> Would Wayland make it faster?
>
> Would an upgrade to a CPU w/GPU make it faster?
>
> TIA - George

For what it's worth, I have run Firefox in similar situations (not
involving GuixSD), and I have always found it to be un-usably slow over
a remote X connection.  I never bothered to try to make it faster; I'm
intrigued that you were able to make it better at all.

You may also consider doing the following to speed things up:

- Use compression (e.g., "ssh -C") (helps quite a bit in some cases)
- Limit the color palette to the fewest colors possible (helps a little)

-- 
Chris

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Re: How to make XQuartz/MacOS <--> IceCat/GuixSD fast?

[George myglc2 Clemmer]

On 01/16/2018 at 23:01 Chris Marusich writes:

> George myglc2 Clemmer <myglc2@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I want to speed up IceCat on my GuixSD headless server. I am using
>> XQuartz/MacOS over 1000BaseT to reach a server with 3.4GHz Intel E3-1240
>> V3 CPU and SSD storage. ISTM this is about as fast as one can make a
>> headless server. But IceCat is unusably slow. So I wonder ...
>>
>> Do you run IceCat remotely from a GuixSD desktop and get good
>> performance?  If so, please tell me about your setup.
>>
>> Would Wayland make it faster?
>>
>> Would an upgrade to a CPU w/GPU make it faster?
>>
>> TIA - George
>
> For what it's worth, I have run Firefox in similar situations (not
> involving GuixSD), and I have always found it to be un-usably slow over
> a remote X connection.  I never bothered to try to make it faster; I'm
> intrigued that you were able to make it better at all.
>
> You may also consider doing the following to speed things up:
>
> - Use compression (e.g., "ssh -C") (helps quite a bit in some cases)
> - Limit the color palette to the fewest colors possible (helps a
> little)

Thanks Chris. I used -C when forced to run X over the inet or slower
links at work but it didn't occur to me to try it on 1000BaseT. I will
check these ideas out and let you know if they make a meaningful diff.

- George