Very slow remote X Firefox using ssh -X

[crobc]

Hi:

openSuSE 10.3 x86_64, using KDE whatever came with it.

I have two machines running 10.3 on a 100 Mbps LAN. Both are very powerful machines, Core 2 Duo >= 3.0GHz, 2GB RAM, you get the picture.

If I do:
ngong:> ssh -X bong
...
bong:> firefox, or konqueror, etc.

The performance or the display on "ngong" of the application running on "bong" is horribly slow. I mean oozing refrigerated molasses slow. Both machines don't have firewall running at present. They have 3Mbps internet suction, and I can typically do 10MB/s ftp from one to the other.

Got any idea how to fix or where to look for indications of trouble?

Hmm, I just noticed kate remotely displays a bit slow but not horribly. I noticed some posts about this sort of problem specific to Firefox. But the same problem with Konq?

BTW, I am logging in to the remote machine as a different user than the one which might be logged in there already and running Konq. and Firefox instances.

Do I have to worry about other instances of these programs even if they are belonging to a different user?

Thanks for a response.

Good day!

[caf4926]

I don't use the method you employ. But prefer kssh from the kde community repo.
You basically just connect via the terminal, once logged in to the remote box, just start apps: eg: firefox

For file management I connect via konqueror with: fish://

Multiple instances of the same application should be fine.

But I'm not sure about

BTW, I am logging in to the remote machine as a different user than the one which might be logged in

[ken_yap]

Remote X apps typically have poor performance and it's due to the high latencies and the large number of round trips made by typical X apps. Doesn't matter how much bandwidth you've got, the latency and round trips kill performance. You might want to try NX which is supposed to help in such cases.

[Knurpht]

I've never known it any different. OO.o, Firefox and Thunderbird are incredibly slow within 'ssh -X'.

Using fish a lot too, on LAN and WAN.

[crobc]

Originally Posted by caf4926

I don't use the method you employ. But prefer kssh from the kde community repo.
You basically just connect via the terminal, once logged in to the remote box, just start apps: eg: firefox

For file management I connect via konqueror with: fish://

Holy smokes, I never even heard about that until now. You mean I needn't set up NFS anymore? Wow. It's too bad this doesn't show up in the default Konqueror filemanager sidebar. I have a "network" button, which doesn't have any fishy thing, nor any other one of the mostly useless redundancies. Only "storage media," "Home," and "Root" do much useful.

Hmm, I can add a button though, with the fish:// URL for my other machine.

Cool.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by ken_yap

You might want to try NX which is supposed to help in such cases.

I can vouch for that

I use nx an awful lot and find it's a lot quicker than vnc or ssh x11 forwarding (I do have the nxclient's disk and memory caching set to the max which may be helping there)

Over the lan there's hardly a noticeable speed difference with nx to using a desktop on the machine you're remoting into

[martinson]

If you wish to use OpenSSH, and you're on a trusted network, use the -Y switch instead of -X. By referencing from the OpenSSH manual, the -X switch implies heavy security checks and this creates latency in order of the extra checks. But by using the -Y switch this loosens everything a bit. Try it out.

Martin.