How do I make Cockpit useful?

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tumbleweed 20260305
linux v6.19.5-2-default x86_64
amd ryzen 5 9600

I saw a recent posting in Open Chat about Cockpit and decided to give it another go. Failed again.

I followed the instructions … and got stuck at starting Cockpit. No instruction there. There was a mention of an icon … somewhere, that would start Cockpit.

The question “How to start Cockpit in Opensuse” posed to DuckDuckGo provided the best information of installing and starting Cockpit I have seen anywhere. The missing instruction is sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket.

My usage experience: Cockpit is incredibly slow. It takes a minute to show anything useful. It is constantly “losing connection” and requesting to reconnect, usually as I await something useful to appear. As a system maintenance tool it is useless to me.

No doubt there is something I have not done, or installed, or something.

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@jimbobrae Not sure if there were any recent updates, but latest snapshot is “20260312”, perhaps getting up to date first may help?

Because I use it with multiple systems (over ssh) I opted for the Flatpak version, then I don’t need anything on the remotes. It does lack some of the specific openSUSE plugins, but I don’t use it that much either (just like YaST)… My computers have specific functions in life, so once setup are good to go.

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FWIW - covered in the openSUSE wiki page and the Cockpit documentation as well.

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That behaviour isn’t typical, and I haven’t observed that. Cockpit normally loads in a few seconds. If it’s taking a minute and repeatedly reconnecting, it’s usually something environmental.

Are you accessing it localhost machine or remotely? Is it slow to present the login screen and render? PackageKit delay if the software updates module is checking software status? Other possibilities: hostname/DNS resolution problems, or browser extensions interfering with the websocket connection perhaps.

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Hmm. Probably from where it was scraped.

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In another posting (here) I queried how to switch to Network Manager from wicked.

After doing so, Cockpit is now useful. There is little delay in presenting data; there has been no “reconnect” requests.

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I spoke (wrote?) too soon. After updating and booting the system, the long delays and disconnects are once again ascendant.

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Please answer the questions asked in post #4.

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I have accessed it both ways. localhost seems a bit faster.

No. The login screen appears quickly. The main screen appears quickly. The spinner spins a while. Sometimes a blank white screen is presented; no data is displayed. Eventually a reconnect request is made.

I would not know.

Today I tried Cockpit again. Login persistently failed. After denying access the system journal was peppered with PackageKit entries. I could see no reason for the login failure.

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Well, damn.
I had made today’s effort using localhost:9090 to start Cockpit. It failed to allow access.

I then changed the URL to sma-station14l.sma.com:9090. Not only did login succeed, Cockpit is running smoothly, without delays.