I use a laptop running OpenSuse 13.2 as my workstation so that any work I do at home is always with me. I also have a PC (OpenSuse 13.1), which is used as a headless server - mostly for file backup, but I also run a few apps from it via ssh, when I want to run tasks in the background to conserve the laptop’s resources.
One app that I’d like to use this way is k3b, since the PC’s DVD burner is theoretically 8X the speed of the laptop’s. However running k3b via ssh is painfully slow. By comparison, running YAST, I barely notice the difference in speed and often need to check the title bar to see which computer I’m accessing.
I’ve tried running k3b both with and without dbus-launch (ssh -X 192.168.X.X [dbus-launch] k3b). Both seem equally slow.
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:16:02 +0000, Thailandian wrote:
> I use a laptop running OpenSuse 13.2 as my workstation so that any work
> I do at home is always with me. I also have a PC (OpenSuse 13.1), which
> is used as a headless server - mostly for file backup, but I also run a
> few apps from it via ssh, when I want to run tasks in the background to
> conserve the laptop’s resources.
>
> One app that I’d like to use this way is k3b, since the PC’s DVD burner
> is theoretically 8X the speed of the laptop’s. However running k3b via
> ssh is painfully slow. By comparison, running YAST, I barely notice the
> difference in speed and often need to check the title bar to see which
> computer I’m accessing.
>
> I’ve tried running k3b both with and without dbus-launch (ssh -X
> 192.168.X.X [dbus-launch] k3b). Both seem equally slow.
>
> Many thanks in advance for any advice offered.
I would advise not running it over SSH - there’s always a risk when
tunneling an app’s UI over SSH that the connection drops - and if that
happens, you’ll end up with a nice shiny coaster.
Maybe try it over a remote desktop connection instead.
> One app that I’d like to use this way is k3b, since the PC’s DVD burner
> is theoretically 8X the speed of the laptop’s. However running k3b via
> ssh is painfully slow. By comparison, running YAST, I barely notice the
> difference in speed and often need to check the title bar to see which
> computer I’m accessing.
Apparently, not all apps run fast in that situation. It is video
related. Try disabling graphical effects in your kde desktop, perhaps.
Otherwise, don’t use k3b for the actual burning, but the CLI. Create the
iso file, by whatever method you like (like using k3b locally) then take
it over to the server and burn it from there, using ssh and tmux, so
that if the connection drops it continues running.
It is important that the iso file be local to the machine doing the burning.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
Thanks for the response Jim. I’m curious as to why a remote desktop would be safer than SSH re: dropped connections; however, it may well solve the speed problem. I’ll give it a try. Thanks again.
Thanks for the response Carlos. It actually gave me a slightly different idea. I installed Brasero and it seems to run smoothly over SSH. I have to install some plugins to get it to burn but so far so good. Thanks again.
I wonder if this problem is common to KDE apps, as I notice that Dolphin can be a bit sluggish too.
In case anyone stumbles across this thread with similar problems, I’ve ended up with Xfburn - a quick Internet search revealed a lot of problems with Brasero not recognising DVD burners, so I switched to Xfburn and everything “just worked”.
Of course Xfburn is not K3b but usually my needs are pretty simple, and if I need something fancier, I can always make an ISO image locally and move it to the server as Carlos E. R. suggested.
Re: risk of shiny coasters, point taken but my priority is a no-fuss, intuitive and quick way of burning my work to cds and dvds for distribution, so I’m prepared to wear the occasional fail.
Thanks once again to both Jim and Carlos for your help.
Should I mark this thread as [solved] and if so how?
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:16:02 +0000, Thailandian wrote:
> hendersj;2681618 Wrote:
>>
>>
>> I would advise not running it over SSH - there’s always a risk when
>> tunneling an app’s UI over SSH that the connection drops - and if that
>> happens, you’ll end up with a nice shiny coaster.
>>
>> Maybe try it over a remote desktop connection instead.
>> Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
>
> Thanks for the response Jim. I’m curious as to why a remote desktop
> would be safer than SSH re: dropped connections; however, it may well
> solve the speed problem. I’ll give it a try. Thanks again.
Because a remote desktop won’t kill the application if it disconnects.
On 2014-12-09 11:16, Thailandian wrote:
> I wonder if this problem is common to KDE apps, as I notice that Dolphin
> can be a bit sluggish too.
Video related.
Consider.
An application runs in machine A, but displays in machine B.
There are two basic ways: a) machine A tells to B to display a square
box with letters. b) machine A sends to B a photo of what to display.
The second form is slower to transmit.
Traditional X applications did this correctly, but new designers want
shiny effects, and these are heavy to transmit over the wire, unless
they upgrade the X server in a way so that effects can be transmitted as
“generate this effect”, instead of sending the bitmap.
Either that, or revert to a simpler mode, without effects, when running
remotely.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
> Of course Xfburn is not K3b but usually my needs are pretty simple, and
> if I need something fancier, I can always make an ISO image locally and
> move it to the server as Carlos E. R. suggested.
Well, yes, that’s a simple tool, part of xfce.
Should work.
Just in case, a note: the image to be burned and the media should be in
the same computer. You should not burn transmitting the iso file over
the network. Well, you can, of course, but then the burn speed is
limited to about 10 mbyte/s. A burst of network activity, and if the
burner doesn’t protect against an empty buffer (the situation has a name
on burners which I can not remember), you get a coaster.
> Should I mark this thread as [solved] and if so how?
Unless things have changed, you can’t.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
