Hello, all. Internally, we are almost exclusively a Linux desktop shop and our experiences with X2Go are simply amazing. We architected a very powerful back end and the applications just explode on the screen even though all of them are across WAN connections. The X2Go performance is generally much better than our local systems.
However, most of our initial clients are Windows users (for the X2Go client) and they are continually complaining about bad performance to the point we have stopped major new rollouts. We bit the bullet and installed Windows on our local systems and . . . they are right. The Windows client performance is much worse. I'll outline what I have seen but I have seen it consistently in 3.0.1-4, 3.0.1.18 with Xming, and 3.0.1.18 with vcxsrv. I also tried Pyhoca (0.7) but it kept mangling my authentication so I cannot report on it.
There are two different types of problems. The first is generally laggard response. Typing, screen refreshes, scrolling - everything is generally slower. I would guess this is simply because we must shim a local X server between NX and GDI and it may simply be the way life is. I was hoping it would not be so noticeable.
The second problem is far worse, however. It seems that sometimes screen painting of the active application stalls. Again, we've seen this on all three platforms described above. We most often see this in Iceweasel (we are using Debian X2Go Servers). Users will have multiple tabs open and will switch from one or the other or from one widget in an Ajax application to another and nothing happens for literally a minute or two. They can switch to other applications and work there so this is not simply packet loss on the line. The application itself does not update the screen. After a minute or two, everything they typed or the results or their mouse clicks all appear.
This is the killer issue right along with the disappearing mouse. We cannot have our users wait for a minute or two every few minutes while they are working on their applications. Again, they can move to a different application and work but their previously active application, usually Iceweasel, just pauses and then catches all events up a minute or so later.
Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot and fix this? Thanks - John
What version of Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and 32- or 64-bit?
I run x2goclient 3.01-13 on my 64-bit Windows 7 machines and it works "good enough".
However, I am running it on a LAN (ethernet and occasionally wifi). Also, it is not problem-free. Sometimes the mouse pointer disappears and can only be restored by restarting the application. I used to have problems that sounded like you described for windows not repainting, except I could get them to repaint by moving the mouse in front of them. But I have not had the repainting problem for quite a while. Although I did have a new problem show up in the past several weeks, not sure if it is x2go or firefox/flash, but sometimes when switching tabs in firefox, a rectangle of flash painting comes with the switch, obscuring the new tab that I switched to.
I'm also using a fairly old version of x2goserver, since I am running Archlinux and the recent versions of x2goserver have not been built for Archlinux yet. I was looking into installing x2goserver from source, but I was waiting for the suidwrapper issues to settle down a little bit first.
Anyway, several months ago I experimented with different versions of x2goclient on windows, and all of them had problems. 3.01-13 seemed to be the least troublesome, so I have been using that for the last several months. But I'd be willing to try some other versions if it will help to troubleshoot the problems you are seeing.
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 04:52:21 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
I also tried Pyhoca (0.7) but it kept mangling my authentication so I cannot report on it.
I cannot say much about the native x2goclient, but if there are any
problems with PyHoca-GUI we surely will be able to sort them out.
If you are interested in that, you could give a more detailed error
description (and maybe a screen shot?).
Thanks, Mike
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On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 10:39 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 04:52:21 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
I also tried Pyhoca (0.7) but it kept mangling my authentication so I cannot report on it.
I cannot say much about the native x2goclient, but if there are any
problems with PyHoca-GUI we surely will be able to sort them out.If you are interested in that, you could give a more detailed error
description (and maybe a screen shot?).Thanks, Mike
Sure. I haven't taken a lot of time to troubleshoot it. When I try to connect, Pyhoca says I have authenticated but nothing happens. I first suspected it might not be starting the X server since I unchecked vcxsrv during the bundle installation routine because I had already installed it (default location). However, I then noticed errors in the logs on the X2Go server that authentication had failed. So Pyhoca thinks I have authenticated whereas the server does not - John
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 15:13:40 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 10:39 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 04:52:21 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
I also tried Pyhoca (0.7) but it kept mangling my authentication so I cannot report on it.
I cannot say much about the native x2goclient, but if there are any problems with PyHoca-GUI we surely will be able to sort them out.
If you are interested in that, you could give a more detailed error description (and maybe a screen shot?).
Thanks, Mike
Sure. I haven't taken a lot of time to troubleshoot it. When I try to connect, Pyhoca says I have authenticated but nothing happens. I first suspected it might not be starting the X server since I unchecked vcxsrv during the bundle installation routine because I had already installed it (default location). However, I then noticed errors in the logs on the X2Go server that authentication had failed. So Pyhoca thinks I have authenticated whereas the server does not - John
Note, that PyHoca-GUI does not start a session immediately.
Authentication is one thing. Starting a session is another thing...
Once you have authenticated against a session profile, this session
profile appears in the left-click main menu and contains submenus.
There you can find ,,Start session''. Use that menu item to start the
actual session.
I am not sure about your server-side log files, though. But maybe the
issues is sorted once you have used the described menu item?!?
Also make sure you use the latest version...
Bundles... http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/pyhoca-gui/bundled/pyhoca-gui+vcx...
Or standalone... http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/pyhoca-gui/pure/pyhoca-gui_0.1.0....
Thanks+Greets, Mike
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On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 15:19 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 15:13:40 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 10:39 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 04:52:21 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
I also tried Pyhoca (0.7) but it kept mangling my authentication so I cannot report on it.
I cannot say much about the native x2goclient, but if there are any problems with PyHoca-GUI we surely will be able to sort them out.
If you are interested in that, you could give a more detailed error description (and maybe a screen shot?).
Thanks, Mike
Sure. I haven't taken a lot of time to troubleshoot it. When I try to connect, Pyhoca says I have authenticated but nothing happens. I first suspected it might not be starting the X server since I unchecked vcxsrv during the bundle installation routine because I had already installed it (default location). However, I then noticed errors in the logs on the X2Go server that authentication had failed. So Pyhoca thinks I have authenticated whereas the server does not - John
Note, that PyHoca-GUI does not start a session immediately.
Authentication is one thing. Starting a session is another thing...Once you have authenticated against a session profile, this session
profile appears in the left-click main menu and contains submenus.
There you can find ,,Start session''. Use that menu item to start the
actual session.I am not sure about your server-side log files, though. But maybe the
issues is sorted once you have used the described menu item?!?Also make sure you use the latest version...
Bundles... http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/pyhoca-gui/bundled/pyhoca-gui+vcx...
Or standalone... http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/pyhoca-gui/pure/pyhoca-gui_0.1.0....
Thanks+Greets, Mike
Ah, got it. I like that approach and much that I saw in Pyhoca - including still being able to open multiple sessions. The application itself seemed much, much slower but I suppose that is the difference between Python and C++.
To deal with the primary thread subject, I was at first hopeful that the screen painting pause was solved as I was able to work for quite a while without the problem appearing but, eventually it did. So all platforms I've tested so far have this crippling problem.
I did notice a few strange things about Pyhoca itself. I also hit the 17 bit pixel depth problem.
Response time to the one local LAN server I have was abysmal - utterly unusable and much slower than the WAN based servers. It was literally click and wait ten to twenty seconds. I thought this might be because of full screen versus windowed but changing that did not help. I then thought it might be because I had set the connection to LAN. I tried setting it to DSL but then hit my next problem.
Suddenly, all the images became completely corrupt. I tried reverting to the regulat 3.0.1.18 X2Go client but it also displayed all images as completely corrupt. They are not when connecting from my Linux based X2Go Client. I still have not fixed this problem on Windows. Here is the long list of things I tried.
Rebooting my physical computer rather than simply closing Pyhoca and opening X2Goclient.
Clearing all the session information on the client. Clearing all the session information on the server. Deleting the 17 bit cache directory on the client. Deleting all cache directories on the client. Rebooting the server. Clearing all the cache directories on the server and rebooting. Uninstalling Pyhoca (after which X2Go client complained it could not start the X server) Uninstalling and reinstalling vcxsrv. Uninstalling and reinstalling x2goclient 3.0.1.18
None of those solved the image corruption problem; I am currently unable to use X2goclient in Windows.
I also noticed that Pyhoca only had jpeg packing. We have found the 16m-png-jpeg packing has generally given us substantially better performance and clarity.
Thanks - John
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 20:00:15 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
Ah, got it. I like that approach and much that I saw in Pyhoca - including still being able to open multiple sessions. The application itself seemed much, much slower but I suppose that is the difference between Python and C++.
Not so on Linux. I guess it is also the wxPython stuff for Windows. On
Linux wxPython wraps around GTK2+. The performance is pretty normal.
I suppose the long startup of PyHoca-GUI on Windows relates to the way
the Python code is shipped (py2exe has been used to create a
PyHoca-GUI that does not require a locally installed Python).
To deal with the primary thread subject, I was at first hopeful that the screen painting pause was solved as I was able to work for quite a while without the problem appearing but, eventually it did. So all platforms I've tested so far have this crippling problem.
What x2goagent version are you using on the server-side??? We have a
3.5.0.2 version at hand that has a lot of stuff solved.
I have recently also backported all server-side packages that are
currently hosted in the new X2go Git to Debian lenny.
Summarized: every observation you make with the session screen itself
is a NXv3 issue. That is
server:
libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad3 x2goagent (which is a nxagent 3.5.0-1 fork)
client:
libxcomp3 nxproxy
I did notice a few strange things about Pyhoca itself. I also hit the 17 bit pixel depth problem.
It seems that some Windows desktops report 17bit depth when they use
16bit. I'll keep this in mind the next time I look at the color depth
stuff...
Response time to the one local LAN server I have was abysmal - utterly unusable and much slower than the WAN based servers. It was literally click and wait ten to twenty seconds. I thought this might be because of full screen versus windowed but changing that did not help. I then thought it might be because I had set the connection to LAN. I tried setting it to DSL but then hit my next problem.
This has been the complete time that you were connected? Or only after
a while?
Suddenly, all the images became completely corrupt. I tried reverting to the regulat 3.0.1.18 X2Go client but it also displayed all images as completely corrupt. They are not when connecting from my Linux based X2Go Client. I still have not fixed this problem on Windows. Here is the long list of things I tried.
Rebooting my physical computer rather than simply closing Pyhoca and opening X2Goclient.
Clearing all the session information on the client. Clearing all the session information on the server. Deleting the 17 bit cache directory on the client. Deleting all cache directories on the client. Rebooting the server. Clearing all the cache directories on the server and rebooting. Uninstalling Pyhoca (after which X2Go client complained it could not start the X server) Uninstalling and reinstalling vcxsrv. Uninstalling and reinstalling x2goclient 3.0.1.18
None of those solved the image corruption problem; I am currently unable to use X2goclient in Windows.
Ihhhhh.... This is yukkie... Have never had that before...
I also noticed that Pyhoca only had jpeg packing. We have found the 16m-png-jpeg packing has generally given us substantially better performance and clarity.
Ah... Ok. Good point. I will put that on my todo list. Should be quite
simple to add that...
Thanks - John
Thanks for your feedback, unfortuntely not being of much help with out
issues...
Mike
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On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 22:25 +0200, Mike Gabriel wrote:
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 20:00:15 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
Ah, got it. I like that approach and much that I saw in Pyhoca - including still being able to open multiple sessions. The application itself seemed much, much slower but I suppose that is the difference between Python and C++.
Not so on Linux. I guess it is also the wxPython stuff for Windows. On
Linux wxPython wraps around GTK2+. The performance is pretty normal.I suppose the long startup of PyHoca-GUI on Windows relates to the way
the Python code is shipped (py2exe has been used to create a
PyHoca-GUI that does not require a locally installed Python).To deal with the primary thread subject, I was at first hopeful that the screen painting pause was solved as I was able to work for quite a while without the problem appearing but, eventually it did. So all platforms I've tested so far have this crippling problem.
What x2goagent version are you using on the server-side??? We have a
3.5.0.2 version at hand that has a lot of stuff solved.I have recently also backported all server-side packages that are
currently hosted in the new X2go Git to Debian lenny.Summarized: every observation you make with the session screen itself
is a NXv3 issue. That isserver:
libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad3 x2goagent (which is a nxagent 3.5.0-1 fork)
client:
libxcomp3 nxproxy
Excellent! We are using an older version so I will try upgrading those.
I did notice a few strange things about Pyhoca itself. I also hit the 17 bit pixel depth problem.
It seems that some Windows desktops report 17bit depth when they use
16bit. I'll keep this in mind the next time I look at the color depth
stuff...Response time to the one local LAN server I have was abysmal - utterly unusable and much slower than the WAN based servers. It was literally click and wait ten to twenty seconds. I thought this might be because of full screen versus windowed but changing that did not help. I then thought it might be because I had set the connection to LAN. I tried setting it to DSL but then hit my next problem.
This has been the complete time that you were connected? Or only after
a while? Complete time I was connected.
<snip>
Hi John,
On Mi 20 Jul 2011 20:00:15 CEST "John A. Sullivan III" wrote:
I also noticed that Pyhoca only had jpeg packing. We have found the 16m-png-jpeg packing has generally given us substantially better performance and clarity.
you revealed a portion of uncompleteness in the code... I have
immediately fixed this. The diffs are here:
http://code.x2go.org/gitweb?p=python-x2go.git;a=commitdiff;h=afd1e9684b2722c...
http://code.x2go.org/gitweb?p=pyhoca-gui.git;a=commitdiff;h=31ac7716441e4b31...
For Debian and Ubuntu there should be nightly built packages tomorrow.
For Windows I do not build nightly installers, the next Windows build
will be some time at then end of July.
Greets, Mike
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-
John A. Sullivan III -
John Williams -
Mike Gabriel