[CentOS] Sluggish X session with Cygwin/X and gnome desktop

Thu Nov 9 08:07:45 UTC 2006
Michael Velez <mikev777 at hotmail.com>

> 
> Hello,
> 
>  
> 
> I just installed CentOS 4.4 and when I connect to it from my 
> XP machine using Cygwin/X and the gnome desktop I’ve noticed 
> that after a couple of minutes it slows to a crawl (menus and 
> dialog boxes don’t display immediately when I click on them). 
>  Accessing the X session from the console does not exhibit 
> this behavior.  Just recently, instead of going with the 
> default gnome desktop and just to rule out possible 
> connectivity concerns, I selected the KDE desktop during 
> logon and did not notice this behavior.  I tried comparing 
> gdm.conf to my RHL7.3 machine and I’m not seeing anything 
> drastically different so what am I overlooking?
> 
>  
> 
> Wei-min Lee
> 
>  

I had the same issue using X forwarding with Cygwin/X and ssh.  I tried to
compress the data going through the pipe (ssh has an option for that) and it
improved somewhat, but X just sends a lot of data through.  However, now I
have switched over to using VNC.  So I installed the UltraVNC client on my
windows machine and used the existing vncserver on Centos 4.4.  

IF YOU THINK THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM and should you want to install the
vncserver, I included, below, a procedures section to configure the VNC
server, which I had written for my Home Linux Adminstration Guide.
Installing the UltraVNC client on a windows machine is straightforward (you
can get the installation package from sourceforge).

However, I suggest you read up on VNC before following the instructions
below.  For more info, 'man vncserver' and do a search for ultravnc on the
net.  When using VNC from the public internet, I port forward VNC through an
ssh tunnel.

Michael
____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

VNC configuration


To configure vnc, execute the following as the user who will be running the
VNC server:

§	Choose a vnc password and create the configuration files by
executing the following commands at the prompt:

	$ vncserver
	$ killall Xvnc

§	Edit the ~/.vnc/xstartup file:

	-	Uncomment the following lines:

	# unset SESSION_MANAGER
	# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

	to make them look like this:

	unset SESSION_MANAGER
	exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

	-	Replace the last line in the file :

	twm &

	with this line:

	exec gnome-session &

§	As the root user, edit the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file and modify
this line:

	#VNCSERVERS=”1:myusername”

	by replacing "myusername" with the login name of intended user.

§	Edit the /etc/init.d/vncserver file and replace this line:

	# chkconfig: - 91 35

	with this line:

	# chkconfig: 345 91 35

§	Add the vncserver to the list of services to be started at boot time
by executing the following command while in the /etc/init.d directory:

	# chkconfig –del vncserver
	# chkconfig –add vncserver

§	Verify the vncserver has been turned on for levels 3, 4, and 5 by
executing this command:

	# chkconfig –list vncserver

§	The VNC server will now start at boot time; however, you can
manually start it immediately by executing the following command:

	# service vncserver restart