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#1 2016-04-04 18:12:22

0x29a
Member
Registered: 2012-09-28
Posts: 101

TigerVNC server performance on an old netbook

Hi there!

As a sidenote: I didn't really know where to put it, so I guess Multimedia is as close as it gets. I've been thinking about posting this topic in Networking, but I guess that low-end hardware, and not LAN connection, is a bottleneck here.

So: I wanted to make a screencast on EeePC 900, with Celeron-M CPU and an ancient Intel GPU that chokes on glxgears. Also, I'd like to make this screencast in the best video quality possible, albeit without sound.
After some tweaking, ffmpeg with x11grab topped at about 15 fps (from initial 6), dropping to almost zero when changing windows or desktops, so it's not a viable solution.
WM and surrounding apps are very lightweight (AwesomeWM + some terminals), switching them on or off does not affect framerate in any way (except when creating new window, of course).
After some trial and error, I've decided to switch to X forwarding over ssh and record session on a more powerful machine. Xnest was even worse then ffmpeg, Xephyr didn't really made it, too. All with compression, lightweight encryption, and so on.
After a while I've stumbled upon TigerVNC and it works reasonably well, maintaining constant ~20 fps.
The question is: how can I make it faster? Is it even possible, concidering hardware that I'm dealing with here? I've been looking around for some performance tweaks, but haven't really found anything useful.

Thanks!

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#2 2016-04-05 13:19:48

Lone_Wolf
Member
From: Netherlands, Europe
Registered: 2005-10-04
Posts: 11,866

Re: TigerVNC server performance on an old netbook

Use the fastest networkconnection you can create with the best equipment you have.

If Eeepc has a gigabit network interface, use a gigabit switch and gigabit interface on the other system.

In remote connections like these, compression is only useful if the bandwidth available is not enough to transport uncompressed data.
using compression on wired lan connections may even make things worse due to the additional work of compresssing the sending data.

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2016-04-05 13:20:11)


Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.


(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

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#3 2016-04-05 16:29:56

0x29a
Member
Registered: 2012-09-28
Posts: 101

Re: TigerVNC server performance on an old netbook

Ha!
Okay, thanks for the tip. I didn't know that.
Computers are connected via ethernet cable, so that's checked. Also, indeed, sending lossless data seems to help a little bit. All and all, framerate on vncviewer is now pretty close to what I see on Eee (albeit with some latency).
If someone knows any other knobs I can turn, please share.
Cheers!

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