Over SSH connections started with -X
(or -Y
) flag, depending on where the
remote computer is, I’m experiencing drastically different performance for GUI
programs.
-
When the remote computer is also in the same local network, Firefox is
responsive, and there is no noticeable lag when I trigger a forward search
from VimTeX to Zathura. -
Then, when the remote computer is at another location, it takes 10+ seconds
for Firefox to redraw, and there is a slight lag for Zathura to render a new
jump event.
Typically, pinging the remote machine over Zerotier got me
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 10.964/12.883/17.748/1.840 ms
And, pinging the machine locally got me
-
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.440/0.533/0.656/0.081 ms
.
Is the slowness for remote GUI programs fully explained by the 10/100-fold
differences in the Round Trip Time? Or, am I missing some Zerotier/SSH tricks
that can speed things up? In my setup, the remote machine is behind an
enterprise firewall. Due to such noticeable lag, I usually first remote into a
Windows 10 machine in the same network using Windows Remote Desktop connection,
and then start a local SSH connection to the Linux server running Linux Mint
20.2 (Uma). Both the RDP and SSH connections are done using Zerotier addresses.
I’ve tried reverse SSH tunneling before, but recall having experienced the same
slow remote GUI issue over the forwarded port. Performance-wise, given that
Zerotier also runs on the jump box which is set as a “moon”, can I expect
remote GUI programs to perform the same when access through the reverse tunnel
or the Zerotier IP?