Linux fighting me making great information station
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Linux fighting me making great information station
Hi
I've been on a quest to build a station to display mass amounts of information from the web, lots of graphs.
This requires virtual desktops, and apps that remember where things are positioned on each desktop in case
of reboots/restarts. This is difficult to achieve- it doesn't happen well at all on Windows 10, and its not
so great on Mac OSX. Linux mint has the potential was I discovered that Firefox is very desktop aware, and out of the box Linux supports 4 virtual desktops. Unfortunately, I have found various apps support virtual
desktops inconsistently.
I have a AMD Ryzen 5 32GB of memory, SSD, and dual GTX1030 cards. Not too bad of a machine.
It ran general tasks with 2 24" monitors nicely.
I'm on Mint 20.2 at the moment but I made a similar attempt on Mint 18 and had to abandon it and
try Mint 20, with the similar results I'm reporting here...
In implementing my master information system station, I added the second video card and and 4K TV.
The TV is over top of the two monitors in landscape, left in landscape, right in portrait.
I'd give you a screen shot, but the forum won't seem to upload any png or jpg for me.
So you can see in the photo that I have the TV loaded with up to 12 graphs in firefox windows.
I only use Firefox for these graphs, and use Chrome and "Web" for other browsing purposes.
Each desktop is similarly loaded. This brings the system to its KNEES.
It is painfully slow in updates to the graph windows and in GUI operations in general.
I am using the default non-proprietary GPU driver. I tried the proprietary one, but it would not
allow me to arrange the monitor layout the way I have them- very frustrating.
Thinking it could be an add-on, I've tried none, uBliock Origin, AdBlock, thinking it may be ad
updates that would drag it down. AdBlock seemed to do better than uBlock for performance,
so I might be on to something there.
Can anyone offer any hope to make this configuration perform as snappy as I think it should?
Is it likely just the overhead of the 4k Monitor? ie: just pushing that many bits out is a problem?
Are the GT1030 cards a bad idea?
Would a different card give me better handling of the three monitor arrangement by the
proprietary driver and then dramatically better system performance?
Would Intel architecture do better?
G1 Mac w/ Linux Mint?
Btw: I tried the Tile Tabs plug in that automatically positions a set of tabs across the screen and that
app could not handle these and would lock up, on both firefox and chrome.
This is typical of my Linux experience, I can't ever seem to "get there from here"
Always something just doesn't work right.
Mint has been the best, but I do most things unfortunately still on Windows.
But Windows won't be supporting virtual desktops that fully restore to a prior configuration anytime soon,
as far as I have been able to ascertain.
I'm trying to resolve why I could not upload my screen shots here, I'll add them later if I can.
I've been on a quest to build a station to display mass amounts of information from the web, lots of graphs.
This requires virtual desktops, and apps that remember where things are positioned on each desktop in case
of reboots/restarts. This is difficult to achieve- it doesn't happen well at all on Windows 10, and its not
so great on Mac OSX. Linux mint has the potential was I discovered that Firefox is very desktop aware, and out of the box Linux supports 4 virtual desktops. Unfortunately, I have found various apps support virtual
desktops inconsistently.
I have a AMD Ryzen 5 32GB of memory, SSD, and dual GTX1030 cards. Not too bad of a machine.
It ran general tasks with 2 24" monitors nicely.
I'm on Mint 20.2 at the moment but I made a similar attempt on Mint 18 and had to abandon it and
try Mint 20, with the similar results I'm reporting here...
In implementing my master information system station, I added the second video card and and 4K TV.
The TV is over top of the two monitors in landscape, left in landscape, right in portrait.
I'd give you a screen shot, but the forum won't seem to upload any png or jpg for me.
So you can see in the photo that I have the TV loaded with up to 12 graphs in firefox windows.
I only use Firefox for these graphs, and use Chrome and "Web" for other browsing purposes.
Each desktop is similarly loaded. This brings the system to its KNEES.
It is painfully slow in updates to the graph windows and in GUI operations in general.
I am using the default non-proprietary GPU driver. I tried the proprietary one, but it would not
allow me to arrange the monitor layout the way I have them- very frustrating.
Thinking it could be an add-on, I've tried none, uBliock Origin, AdBlock, thinking it may be ad
updates that would drag it down. AdBlock seemed to do better than uBlock for performance,
so I might be on to something there.
Can anyone offer any hope to make this configuration perform as snappy as I think it should?
Is it likely just the overhead of the 4k Monitor? ie: just pushing that many bits out is a problem?
Are the GT1030 cards a bad idea?
Would a different card give me better handling of the three monitor arrangement by the
proprietary driver and then dramatically better system performance?
Would Intel architecture do better?
G1 Mac w/ Linux Mint?
Btw: I tried the Tile Tabs plug in that automatically positions a set of tabs across the screen and that
app could not handle these and would lock up, on both firefox and chrome.
This is typical of my Linux experience, I can't ever seem to "get there from here"
Always something just doesn't work right.
Mint has been the best, but I do most things unfortunately still on Windows.
But Windows won't be supporting virtual desktops that fully restore to a prior configuration anytime soon,
as far as I have been able to ascertain.
I'm trying to resolve why I could not upload my screen shots here, I'll add them later if I can.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal:
inxi -Fxxxrz
Click
</>
from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]
Results[/code]
. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.There is a size limit on images which can be posted to the forum. If your images are large, you can use an image-hosting site such is ibb or imgur and provide the link to the image.cybercowboy wrote: ⤴Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:06 pmI'd give you a screen shot, but the forum won't seem to upload any png or jpg for me.
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Boy I was brain dead today and didn't think of putting the image on a hosting site.
Thank you for your kind suggestion!!!
https://www.mediafire.com/view/2v6amzd0 ... 6.png/file
I'll get the inxi info.
Note: in the graphic, there is a window that has a lot of the system info from "System Reports" of the Administration menu items.
Thank you for your kind suggestion!!!
https://www.mediafire.com/view/2v6amzd0 ... 6.png/file
I'll get the inxi info.
Note: in the graphic, there is a window that has a lot of the system info from "System Reports" of the Administration menu items.
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Listen! Things improved a fair amount changing the adblock. Its slow but not nearly as slow. GUI responds better, graph updates better, but text input is pretty bad.
But that's better than it was. he inxi output looks like the System Report output. But Its easier to read here than in my screen capture.
But that's better than it was. he inxi output looks like the System Report output. But Its easier to read here than in my screen capture.
Code: Select all
System: Kernel: 5.4.0-92-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7
wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine: Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: AB350-Gaming v: N/A serial: <filter>
Mobo: Gigabyte model: AB350-Gaming-CF v: x.x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends
v: F31 date: 05/06/2019
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen rev: 1
L2 cache: 2048 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 51096
Speed: 3194 MHz min/max: 1550/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3194 2: 3192 3: 3194
4: 3194 5: 3194 6: 3191 7: 3194 8: 3194
Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GP108 [GeForce GT 1030] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau v: kernel
bus ID: 06:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1d01
Device-2: NVIDIA GP108 [GeForce GT 1030] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau v: kernel
bus ID: 07:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1d01
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
alternate: nvidia resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz, 1920x1200~60Hz, 3840x2160~30Hz
OpenGL: renderer: NV138 v: 4.3 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: NVIDIA GP108 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 06:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb8
Device-2: NVIDIA GP108 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 07:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb8
Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus ID: 09:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-92-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte
driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: Local Storage: total: 307.42 GiB used: 32.90 GiB (10.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 960 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB
speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter>
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDS721680PLA380 size: 74.53 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s
serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 227.74 GiB used: 16.45 GiB (7.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
USB: Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003
Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
Device-1: 3-4:2 info: Logitech M-BJ58/M-BJ69 Optical Wheel Mouse type: Mouse
driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c00e
Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 55.2 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
GPU: device: nouveau temp: 38 C device: nouveau temp: 39 C
Repos: No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //mirrors.seas.harvard.edu/linuxmint-packages uma main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info: Processes: 306 Uptime: 2h 06m Memory: 31.37 GiB used: 13.85 GiB (44.1%) Init: systemd
v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client
inxi: 3.0.38
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Keep in mind I'm using 4 copies of what you see in the image... so that's 48+ browser windows plus other stuff running on the other two monitors.
Nothing compute intensive just other browsers and office type tools.
Just as a data point, it took about 4 seconds to open the terminal window to run the inxi tool.
Nothing compute intensive just other browsers and office type tools.
Just as a data point, it took about 4 seconds to open the terminal window to run the inxi tool.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
I think optimizing the browsers as much as possible are probably going to be key for your situation. That's a lot of graphs.cybercowboy wrote: ⤴Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:19 pm Listen! Things improved a fair amount changing the adblock. Its slow but not nearly as slow. GUI responds better, graph updates better, but text input is pretty bad.
Browsers nowadays are their own applications and way more intensive with their requirements than they were in the past. One option to check is to see if you have hardware acceleration enabled in the browser. If so, disable it and see if that helps. There are also some performance settings tweaks which can be done in the same area of Settings as the hardware acceleration option.
It's possible a newer kernel may help. The 5.13 kernel is available in Update Manager if you want to give that a try. Let us know if you want to try it and need instructions.
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
One idea to consider is to create a static picture (without the window borders) and keep updating that static image every 5 minutes. I'm not exactly sure how to create the static image, but I would look into that option. I wonder if there is a program that will already do that for you?
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
If I understand what you are proposing, it suggest sthat the browser windows, if minimized or otherwise off screen take less compute power to update,
and once the image is generated, then only one screen update is done until the next generation.
No idea how I'd automate the generation of the image from the browser windows, but that is a clever idea.
and once the image is generated, then only one screen update is done until the next generation.
No idea how I'd automate the generation of the image from the browser windows, but that is a clever idea.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
I'd look into building a server to aggregate and visualize the data, e.g using telegraf to collect data, influx as the database, grafana for the dashboards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKIHoqxxMek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKIHoqxxMek
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Thank you SMG for the suggestions.
I'll check the accelerator options on the browser.
Not likely to mess with kernels.
Would the proprietary nvidia driver be something to work harder on?
It did not permit me to arrange the displays like I have them, if it did, would
it likely make a performance difference? (It should be reported as a bug)
I'll check the accelerator options on the browser.
Not likely to mess with kernels.
Would the proprietary nvidia driver be something to work harder on?
It did not permit me to arrange the displays like I have them, if it did, would
it likely make a performance difference? (It should be reported as a bug)
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Last night Firefox, with all my wonderful graphs spread across 4 virtual desktops, became very slow.
So I closed it down.
I reopened it this morning and all the windows are gone. It's been set to automatically restore last session.
It failed.
There is no option for last session in history.
My grand scheme is a failure.
Yet again what should just work does not. I didn't think I was doing anything particularly exotic.
Firefox was the only browser that let me setup the windows across the desktops with hope
of restoring them.
So I closed it down.
I reopened it this morning and all the windows are gone. It's been set to automatically restore last session.
It failed.
There is no option for last session in history.
My grand scheme is a failure.
Yet again what should just work does not. I didn't think I was doing anything particularly exotic.
Firefox was the only browser that let me setup the windows across the desktops with hope
of restoring them.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
I do not know if it would help. I know some people with Nvidia drivers have run into issues from time to time with Firefox because of how Firefox handles its code. Browsers nowadays are full-fledged applications in their own right and have way more code and controls for how to handle performance and hardware acceleration that they had in the past.cybercowboy wrote: ⤴Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:41 amWould the proprietary nvidia driver be something to work harder on?
It did not permit me to arrange the displays like I have them, if it did, would
it likely make a performance difference?
This link seems to be the exact opposite, but maybe something mentioned there will help you with the reverse issue. FF trys to Restore Session at startup.cybercowboy wrote: ⤴Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:22 am Last night Firefox, with all my wonderful graphs spread across 4 virtual desktops, became very slow.
So I closed it down.
I reopened it this morning and all the windows are gone. It's been set to automatically restore last session.
It failed.
There is no option for last session in history.
I have my default set to not restore sessions so I do not know if something changed in a recent update or not. Someone in that thread mentioned they thought a recent FF update did make some changes.
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
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Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
Thank you SMG.
Yes that's an entirely different thing. I have seen that on windows, never saw that on Linux Mint.
I'm on cinnamon desktop. Might another desktop improve the behaviors I'm complaining about?
How aware are the apps about what desktop is running?
Are there functional/reliability differences between theM?
My next move is to either try another desktop or to try running this complement of stuff
under Ubuntu.
Yes that's an entirely different thing. I have seen that on windows, never saw that on Linux Mint.
I'm on cinnamon desktop. Might another desktop improve the behaviors I'm complaining about?
How aware are the apps about what desktop is running?
Are there functional/reliability differences between theM?
My next move is to either try another desktop or to try running this complement of stuff
under Ubuntu.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
I am not aware of any significant difference in how an app runs based on the desktop on which it is running. There are different windows managers and compositors across the different desktop environments, but that relates to the base load of the operating system and I am not aware that is relevant to how the app actually runs.cybercowboy wrote: ⤴Sun Feb 13, 2022 1:36 pmI'm on cinnamon desktop. Might another desktop improve the behaviors I'm complaining about?
How aware are the apps about what desktop is running?
A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
In my observation running multiple browser windows takes up a lot more resources than running multiple tabs in a single browser window.
If your case, you might be better of running each desktop on a separate, not so powerful, PC and then either remote into it from your main computer or use a KVM.
Since you are using this system for trading charts, you might want to consider a single desktop app that can show you multiple charts rather than using a browser. An app dedicated for this purpose but be better on system resources than a general purpose browser.
Good luck.
If your case, you might be better of running each desktop on a separate, not so powerful, PC and then either remote into it from your main computer or use a KVM.
Since you are using this system for trading charts, you might want to consider a single desktop app that can show you multiple charts rather than using a browser. An app dedicated for this purpose but be better on system resources than a general purpose browser.
Good luck.
Re: Linux fighting me making great information station
agree.
If it was me, I'd look into aggregating the data in some server application, to show more data in each browser window