I 've had some feedback from one of my users regarding ThinPie being sluggish (I actually expect...

[G+_610GARAGE]

I've had some feedback from one of my users regarding ThinPie being sluggish (I actually expect it's due to RASPBIAN JESSIE) . So I've been working on getting freerdp running. It works much better, but there are some hurdles to get it running the way I want. It was then I had a stupid idea.

 

What if I run a linux vm that will host multiple xorg sessions. Freerdp (or whatever) would run on the server with a ton of horsepower and have the pi connect via ssh and x forwarding.

 

Obviously lag will be a factor, but with everybody on the same xenserver server, will it be sevier? All network traffic should stay on the xenserver and I think linux kernels just run parallel to the xenserver kernel, so the linux VM should be fairly responsive. So  would it evan be an issue.

 

It 3:27am so I don't know if this an idea out of exhaustion or brilliance. :) What are your guys thoughts. Worth a shot, or stupid.

[G+_Ben Reese]

The only thing I know about XenServer is what Daren demonstrated on Hak5 a few months ago. So, take my vote with a grain of salt...

 

Do you know what's sluggish about it? Slow network response? Difficulty rendering the screen? Server can't handle the number of connections? ?

 

My very limited experience as a user on Wyse VMs hasn't been a good one; so this may just be the best it gets.

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Assuming the server was sized properly, that should work just fine.  You're talking about using the Pi as a thin client.  So all it's doing is presenting the user interface.  Done correctly this can use very tiny amounts of network resources, but more often will quickly overload a network, so you'd need to experiment with your setup to see how well, or not, it will work.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Ben Reese That what's been so aggravating. Nothing is maxed out. I only have 4-6 servers running right now, and I through the user's vm onto it's own server just to check. It kinda seems like a bug. It will hang for a few moments and sometimes the keyboard's input will be delayed. I've seen it but I can never reproduce it. And I think it started when I updated the pie to Jessie.

 

But I also think there may be a bottleneck with the peripherals in the pi. My mom uses a full desktop and I have noticed better performance there. But the rdp client's cpu usage in the pi rarely hits the %50 mark. And the network usage isn't much. So there seems to be a bottleneck, just not sure where.

[G+_610GARAGE]

So that was easier to implement than I thought. Well, proof of concept anyway.

 

I got the proxy server running and ran a test with a pie. Video did seem smoother.  There wasn't any noticeable delay until I played a video. Then Xorg maxed out a core and there was a HUGE input delay. So I am going to see if there is anyway to tune Xorg.

 

I guess it worked too well. :)