Re: remote X11/GNU emacs/ssh: Incredible slowness loading libs

[David Abrahams]

"Krishnakumar B" <kitty@cs.wustl.edu> wrote in message
dmlelbaki3d.fsf@samba.doc.wustl.edu">news:dmlelbaki3d.fsf@samba.doc.wustl.edu...

> > > What terminal are you using ?
> >
> > I'm using xterm to launch emacs, but I'm confused by your question
because I
> > can't see how it's relevant. The slowdowns only occur when emacs isn't
> > running in a terminal window.
>
> I will tell you how it hit me. When I run rxvt (comes with Cygwin) and do
> this:
>
> local> plink -ssh remote
> remote> emacs
>
> I get the same exact slowdowns which you report. But when I open the
> terminal application that comes with Putty, and do the same thing, emacs
> comes up normally (i.e snappily as if it were running on a local machine).
> I don't mess with DISPLAY cruft (anymore) as SSH takes care of doing the
> forwarding and setting the DISPLAY correctly.

That only works for me if I start ssh from within an xterm window.

> > Okay. I'm not sure what it means to "switch the SSH client". I have two
ways
> > of starting ssh:
> >
> > 1. From within a dos box running cygwin. It doesn't know about my
DISPLAY
> > and thus I don't bother with -X
>
> I assume "-X" means ssh -X which requests forwarding of X display ?

Yes.

> You don't need to mess with DISPLAY if your SSH is setup correctly.

I don't know what else I should set up. A clue, please?

> > 2. From within an xterm window I launch on my local machine from within
TWM
> > under cygwin/XFree86
>
> I have never tried that. I would probably be happy with a rootless X
server
> on Windows as I have no intention of running TWM or such under Windows.
> Does rootless X  work under Cygwin XFree86 ?

I think this answers that question:
http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2002-09/msg00309.html

> > > It's the command-line utility that ships with Putty.
> >
> > If you have slowdowns with plink, why do you think I'll see an
improvement
> > by switching to its terminal window?
>
> I have no idea. But it works for me. I haven't spent time on figuring out
> why. My guess was that with the terminal window I have specified a lot
more
> setting related to the terminal type and compression, SSH algorithm etc,
> remote forwarding etc which might make a difference in the speed. And none
> of which I could specify using just plink.

Well, I don't see any improvement. What I did was:

    plink -ssh abrahams@remotemachine
    > emacs&

Trying
    plink -ssh abrahams@remotemachine emacs
Led to
    emacs: standard input is not a tty

> > Uhhhm. Coming up with the correct DISPLAY variable setting for the
remote
> > machine is difficult, isn't it?
>
> Nope, it is not difficult. See above. Frankly I just don't bother with
> DISPLAY anymore. You just need a X server running on your windows box
> either Cygwin or Exceed. If you run Cygwin, I think starting an Emacs from
> a dos terminal with X forwarding set up should open up the Emacs window
> in your XFree86 window.

"emacs: standard input is not a tty"

> > Do you know where I can find a Cygwin version of this tool (or the
> > equivalent)?
>
> Try getting the source and compiling it under Cygwin. I think there is a
> version that comes with Windows too. Try this link:
>
> http://windump.polito.it/


I was afraid it would come to that. I'll wait until someone who can use the
info asks for it, I think.

Thanks for your help.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------
           David Abrahams * Boost Consulting
dave@boost-consulting.com * http://www.boost-consulting.com