For whatever it is worth, a long time ago I had this problem when "ssh -X" connecting to a server and doing simple plots such as plot(1:10). It was painfully slow and I could see how each data points was plotted. After using X11.options(type="Xlib") in R things was back to normal (fast) again. I think the default before was X11.options(type="cairo").
My $0.02 /Henrik On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 3:19 PM, R P Herrold <herr...@owlriver.com> wrote: > On Tue, 28 Sep 2010, Weigand, Stephen D. wrote: > >> I am connecting from a PC to a Linux system running CentOS >> release 5.5 (Final) and it is extremely slow to render plots >> to the X11 device. > >> The Linux timings are just awful, particularly using >> X-Win32. Cairo vs. Xlib doesn't seem to matter much. > > I have to think it is display rendering load at the displaying unit [an X > server], or network latencies in getting the detail from the producer [an X > client] to the displaying unit [an X server] > > With centos 5 on a local X display [so the X client, and the X server do not > have to push the content through the X fowarding and across the network > sockets, but rather can go through the lo interface under Linux]: > >> f <- function(n){ > > + for(i in 1:n) qqnorm(rnorm(100)) > + } >> >> system.time(f(20)) > > user system elapsed > 0.220 0.028 2.417 >> > > which is quite sprightly ;) > > ------------------- > > Then when I run it on the same hardware, but through two SSH hops, to, and > back from a remote unit in the local subnet, things fall apart: > > [herr...@centos-5 ~]$ ssh xps400 > Last login: Tue Sep 28 11:00:05 2010 from centos-5.first.lan > [herr...@xps400 ~]$ ssh centos-5 > herr...@centos-5's password: > Last login: Tue Sep 28 09:13:50 2010 > [herr...@centos-5 ~]$ R > ... >> >> f <- function(n){ > > + for(i in 1:n) qqnorm(rnorm(100)) > + } >> >> system.time(f(20)) > > user system elapsed > 0.352 0.272 29.681 >> > > ------------------- > > I build my own R packaging under CentOS and do not have a packaging suitable > for the architecture of that intermediate box -- installing R to a Debian > testing box, and running the X forwarding connection only one hop, it is > again visually rebdered MUCH slower. I get: > >> system.time(f(20)) > > user system elapsed > 0.644 0.212 45.089 >> > > yikes ;) > > I'll get a packaging built under CentOS 5 on that other architecture > overnight, and supplement this post > > -- Russ herrold > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel