GUI applications over ssh freeze within seconds

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1

Hey,
I need your help with a problem that I couldn’t find much about on the internet.

My issue is that any gui application I open on an openSUSE Server via ssh X11-forwarding freezes within seconds and I get a “application is not responding” popup, no matter how complex those applications are.
Another problem, that might be related to that is, that sometimes, my laptop isn’t even able to launch a qt based gui application, giving me the error:

qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb"

But currently I am not able to reproduce that, so this is of lesser concern, if this issue is not related to the first one.
I know, that it was working a few weeks ago, so probably an update on the server or my personal laptop broke it.

My Setup 1: Manjaro, Linux 6.0.2-2, Gnome 42.5, wayland
Setup 2: Ubuntu (set up a few days a go), Gnome (probably also 42)
Setup 3: OpenSUSE, Linux 6.0.3-1, Gnome 43.0

Server 1: openSUSE, Linux 5.19.13-1, Gnome 43.0
Server 2: openSUSE, Linux 6.0.3-1, Gnome 43.0

My personal Setup is the first one and I observe the issue both with Server 1 or Server 2. First I was running open-source graphic drivers with wayland but also had the same problem when changing to xorg.
I installed proprietary drivers and got the gui applications working on xorg. However as my laptop has quite a high resolution I don’t want to switch to xorg as it doesn’t support fractional scaling, I had issues with external monitors with a smaller resolution and ssh applications don’t get scaled at all. The combination of proprietary drivers and wayland led to the same issue again.

I know that a laptop running openSUSE on the latest Gnome version (Setup 3) has no issues with gui applications over shh. However a freshly setup Ubuntu Gnome system (Setup 2) has the same problem I am facing.

I would be very grateful for any ideas on how to solve the problem with gui applications on wayland.

2

Your topic is very confusing - so I am trying to clarify a few things.

Besides the obvious SSH tunnel, how do you connect to the system?

Are your connection to the desktop or are you running a specific application over ssh?

Are you using xdmcp, vnc or rdp?

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3

Sorry for the confusion, I guess I forgot to mention a few things:

I am just running specific apps using X11 forwarding (ssh -X), I don’t think the server supports anything else at the moment.

4

That’s what I thought - depending on the complexity and general requirements of the application this can be very slow.

I have been playing with running firefox on a RPI4 and even though it is running in my LAN it is very slow.

Mousepad on the other hand is fairly swift in the response - also with the file dialog.

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5

Yes, I know, but in my use case this doesn’t matter so much. Some applications are very simple, like a qt application with some text and a few buttons or a gnuplot graph. And those ones also freeze, even in a LAN network.

6

If the remote Gnome is running on Wayland add to your ~/.profile

export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland

If I try to run Manjaro Settings Manager using X over ssh - I get a message

qt.qpa.xcb: XKeyboard extension not present on the X server

Above search also suggests It may be caused by a missing qt library.

In any case there is no definite answer - so you are left to experiment with the various suggestions.

Installing featherpad (a wellknown qt based notepad app) generates more messages

qt.qpa.xcb: XKeyboard extension not present on the X server
There is no XRandR 1.2 and later version available. There will be only fake screen(s) to use.

The messages does not prevent the application from being functional.