Is Linux Supposed to be laggy while mining?

[Gazza1]

I just got setup with Xubuntu 13.10 x64 mining on one of my rigs.  All hardware is last gen Z77, Ivy bridge, SSDs, 7970s, etc.

When cgminer opens everything gets very laggy, the mouse drags behind pretty heavily.  is this normal?  How do you subside this?  In Windows 8 there is no lag whatsoever.

I'm using the same cgminer settings as usual

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[Kenshin]

What intensity have you set it? To be honest, once you start mining. You are not really supposed to use the PC for anything else. It is a miner rig. I do mine CPU coins as well. Might as well, since the PC is running.

[Gazza1]

same as other rigs, I 13.

There are plenty of reasons for needing to get in the rig at times while mining.  it's not like I plan to transcode videos or play games on it. come on now...

[malevolent]

Try lowering the intensity on the GPU which is connected to the monitor.

[Kenshin]

You think about it, you are getting the GPU to do all these calculation, of course it will be laggy. Like someone has suggested, try to lower the intensity of the GPU which you are going to connect your monitor.

I set my to I20. I also SSH into it, and have that displayed on my laptop. I don't ever touch the rig for any reason.

[Gazza1]

I may be a Linux noob guys but I'm not a mining newb.    I know I could lower intensity.  I shouldn't have to do that.  I'm using the same settings on Windows and there isn't any lag at all, which is the only reason I am asking this question.  Linux has all the rave of being better and faster than Windows and so far I am not seeing that.  I also updated the drivers to the newest ones. There is still lag. I am guessing it's normal from your guy's answers.

I even use Intensity 13 (highest for my card) on my main windows rig that I am on now and I can surf the web and watch movies while it's mining. Just as an example.  Hell I even played GTAIV the other day while it was mining (because I forgot the turn the miner off), granted the game was slower, I played for a whole couple hours before I realized I was still mining in the background.  This was on max settings in full HD with a heavily modified game.  I can't even move the mouse on Linux.  

Hashrate is also faster in Windows.  Same exact settings.  Though I'm sure that just needs readjusting.

It's just a simple question, not a complaint.  I was just wondering if it was normal and if there was a solution other than sacrificing hashrate.  I am likely to stay with Linux anyway given it's abilities.

[elchorizo]

Unfortunately Windows drivers are simply superior for 'normal' usage. I do think if you tune your settings you will get a higher hash rate on Linux then Windows, but you won't fix the lag problem. Ideally we should be able to run cgminer without even having X running but unfortunately the drivers don't allow this so some resources will always be wasted driving the display.

On my boxes this is how I do mining.

When the box fires up I VNC into it and open a terminal and open a tmux session in that terminal. I then disconnect the tmux session. I now disconnect the VNC session. Next, I ssh into the box and resume my tmux session. This tmux session is now running "in" X. I've tried exporting the display and for some reason that is flaky but this method works all the time. Next I run my cgminer.sh script which has something like this in it... I set the resolution of the X server to a very low value so that less resources are dedicated to driving the X Window system.

You won't notice any lag in this method because you are never waiting on the graphics display.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
export DISPLAY=:0
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
xrandr -s 800x600 # this sets the resolution of your display to a low value
cgminer <insert whatever you need for cgminer here>

[Gazza1]

Thanks guys sounds good and I'll give that a try.  

[melmo]

SSH into the box instead of using the desktop. 

[Kenshin]

SSH into the box instead of using the desktop. 

Exactly, that is my point. Why do you want to use the mining rig to do anything anyway. You are wasting hashing power when you use it. 

Never mind, I guess no one can stop you from doing this not so good habit. 

[Kenshin]

Ideally we should be able to run cgminer without even having X running but unfortunately the drivers don't allow this so some resources will always be wasted driving the display.

If you set up autologin, then X will run when auto login.

Edit the file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf;

To enable autologin, edit the file to look like this:

Code:

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=<USERNAME>
autologin-user-timeout=0
user-session=xubuntu
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter

[Thom]

*everything* is laggy on a machine that's mining! And everything you do on it that's not mining is slowing down your mining.
It just feels laggier on linux because your hardware is concentrating on the mining, not giving you a smooth time. There's less windows in the way.

If you can handle yourself in terminal, just do that. Better yet, SSH it from another machine, and say meh to having a monitor/keyboard/mouse connected to it. Or better yet again, install the server version of your distro instead.

Also if it's fast enough to be usable but laggy while cgminer is active, then hit it with cpuminer too, it clearly has the guts for it.

[Gazza1]

SSH into the box instead of using the desktop.  

Exactly, that is my point. Why do you want to use the mining rig to do anything anyway. You are wasting hashing power when you use it.  

Never mind, I guess no one can stop you from doing this not so good habit.  

As said before the question was relevant in the way to make sure we hadn't done anything wrong.  I appreciate your help in the other thread but you are acting like a dick in this one.  So knock off your sarcasym or take a hike.  I'm not a moron and as I said I don't do anything on my mining rigs other than mining, apparently you can't read.

Thanks other guys for your non judgmental help  

[Kenshin]

 I appreciate your help in the other thread but you are acting like a dick in this one.  So knock off your sarcasym or take a hike.  I'm not a moron and as I said I don't plan to do anything on my mining rigs other than mining, apparently you can't read.

Thanks other guys for your non judgmental help 

When did I judge you? Why are you calling me a dick for? I have also help you in this thread. This name calling is uncalled for. 

[tum0r]

 I appreciate your help in the other thread but you are acting like a dick in this one.  So knock off your sarcasym or take a hike.  I'm not a moron and as I said I don't plan to do anything on my mining rigs other than mining, apparently you can't read.

Thanks other guys for your non judgmental help 

When did I judge you? Why are you calling me a dick for? I have also help you in this thread. This name calling is uncalled for. 

Hahaha. Damn... just reading this post. THEN BANG. Op gets all jersy shore on you..hehe.. and for no apparent reason.
I got ur back bro.

[Kenshin]

 I appreciate your help in the other thread but you are acting like a dick in this one.  So knock off your sarcasym or take a hike.  I'm not a moron and as I said I don't plan to do anything on my mining rigs other than mining, apparently you can't read.

Thanks other guys for your non judgmental help 

When did I judge you? Why are you calling me a dick for? I have also help you in this thread. This name calling is uncalled for. 

Hahaha. Damn... just reading this post. THEN BANG. Op gets all jersy shore on you..hehe.. and for no apparent reason.
I got ur back bro.

That is what I mean, this is a friendly forum. If I want to act like a dick will I bother to help him?? What a strange world we live in. 

[empoweoqwj]

same as other rigs, I 13.

There are plenty of reasons for needing to get in the rig at times while mining.  it's not like I plan to transcode videos or play games on it. come on now...

The mouse cursor graphic might be using GPU resources on Linux, I'm not sure. If so, it will be laggy, because the GPU is being eaten up by the mining. Just depends on how the mouse cursor is programmed on your box.

[matt4054]

Also keep this in mind (cgminer README):

--intensity|-I <arg> Intensity of GPU scanning (d or -10 -> 10, default: d to maintain desktop interactivity)

So keeping a responsive GUI is not expected behavior when using -I 13, even though the mouse pointer may keep more responsive of Windows. I have dozens of rigs running Win7 and the mouse pointer is indeed never laggy, but all the rest of the system is, i.e. 1500 ms average click-to-action response time (although I admit it's generally more with -I 18+ than 13).

[Scyntech]

Sent you a PM Gazza1, not sure if the info will help any.

[Kenshin]

Sent you a PM Gazza1, not sure if the info will help any.

Are you teaching him some secret techniques? Why don't you post the info here, so we can all learn something.