Performance Monitoring of TigerVNC on Debian
To effectively monitor TigerVNC’s performance on Debian, you can use a combination of system-level tools and VNC-specific commands to track resource usage and service health.
htop
, glances
, and nmon
provide real-time insights into CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network utilization—key indicators of how TigerVNC is impacting system performance. For example, htop
displays interactive process lists with resource usage percentages, while glances
offers a cross-platform overview of system metrics. Install them via sudo apt install htop glances nmon
and run them in the terminal to monitor overall system health.vncserver -list
to view all running VNC instances, including their display numbers (e.g., :1
for port 5901) and session status. To check the systemd service status of a specific TigerVNC instance (e.g., :1
), run sudo systemctl status vncserver@:1.service
—this helps verify if the service is active and running without errors.Performance Tuning of TigerVNC on Debian
Optimizing TigerVNC involves configuring the server, using lightweight components, and adjusting network settings to reduce latency and resource consumption.
sudo apt install xfce4
and configure it as the default desktop in ~/.vnc/xstartup
(e.g., startxfce4 &
). This reduces memory and CPU usage significantly.~/.vnc/config
or /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-defaults
) to fine-tune settings. Key adjustments include: geometry 1920x1080
) to avoid unnecessary scaling.usegl=0
) for systems with poor GPU support—this prevents lag from graphics rendering issues.compressionlevel=5
) to reduce bandwidth usage without sacrificing too much image quality.ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 user@remote_host
on the client, then connect the VNC viewer to localhost:5901
. This adds security and can improve performance by reducing packet loss.sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
to install the latest versions.sudo ufw allow 5901/tcp
(replace 5901
with your display number’s port: 5900 + display number). For SSH tunnels, allow port 22 instead.