Bad lag with persistent usb (kicksecure + whonix)

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1

problem

whonix very slow to render applications

host very slow to boot whonix

very high lag clicking through lxqt applications

details

  • kicksecure persistent usb is running for host os
  • vbox whonix-lxqt 18.2.1.9
  • host has 32gb ram + 12 core cpu intel
  • kicksecure usb is 3.1 128gb
  • gateway 4gb ram + 3cpu + 128mb vram
  • workstation 8gb ram + 3cpu + 128mb vram
  • no 3d graphics acceleration
  • no problems for tor network speed
  • 100gb storage available on usb

troubleshooting steps

  • toggled nested paging hardware acceleration
  • verify with htop no cpu or ram problems
  • research kicksecure tuning page and allocate many resources to vm

theories

  • maybe usb not suitable for persistent host kicksecure with whonix due to insufficient disk io? seem unlikely because it will work maybe even better with hdd?
  • graphics problem? pray no problem with driver hell :frowning:

i do not need handhold. will research all proposed theories. but need advice for what to check and how to check.

thank you all very much

2

ran fio on test file in host home directory

result showed 5148 KiB/s for random 4k read. very slow and suggest yes to storage bottleneck

drive is usb 3.1. but found port is only usb 2.

posting results for others in case they want to try this setup

no more investigation needed

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3

Unfortunately a lot of “USB 3.1” drives are maddeningly slow. An external SSD or HDD would likely work a lot better. Failing that, there are high-quality USB drives that can work (I’ve had a decent experience using a SanDisk 128 GB Ultra Flair drive), and you can also use a USB SD card reader plus an SD card. (Those seem to handle sustained writes much better than most USB drives in my experience.)

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