Chrome and Electron apps slow to open on headless NoMachine

[JavaScriptJohn]

Hello everyone,

I’m a long-time NoMachine user and I’ve been experiencing a persistent and frustrating issue with headless NoMachine servers on newer versions of Ubuntu and Xubuntu. Specifically, Google Chrome and other Electron-based applications (like VS Code, Discord, etc.) take an incredibly long time to launch – often 1 minute or longer.

About a year or two ago, I switched to Debian 8, and the problem completely disappeared. However, I’m now trying Xubuntu 25.04 (with NoMachine 9), and the slow launch issue has returned.

My one caveat is that this issue goes away completely if I do NOT disable lightdm (or any other manager).

My setup:

Server OS: Xubuntu 25.04 (previously experienced on newer Ubuntu/Xubuntu versions, currently working fine on Debian 8)
NoMachine Version: 9 (server and client)
Server Configuration: Headless (no physical monitor attached)
LightDM Disabled

My Goal: I want to avoid using a physical HDMI/dummy dongle because I prefer the flexibility of setting the server resolution to match my client’s resolution dynamically (which NoMachine handles well when it creates its own virtual display).

Has anyone else encountered this issue?

I’ve done some initial research and it seems to be related to how headless Linux systems handle GPU acceleration and display output. When a physical monitor isn’t detected, the system might not initialize the graphics card properly for optimal performance, forcing applications to rely on slower software rendering.

Thank you for any help!

Chrome on startup:

[79691:79691:0630/104558.642412:ERROR:components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:184] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization

[79648:79648:0630/104623.704238:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:597] Network service crashed, restarting service.

[79648:79648:0630/104623.718707:ERROR:extensions/browser/service_worker/service_worker_task_queue.cc:165] DidStartWorkerFail fmkadmapgofadopljbjfkapdkoienihi: 3

[79648:79648:0630/104623.723249:ERROR:extensions/browser/service_worker/service_worker_task_queue.cc:165] DidStartWorkerFail eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh: 3

[79648:79648:0630/104623.733265:ERROR:extensions/browser/service_worker/service_worker_task_queue.cc:165] DidStartWorkerFail kbmfpngjjgdllneeigpgjifpgocmfgmb: 3

[80518:80518:0630/104623.828948:ERROR:components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:184] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization

WARNING: All log messages before absl::InitializeLog() is called are written to STDERR

I0000 00:00:1751294786.997618   79671 voice_transcription.cc:58] Registering VoiceTranscriptionCapability

Created TensorFlow Lite XNNPACK delegate for CPU.

Attempting to use a delegate that only supports static-sized tensors with a graph that has dynamic-sized tensors (tensor#-1 is a dynamic-sized tensor).

[79648:79674:0630/104627.136291:ERROR:google_apis/gcm/engine/registration_request.cc:291] Registration response error message: DEPRECATED_ENDPOINT

[79648:79648:0630/104633.692706:ERROR:dbus/object_proxy.cc:590] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager.GetUnit: object_path= /org/freedesktop/systemd1: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method “GetUnit” with signature “s” on interface “org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager” doesn’t exist

[Britgirl]

Hi,

I’m not sure I understand. You are experiencing slowness of those applications during a NoMachine session? If you don’t use NoMachine at all, are those applications slow to open? We are not aware of similar problems with slow launch of applications during a NoMachine session. If you are experiencing this slowness on the machine when using it locally (i.e not in the a session), maybe it’s a good idea to hear what Xubuntu/Ubuntu devs have to say?

[JavaScriptJohn]

You are experiencing slowness of those applications during a NoMachine session?

Yes, I am experiencing slowness during a NoMachine session. When I open the app it takes about a minute to load. Only Chrome and Electron Apps

I have my display manager disabled(lightdm) so that NoMachine creates the session.

If you don’t use NoMachine at all, are those applications slow to open?

That’s a hard question because when lightdm is enabled with or without NoMachine they work just fine but I lose NoMachines amazing ability to resize the server. So it’s NoMachines session that causes the issue. I’m not sure how to test a headless chrome without NoMachine.

The issue is that under the newer versions of Ubuntu when NoMachine creates it’s own desktop the apps are very slow to open.  I’ve recreated this many times on 3 different machines. This works fine on older versions of Ubuntu.

With all this said I understand that this may not be a NoMachine issue, I’m just curious if anyone else had this issue and found a work around.

If anyone wants to test it’s very simple:

Working: Install xubuntu < 22.04, Install NoMachine, Disable Lightdm service, connect through NoMachine – WORKS! Not Working: Install xubuntu > 22.04, Install NoMachine, Disable Lightdm service, connect through NoMachine – DOESN’T WORK!

Thank you for any help you can provide!

[Author]

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