TOS on Linux, How to improve performance

[Patricio]

I want to start a thread for all the linux users who have been struggling to get TOS and other trading platforms to run smooth in their computers. This topic came out from other thread and since it was not relevant to that one I decided to start a new one.

As @Ringandpinion pointed out the problem arises from the Java platform and its use of the graphics card in linux where by default Java apps use the main cpu to render the interface and it is not hardware accelerated.

So that left me thinking and I did my research on Google to try and find a solution for this matter, that research led me to the following two links:

1. Link1

2. Link2

The instructions are kind of old but they do work in the newer versions of Java, TOS and Linux. I also find that you don't have to edit the launcher file for TOS there is a file called "thinkorswim.vmoptions" You just need to append the options to that file as follows:

-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false

I also tried this options with TastyWorks, for that edit the file named tastyworks.cfg which is normally in the following route /usr/lib/tastyworks/tastyworks.cfg but it may be in other route.

...
[JavaOptions]
...
-Ddxscheme.wide=true
-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false

[ArgOptions]

I have tested this setup in KDE and Xfce and it works better with Xfce so I guess for gnome would be the same, also as the original threads mark this could also be used to tune TWS as it is also based in Java but since I don't have an account with IB I didn't tested on that platform. Finally, I'm able to have both TOS and TW open at the same time and every thing run smooth even on a machine with 8 Gb of RAM.

Hope this becomes useful for the rest of my fellow linux traders, if you find other tuning options pleas drop my a line.

Wish you luck and happy trading and happy linuxing.

[BraxtonPratt]

Appending those options to the "thinkorswim.vmoptions" file seems like a straightforward solution. It's awesome that you found a way to optimize Java's use of the graphics card, ultimately improving the performance of trading platforms on Linux systems.

[WhitneyCantu]

Thanks for sharing your insights on improving TOS performance on Linux! It's great to see the community coming together to help each other out. Your research and the provided links will surely be helpful for other Linux users facing similar issues.

[Pinkwolf3]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:24 PM, Patricio said:

I want to start a thread for all the linux users who have been struggling to get TOS and other trading platforms to run smooth in their computers. This topic came out from other thread and since it was not relevant to that one I decided to start a new one.

As @Ringandpinion pointed out the problem arises from the Java platform and its use of the graphics card in linux where by default Java apps use the main cpu to render the interface and it is not hardware accelerated.

So that left me thinking and I did my research on Google to try and find a solution for this matter, that research led me to the following two links:

1. Link1

2. Link2

The instructions are kind of old but they do work in the newer versions of Java, TOS and Linux. I also find that you don't have to edit the launcher file for TOS there is a file called "thinkorswim.vmoptions" You just need to append the options to that file as follows:

-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false

I also tried this options with TastyWorks, for that edit the file named tastyworks.cfg which is normally in the following route /usr/lib/tastyworks/tastyworks.cfg but it may be in other route.

...
[JavaOptions]
...
-Ddxscheme.wide=true
-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false

[ArgOptions]

I have tested this setup in KDE and Xfce and it works better with Xfce so I guess for gnome would be the same, also as the original threads mark this could also be used to tune TWS as it is also based in Java but since I don't have an account with IB I didn't tested on that platform. Finally, I'm able to have both TOS and TW open at the same time and every thing run smooth even on a machine with 8 Gb of RAM.

Hope this becomes useful for the rest of my fellow linux traders, if you find other tuning options pleas drop my a line.

Wish you luck and happy trading and happy linuxing.

Adding those options to the "thinkorswim.vmoptions" file sounds like a straightforward solution. It's great that you discovered a method to optimize Java's utilization of the graphics card, thereby enhancing the performance of trading platforms on Linux systems.