[Chimera-users] A question on tunnelling chimera through ssh between a linux server and OSX client

[Miguel Ortiz Lombardia]

Hi Greg,

Thank you very much for your help!
I tried VNC, but GL is not conveyed by VNC, or not easily. I tried first
with tightvnc, but got an error on the GL transport, even in the machine
where X11 was enough to remotely open Chimera. I also tried something
called VirtualGL combined with TurboVNC but got the same error. I
presume I did not properly understand this set up...

Anyway, I have yet to try your second suggestion, concerning the Mesa
libraries. Perhaps that will work.

Thanks again!
Cheers,

Miguel Ortiz Lombardía

Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques (UMR7257)
CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université
Case 932, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France
Tel: +33(0) 491 82 86 44
Fax: +33(0) 491 26 67 20
mailto:miguel.ortiz-lombardia at afmb.univ-mrs.fr
http://www.afmb.univ-mrs.fr/Miguel-Ortiz-Lombardia

El 30/04/14 00:35, Greg Couch escribió:
> Unfortunately, while the remote display of OpenGL applications should
> work, it is poorly supported since the demise of SGI and DEC
> workstations.  When it does work, it is usually because the same OpenGL
> driver is installed on both the server and client computers.
> 
> Normally, your best option for the Mac would be to use the XQuartz from
> http://xquartz.macosforge.org/ and since that didn't work, your next
> best option is to use remote desktop application like vnc.  I don't know
> if you can have multiple separate desktops with vnc for each user, so
> that might be limited to one user at a time.  You could also try
> updating the Mesa packages on the server (especially the mesa-glx
> packages). Newer versions of Mesa are much better at supporting remote
> OpenGL (via the GLX protocol).  It appears that wheezy has Mesa 8, and
> debian-testing only has Mesa 9, instead of the lastest Mesa 10, so if
> you go this route, I'd recommend compiling Mesa 10 yourself if possible.
> 
>    HTH,
> 
>    Greg
> 
> On 04/29/2014 08:49 AM, Miguel Ortiz Lombardía wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I understand that this is not a typical use of chimera, so I don't
>> expect much support, but I would appreciate if someone can give me a
>> clue to solve the issue...
>>
>> We have a GNU/Linux server (Debian wheezy) with some EM software
>> installed on it. One of these programs calls at some point chimera to
>> show something on which the user has to act upon (or just check, not
>> sure, I'm not the user as you've guessed) This machine is accessed from
>> client OSX machines via ssh. All permissions are set so X11 is
>> seamlessly tunnelled between them (checked with many graphical programs)
>> Now, for a OSX client running on 10.6.8 (snow leopard) and using Apple's
>> X11 the whole process works without problems. But for a OSX on 10.7.5
>> (lion) with a parallel installation of Apple's X11 and Xquartz 2.7.5 the
>> first small window opens and then the chimera process hangs (it can be
>> killed via Ctrl-C, which returns the control to the program that
>> launched chimera and things can proceed, though without the information
>> provided by chimera)
>>
>> If I connect to the Linux server from the lion machine and directly
>> execute chimera I make a different observation: the first small window
>> opens but then chimera crashes leaving this error in the terminal:
>>
>> Error of failed request:  GLXBadCurrentWindow
>>    Major opcode of failed request:  149 (GLX)
>>    Minor opcode of failed request:  5 (X_GLXMakeCurrent)
>>    Serial number of failed request:  1360
>>    Current serial number in output stream:  1360
>>
>> Now, I would appreciate any clues on the meaning and possible solution
>> of this error or at least any directions on how to properly remove both
>> Apple's X11 and Xquartz (they are supposed to be able to work
>> side-by-side but I presume that a possible source of problems could
>> arise from some conflict between them) AND re-install them to test them
>> in a fresh install.
>>
>> Downgrading the lion machine to snow leopard does not seem to be an
>> option...
>>
>> Thank you!
>> Cheers,
>>
> 
>