[Paraview] Bug 0006714: pvbatch requires X server

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Kent/Iain,

Here's another patch (the earlier patch had a typo--my bad)

Make sure you follows these steps:

* Update ParaView to current CVS head. The patch is against the CVS 
head. There are a few fixes/changes in the CVS that affect the behaviour.

* Then apply the patch

* Ensure that paraview is built with OS mesa

* Use the command line option "--use-offscreen-rendering". This option 
must be specified before the python script name is provided as follows:
 > ./bin/pvbatch --use-offscreen-rendering test.py

Utkarsh

Iain Bethune wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I also tried building with the patch you provided (no MPI enabled either)
> and ran:
> 
> /usr/local/packages/paraview/paraview-serial/bin/pvbatch
> --use-offscreen-rendering test.py
> 
> But as before, an X window popped up when it started rendering.  I've
> attached my CMakeCache.txt file in case there's something I'm setting up
> wrong...
> 
> Cheers
> 
> - Iain
> 
> --
> Iain Bethune
> Applications Consultant, EPCC
> 
> Email: ibethune at epcc.ed.ac.uk
> Tel/Fax: +44 (0)131 650 5201/6555
> Addr: 2404 JCMB, King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ
> 
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland,
> with registration number SC005336.
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: paraview-bounces at paraview.org [mailto:paraview-bounces at paraview.org]
> On Behalf Of Kent Eschenberg
> Sent: 08 April 2008 03:46
> To: Berk Geveci
> Cc: ParaView
> Subject: Re: [Paraview] Bug 0006714: pvbatch requires X server
> 
> Thanks! Is certainly possible I've done something wrong. Maybe one of my
> options for cmake is incorrect?
> 
> Does Qt need to be pointed towards Mesa? I didn't see anything in the Qt
> build about it.
> 
> Kent
> 
> Berk Geveci wrote:
>> Something is fishy here. We obviously ran examples both on Xt3 and
>> BlueGene and generated screenshots without X. So, there is a
>> difference between pvbatch compiled for those platforms and the one
>> you compiled. I'll discuss this with Pat and Utkarsh tomorrow.
>>
>> -berk
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 5:35 PM, Kent Eschenberg <eschenbe at psc.edu> wrote:
>>> Hi Utkarsh,
>>>
>>>  Sorry its taken so long to try this. Summary: nothing changed - it still
>>> fails exactly as before.
>>>
>>>  You might want to take a close look at your environment when you test
> it.
>>> When you log onto a parallel system I think you still provide a way for
> it
>>> to reach an X server. My parallel system also has no X server but it
> still
>>> got back to the X server of my workstation via the ssh connection which
> sets
>>> the environment variable DISPLAY. When I ran the program I would see
> windows
>>> appearing on the screen for a second. However, when I unset the
> environment
>>> variable DISPLAY it crashed.
>>>
>>>  More importantly, I tried to emulate the situation would would have in a
>>> true batch environment such as we have on the XT3. There, jobs are
> submitted
>>> with the qsub command. What is submitted is a script. qsub is not used on
>>> the Linux cluster where I am testing this but I can emulate it with the
> "at"
>>> command. Example: "at -f cut.job NOW" submits file cut.job for immediate
>>> execution. That file is simple:
>>>
>>>  mpiexec -np 2 pvbatch --use-offscreen-rendering cut.py >& cut.log
>>>
>>>  My default environment variables LD_LIBRARY_PATH and PATH select the
>>> correct version of pvbatch, i.e., the compiled from CVS with MPI.
> However,
>>> when submitted this way, the environment variable DISPLAY is not set. The
>>> above job fails with no output because of the bad X server connection.
>>>
>>>  I've attached one of the Python scripts I've been using for testing. I
>>> might not be setting something in it that is needed.
>>>
>>>  Cheers,
>>>  Kent
> _______________________________________________
> ParaView mailing list
> ParaView at paraview.org
> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OffscreenMesa.patch
Type: text/x-patch
Size: 7121 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.paraview.org/pipermail/paraview/attachments/20080411/9bf60075/attachment.bin>