[Paraview] Connection problems (some resulting in a crash)

[Marc Baaden]

(NB: this is a follow-up on a previous thread with several issues,
focusing on one of them; it is still quite a long post, sorry )


kmorel at sandia.gov said:
>> > So the problem seems to be with the paraview.app client running on
>> the machine that I tested first. The one thing that is different on
>> this machine is that it is behind a firewall and has a proxy set
>> up. Could that have something to do with it?

>> That would make sense.  Normally ParaView will just give a warning
>> when a connection fails.  Maybe the firewall is somehow causing the
>> POSIX socket code to crash or to return in a state that causes
>> ParaView to crash later. 

I think I need to re-phrase my assumptions. The problem seem to be 
more generic related to connecting. It looks to me as if one gets 
crashes when there is a problem with finding or accessing a server upon 
the initial connection. 
Like giving a name that doesn't exist or cannot be resolved. This leads 
to EXC_BAD_ACCESS. There are two backtraces available here:
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_bt.txt
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_bt2.txt


Interestingly this also seems to systematically happen if I try to open 
a recent files from a distant server (Files -> Recent Files -> 
server:..data), whereas I can connect without a problem if I connect 
first and then open the recent file.


Another 'feature' is that the paraview client terminates when the 
server has some problem, like in:

:531; /opt/bin/paraview.app/Contents/MacOS/paraview 
ERROR: In /opt/src/paraview-cvs/Servers/Common/vtkServerConnection.cxx, line 67
vtkServerConnection (0x2b7f7e80): Server Connection Closed!
Broken pipe


BTW, I wonder how to interpret the corresponding server error:
:503; /ibpc/matrix/opt/paraview-3.0.2-Linux-x86/bin/pvserver --use-offscreen-rendering
\Listen on port: 11111
Waiting for client...
Client connected.
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display "localhost:10.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display "localhost:10.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display "localhost:10.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display "localhost:10.0".
ERROR: In /home/berk/Work/ReleaseBuilds/ParaView3/VTK/Rendering/vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow.cxx, line 370
vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow (0x8216b48): Could not find a decent visual
Segmentation fault

Shouldn't offscreen rendering lead to the absence of OpenGL 
requirements? (NB: the above is the official pv-3.0.2 linux binary)

Further tests show that even with offscreen rendering, a window is 
first opened and then closed. This also happens every time that the 
drawing area is resized. Is this to be expected?


If I perform these tests using a parallel run on the same machine, it becomes even weirder 
with additional compositing artefacts like seen here (seen with points, 
wireframe, volume, surface and outline):
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_composit1.png
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_composit2.png
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_composit3.png

Furthermore the OpenGL window that opens and closes on linux (with 
offscreen rendering) stays open and 'bizarre' on Mac OSX:
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/offscreen1.png


There are also crashes upon disconnecting. Here is another backtrace:
http://www.shaman.ibpc.fr/pv_bt3.txt

  Marc Baaden

-- 
 Dr. Marc Baaden  - Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris
 mailto:baaden at smplinux.de      -      http://www.baaden.ibpc.fr
 FAX: +33 15841 5026  -  Tel: +33 15841 5176  ou  +33 609 843217