VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2013 - 13:53:55 CDT

Hi,
  The problem you describe is likely an issue with the driver
(perhaps libGL.so) or the X-windows server itself, and not the
compilation of VMD. Recompiling VMD with Mesa probably wouldn't
change any problems you have with remote GLX protocol handling.
Another option would be to look at using VirtualGL, or one of the
VNC-like tools and allowing VMD to run in a direct OpenGL context
locally rather than forwarding all of the GLX protocol over the network
to a remote display. The bandwidth required for sending just the output
image is typically much lower than the bandwidth required to forward
all of the GLX protocol traffic, and therefore it is often faster...

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 11:43:49AM -0700, Gianluca Interlandi wrote:
> Dear VMD list,
>
> I think that this question was asked previously. I wonder whether anybody
> has had the same problem and found a solution.
>
> I am trying to open VMD remotely. The server where VMD is started from has
> an ATI video card with the fglrx driver, while the client where VMD should
> appear has NVIDIA with the proprietary driver. VMD crashes with
> "segmentation fault". Also, "glxgears" and "glxinfo" crash with
> "segmentation fault". Everything runs fine though locally on both
> desktops.
>
> I found that setting the following variable can help improve things:
>
> setenv LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT y
>
> After setting that, glxgears works and VMD can be started. However, as
> soon as I try loading a molecule into VMD the entire Xorg on the client
> crashes. Has anybody had the same problem and found a solution?
>
> Interestingly, everything works fine if I open VMD remotely from a server
> that has NVIDIA to a client with NVIDIA.
>
> Would it help to compile VMD against mesaGL if this problem is related to
> openGL?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gianluca
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
> +1 (206) 685 4435
> http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/
>
> Research Scientist at the Department of Bioengineering
> at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> http://healthynaturalbaby.org
> ----------------------------------------------------- 

-- 
NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/           Phone: 217-244-3349
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/