VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 01 2002 - 21:55:40 CDT

Hi Sanjeev,
  Unsetting the DISPLAY variable only works on MacOS X. On all of
the other Unix versions of VMD, the DISPLAY environment variable
is an absolute necessity. The MacOS X native version is the only
Unix version that doesn't use X-Windows, which is why it can get by
without the DISPLAY variable. You can modify your VMD startup script
so that the xterm isn't started however, just comment out the lines at
the end of the startup script like this (note the one line that's left alone):

# if DISPLAY is set, spawn off a terminal, else use current terminal
#if($?DISPLAY) then
# if ($VMDWEBHELPER == "1") then
# exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
# $VMDDIR/$execname $*
# else
# exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
# $VMDDIR/$execname $* &
# endif
#else
                $VMDDIR/$execname $*
#endif

Let us know if you have other questions.

Thanks,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Tue, Jul 02, 2002 at 08:14:49AM +0530, Sanjeev B.S. wrote:
> Dear Dr. Stone.
> I am unable to start vmd from terminal (Redhat7.3,
> GenomeTerminal). Did I do something wrong? Please check the following
> commands and the error. (I am working on console, vmd starts if I do not
> unset DISPLAY.)
> Thanks very much,
> -Sanjeev
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> [sanjeev_at_prithvi sanjeev]$ csh
> [sanjeev_at_prithvi ~]$ unsetenv DISPLAY
> [sanjeev_at_prithvi ~]$ vmd
>
> Info) vmd for LINUX, version 1.7.1 (December 23, 2001)
> Info) VMD WWW Page: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> Info) Please email all comments and bug reports to vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> Info) The authors request that any published work which utilizes
> Info) VMD please include the following reference:
> Info) Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., `VMD - Visual
> Info) Molecular Dynamics', J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.
> Info) -------------------------------------------------------------
> Info) Multithreading available, 1 CPU detected.
>
> ERROR) Cannot open display. Exiting ...
> Info) vmd for LINUX, version 1.7.1 (December 23, 2001)
> Info) Exiting due to X-Windows window creation failure.
> Segmentation fault
> [sanjeev_at_prithvi ~]$
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, John Stone wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
> Yes, we are using the Terminal app rather than xterm
> locally. In order to avoid starting via xterm, just do
> "unsetenv DISPLAY" in the shell that you're starting VMD
> from, and it should run from within the existing shell.
>
> Thanks,
> John Stone
> johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 12:34:29PM -0700, MengJuei Hsieh wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I installed the native OpenGL version, and it is definitely faster than mesa
> > version! I am impressed by the performance. I am just curious: is it
> > possible to use Terminal.app instead of Xterm?
> >
> > Best,
> > --
> > Mengjuei
> 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078