VMD-L Mailing List

From: Benjamin Hall (benjamin.hall_at_bioch.ox.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2008 - 05:16:52 CDT

Hi

I'm writing an a tool which uses vmd in an automated way to analyse
various properties of a set of trajectories autonomously, and I've
encountered a problem which specifically arises when running vmd in
the background when not logged in (either with ssh or graphically). If
logged in with ssh, vmd runs but gives an error message:

_RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to
the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.

However, if I log out before completion, vmd aborts with the error
message:

FAILED TO GET ASN FROM CORESERVICES so aborting.

I have tried compiling vmd without "OPENGL", "FLTK" and "TK" configure
options (as advised in a previous post, http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/6192.html)
, but this doesn't appear to help. I've also tried omiting plugins
which might use gui elements, without success. I think that the error
itself is related to a security feature of the operating system,
described in the following technote:

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html

Any advice on how to approach this problem would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Ben

************************************************************************
Benjamin A. Hall
Structural Bioinformatics & Computational Biochemistry Unit
University of Oxford
http://sbcb.bioch.ox.ac.uk/hall.php
+44 (0)1865 275380
benjamin.hall_at_bioch.ox.ac.uk