From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 01 2012 - 23:44:11 CST

Hi,
  Yes, the problem you're describing is some sort of incompatibility
between the two OpenGL versions. This kind of issue has been going
on for years on Linux, off and on, with various versions of the
X11 servers and with various OpenGL implementations. It is hard to
give any advice other than to use consistent X11/OpenGL versions on
the Linux machines that you want to be able to do remote display with.
Even that advice may not always work, as I've seen certain versions many
years back where even that was broken. By using the simple graphics mode,
you're preventing VMD from using some of the more advanced OpenGL features
that tend to be poorly supported by some of the less-well-developed
OpenGL drivers. If that works for you guys, then that may be easiest
thing to continue doing, otherwise you will have to look into upgrading
the X11 and/or OpenGL on the machine(s) that are incompatible with the rest.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 02:03:03PM +0100, Clarinet wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The remote machines run Debian, various versions including the latest
> stable version. The OpenGL libraries on the remote machines are MESA,
> the local machine has actual nVidia drivers installed (I guess they come
> with their own OpenGL libraries).
>
> We only had 2 out of more than 20 local machines with this kind of
> problems - one of them was running Ubuntu, but was reinstalled and now
> runs Debian - the problem did not reappear after re-installation. Other
> machines (Ubuntu and Debian) have no problems with VMD.
>
> Setting VMDSIMPLEGRAPHICS to 1 on remote machine helps.
>
> So does it look like some sort of incompatibility between OpenGL on
> local and remote machines?
>
> Jiri Polach
>
> On 11/20/2012 17:51, John Stone wrote:
> >Hi,
> > What kind of machine are you logging into?
> >If lines and dots don't display, it seems like this may be
> >some sort of vertex array remote display issue. It could be
> >a problem with either the local machine or the remote machine.
> >What OpenGL is on the remote machine?
> >
> >You could also try setting the environment VMDSIMPLEGRAPHICS to 1
> >and see if that has any effect.
> >
> >Cheers,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> >On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 03:04:09PM +0100, Clarinet wrote:
> >>Hi all,
> >>
> >>We have the following problem:
> >>
> >>We have a fairly recent machine with GeForce GT220 card that runs
> >>Ubuntu. The newest graphics card drivers from nVidia are installed.
> >>
> >>When I login to a remote server (with 'ssh -X') and run VMD (version
> >>1.9.1) there to display a molecule on the local computer, everything
> >>opens ok but the molecule is not visible if the drawing method is
> >>"lines" or "dots". To see the molecule I have to switch to e.g.
> >>"licorice", but the manipulation is much slower then, of course.
> >>
> >>If the same molecule is open in a local installation of VMD, everything
> >>seems ok - the molecule is visible even when "lines" representation is
> >>selected.
> >>
> >>Does anyone have an idea where to look for a reason?
> >>
> >>Thank you.
> >>
> >>Best regards,
> >>
> >>Jiri Polach
> >

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
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