VMD-L Mailing List

From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Nov 02 2023 - 16:27:46 CDT

When using a remote desktop solution the OpenGL processing is done remotely
and then the resulting graphics captured and then "streamed" to the remote
desktop client.
With GLX (i.e. OpenGL over X11) the situation is much more complex: the
OpenGL directives are encapsulated into X11 protocol and then unpacked on
the local machine and processed by the local graphics card. This is very
fragile since the OpenGL implementations on both ends of the connection
need to be compatible. This rarely works unless you have identical OS, X11,
and OpenGL software on both sides. It most often breaks when the remote
machine has more recent libraries than the local one.

So moving the data and running VMD locally is often the best solution.

On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 4:41 PM Gianluca Interlandi <
gianluca_at_u.washington.edu> wrote:

> Hi Diego,
>
> Thanks for the reply. My question is also about the clients. Do the
> clients from which you connect also have NVIDIA with proprietary drivers
> installed? What I'm trying to figure out is whether remote openGL (VMD)
> works if both server and client have NVIDIA GPUs both with the proprietary
> drivers installed.
>
> I am using VMD 1.8.7 and 1.9.2b21, both with the same result.
>
> > Have you considered using a remote desktop solution instead of ssh? Over
> > here we use Nice DCV.
>
> I am considering such an option. My understanding is that rdesktop works
> only to connect to a windows server. Is Nice DCV included in major
> distributions? Right now I am using `sshfs` to mount the remote directory
> and then start VMD locally.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Gianluca
>
> On Thu, 2 Nov 2023, Diego Gomes wrote:
>
> > Hi Gianluca, although I can't help with the X error, I can confirm the
> issue
> > with VMD.Can you please share which VMD version you are using?
> >
> > For me it works very well when I ssh -X to our head-node, which does not
> contain a
> > dedicated GPU, while using vmd 1.9.3 and 1.9.4a55. It fails with vmd
> 1.9.4a58.
> > For any other machine the OpenGl windows fails either using "ssh -X" or
> "ssh -Y", vmd
> > 1.9.3, 1.9.4a55, and 1.9.4a58.
> > XRequest.130: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
> 0x3600090
> >
> > Machines are Ubuntu 2022.04.2, the ones with GPU have Nvidia Driver
> Version:
> > 530.30.02 CUDA Version: 12.1.
> >
> > Have you considered using a remote desktop solution instead of ssh? Over
> here we use
> > Nice DCV.
> >
> > Friendly regards,
> > Diego.
> >
> >
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
> +1 (206) 685 4435
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://gianluca.today/__;!!DZ3fjg!9dM36IdGRdmFnQn3PC8kwCuiFnDlXnfxOoFtpV827RN1u-glDiSMsPpDwciy4mJV-EBmLoJs4veR78k8SzpAuMU3FOU$
>
> Department of Bioengineering
> University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> ----------------------------------------------------- 

-- 
Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer  akohlmey_at_gmail.com  https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://goo.gl/1wk0__;!!DZ3fjg!96PjKfKzb719RTn7h5DwizRbr7A-4ecpIRcb_IKi2BfQQoyuC_27_BC99EUoxTWVrMVl-mlgLJgkxpyf4A$ 
College of Science & Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia PA, USA