Error running McIDAS-V in background using Xvfb

[wiweathergirl]

Hi, I am trying to create an image using McIDAS-V on a headless RedHat CentOS server using Xvfb (X11 Virtual Framebuffer). While running the ISL script file I got the following error:

ERROR: Creating display master
Canvas3D: null GraphicsConfiguration
java.lang.NullPointerException: Canvas3D: null GraphicsConfiguration
at javax.media.j3d.Canvas3D.checkForValidGraphicsConfig(Canvas3D.java:982)
at javax.media.j3d.Canvas3D.<init>(Canvas3D.java:1051)
at visad.java3d.VisADCanvasJ3D.<init>(VisADCanvasJ3D.java:211)
at visad.java3d.DisplayImplJ3D.initialize(DisplayImplJ3D.java:405)

After doing some research I tried adding "-Djava.awt.headless=true" to the command line, but now I am getting this error:

An error occurred:java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class visad.java3d.VisADCanvasJ3D
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class javax.media.j3d.VirtualUniverse
at javax.media.j3d.GroupRetained.<init>(GroupRetained.java:161)
at javax.media.j3d.TransformGroupRetained.<init>(TransformGroupRetained.java:121)
at javax.media.j3d.TransformGroup.createRetained(TransformGroup.java:119)
at javax.media.j3d.SceneGraphObject.<init>(SceneGraphObject.java:119)
at javax.media.j3d.Node.<init>(Node.java:178)
at javax.media.j3d.Group.<init>(Group.java:556)
at javax.media.j3d.TransformGroup.<init>(TransformGroup.java:92)
at visad.java3d.DisplayRendererJ3D.setTransform3D(DisplayRendererJ3D.java:1380)
at visad.java3d.ProjectionControlJ3D.setMatrix(ProjectionControlJ3D.java:132)
at visad.java3d.DisplayRendererJ3D.render_trigger(DisplayRendererJ3D.java:1535)
at visad.java3d.DisplayRendererJ3D.setWaitFlag(DisplayRendererJ3D.java:1546)
at visad.DisplayImpl.doAction(DisplayImpl.java:1793)
at visad.ActionImpl.run(ActionImpl.java:364)
at visad.util.ThreadPool$ThreadMinnow.run(ThreadPool.java:98)

Is there anything I can do to create an image in the background with my configuration?

[davep]

Hi wiweathergirl,

The errors you are seeing may be caused by an old version of Xvfb. Many systems do not ship with the latest version. Can you try updating to Xvfb version 4.8.0, available here:

http://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.8.0/binaries/

You will need root access or a system administrator to install this update for you.