OpenGL Vizserver 3.5

Release Notes

Introduction
Installation Information
Changes and Additions
Bug Fixes
Known Problems and Workarounds
Documentation Resources and Last-Minute Updates

1. Introduction


OpenGL Vizserver(TM) is an SGI technical computing solution that delivers advanced visualization capabilities and performance to the desktop. It also allows users to collaboratively view and interact with large data sets stored on a large visualization server using virtually any client at any location in an organization.

These notes describe OpenGL Vizserver 3.5

This document contains the following chapters:

  1. Introduction
  2. Installation Information
  3. Changes and Additions
  4. Bug Fixes
  5. Known Problems and Workarounds
  6. Documentation Resources and Last-Minute Updates

1.1 Release Identification Information

Following is the release identification information for OpenGL Vizserver:

Software Product OpenGL Vizserver
Version 3.5
System Software Requirements Refer to sections 2.1-2.2

1.2 Online Release Notes on IRIX

After you install the online release notes for a product (the relnotes subsystem), you can view the release notes on your screen.

Note: You can read the online release notes for most products before installing the software. Refer to the booklet in your CD-ROM case for more information.

If you have a graphics system, select Release Notes from the Help sub menu of the toolchest. This displays the infosearch(1) graphical browser for the online release notes. Refer to the infosearch(1) reference page for information on options to this command. If you do not have a graphics system, you can use the relnotes command. Refer to the relnotes(1) reference page for accessing the online release notes.


1.3 Product Support

Silicon Graphics, Inc., provides a comprehensive product support maintenance program for its products. If you are in the U.S. or Canada and would like support for your Silicon Graphics-supported products, contact the Technical Assistance Center at (800) 800-4SGI. If you are outside these areas, contact the Silicon Graphics subsidiary or authorized distributor in your country.


2. Installation Information


This chapter lists supplemental information to the installation of the OpenGL Vizserver client and server software packages. The information listed here is product- and release-specific; use it with your system installation and administration guide to install this product.

Note : The OpenGL Vizserver 3.5 server is not compatible with the OpenGL Vizserver 3.4 or earlier clients and vice versa.


2.1 Platforms supported

This release of OpenGL Vizserver provides support for clients running any of the following software platforms:

The server software is supported on the following systems running IRIX 6.5.11 or higher:

The server software is supported on the following systems running IRIX 6.5.22 or higher:

The server software is supported on the following systems running Linux IA64 SGI ProPack 3 Service Pack 6:


2.2 Prerequisites


2.2.1 IRIX

Your workstation must be running at least release IRIX 6.5.11 in order to use this version of OpenGL Vizserver. Onyx4 servers must be running at least release IRIX 6.5.22, and have patch number 5506 (or its replacement patch) installed if IRIX 6.5.22 or 6.5.23 are installed. If you want to install vizserver_server.sw, you must also install vizserver_server.modules.auth. If you wish to use the collaborative features of OpenGL Vizserver, vizserver_client.sw.client must also be installed.

vizserver_server.web requires a running web server in order to operate. Netscape or SGI Apache product is required.

vizserver_server.collab is an optional component although it is selected by default. This is a dependency check only. The dependency is on vizserver_client.sw.client which is required for local user collaboration.

vizserver_server.modules.pam_auth is an optional component. It enables the use of the Pluggable Authentication Modules (pam(8)), available on IRIX versions 6.5.22 and up, with OpenGL Vizserver. It requires the installation of the eoe.sw.pam subsystem, available with the IRIX distribution.

vizserver_server.modules.readback is an optional component. It enables the use of the SGC hardware readback device by OpenGL Vizserver on Onyx4 servers. It requires the installation of the SGC hardware, as well as the ml_sgc.sw.eoe subsystem available with the hardware drivers CD. Note that the SGC device should be configured to work outside of OpenGL Vizserver before OpenGL Vizserver can use it.

To install vizserver_server.modules.perf, pcp_eoe.sw.eoe and pcp_eoe.sw.monitor should be installed first. They are included in your IRIX CD set.

Disk space usage: 10-22 MBytes, including server files. About 4 MBytes for installing only client files.


2.2.2 Solaris

Your workstation must be running at least Solaris 2.6 in order to use this version of OpenGL Vizserver. On Solaris 2.6, patches 105591-10 and 107733-09 must be installed. On Solaris 2.7, patches 106327-10 and 106950-13 must be installed.

Disk space usage: about 3 MBytes.


2.2.3 Linux IA32

The openGL Vizserver Linux client was tested and qualified to work on Red Hat Linux 8, Red Hat Linux 9, SUSE Linux 9 and Fedora Core. However, in most cases it will run successfully on any i386 Linux distribution which satisfies the following requirements:

Disk space usage: about 3 MBytes.


2.2.4 Windows

Your workstation must be running one of these operating systems:

And have these programs installed:

Disk space usage : about 2 MBytes.


2.2.5 Mac OSX

Your workstation must run OS X 10.3.5 or later, and have X11 installed:

Disk space usage : about 6 MBytes.


2.3 Subsystems

OpenGL Vizserver supports clients running the IRIX, Solaris, Linux and Windows operating systems, and servers running IRIX or SGI's LinuxIA64 ProPack.

2.3.1 IRIX

OpenGL Vizserver for IRIX includes these subsystems:

Note that the vizserver_client.modules subsystem [the old fixed-latency (non-interframe) decompressors] is no longer part of the distibution.


2.3.2 Silicon Graphics Prism

OpenGL Vizserver for Silicon Graphics Prism includes these rpm files:


2.3.3 Solaris

OpenGL Vizserver for Solaris includes these subsystems:


2.3.4 Linux IA32

OpenGL Vizserver for Linux includes these rpm files:


2.3.5 Windows

OpenGL Vizserver for Windows includes one self-extracted SETUP file: SGIvizsvr-win32.exe. It contains the following optional components:


2.3.6 Mac OSX

OpenGL Vizserver for Mac OSX includes these pkg files:


2.4 Installation Method


2.4.1 IRIX

The subsystems for OpenGL Vizserver client and server modules can be installed in IRIX multi-user mode. You do not need to use the miniroot. You can install the subsystems using either "inst" or "swmgr". Refer to the IRIX Admin: Software and Licensing Guide for complete installation instructions.

The server installation process might require additional steps. These steps are described in the vsserver(1m) man page and in OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide.

Important Note: If you plan to use the SGC hardware readback device with OpenGL Vizserver on an Onyx4 server machine, make sure the device is configured to work outside of OpenGL Vizserver before attempting to use is with OpenGL Vizserver. This includes installing the hardware PCI-X card, connecting the card to the graphics pipe's first output channel, and adding the following line to the "Device" section of the XFree86 configuration file:

Please refer to the sgc(7) man page and the ml_sgc release notes for additional information.

The session script /usr/vizserver/bin/session will be replaced upon server upgrade. The existing session script on your system will be copied to /usr/vizserver/bin/session.O and the new one will take its place. Any changes made to the session script should be transferred to the new file.

As of 3.1 release, the server's configuration file /var/vizserver/config has been changed. The existing configuration file on your system will be copied to /var/vizserver/config.O and the new configuration file will take its place upon server upgrade. Any changes made to the previous configuration file should be transferred to the new file. A new user database will still be installed as /var/vizserver/users.N upon server upgrade. Refer to section 2.6 backward compatibility for more details on which components of previous release can be used with the new server.

In an upgrade installation of the OpenGL Vizserver server, the xdm(1) scripts /var/X11/xdm/*.vizserver, which are installed by OpenGL Vizserver to support dynamic pipe allocation, will be replaced by new ones. If you made any changes to these scripts after the previous OpenGL Vizserver installation they will be lost.

2.4.2 Silicon Graphics Prism

The OpenGL Vizserver server and client components are installed by default as part of the sgi-graphics group of the ProPack 3 Service Pack 6 installation.

The OpenGL Vizserver SDK is installed by default as part of the sgi-graphics-devel group of the ProPack 3 Service Pack 6 installation.

Important Note: If you plan to use the SGC hardware readback device with OpenGL Vizserver on a Silicon Graphics Prism server machine, make sure the device is configured to work outside of OpenGL Vizserver before attempting to use is with OpenGL Vizserver. This includes installing the hardware PCI-X card, connecting the card to the graphics pipe's first output channel, and modifying the "MonitorLayout" line in the "Device" section of the XFree86 configuration file:

Please refer to the sgc(7) man page and the ml_sgc release notes for additional information.

2.4.3 Solaris

All of the subsystems for OpenGL Vizserver can be installed using Solaris packaging tools. By default, the product is installed in /opt/SGIvizsvr. See pkgadd(1m) man page for more details.

Logged in as root, type at the command line:

# pkgadd -d SGIvizsvr-solaris

Note: Please remove previous versions of the OpenGL Vizserver client before installing the new client software:

# pkgrm SGIvizsvr

2.4.4 Linux

Logged in as root, type at the command line:

# rpm -Uvh SGIvizsvr-linux.i386.rpm

2.4.5 Windows

Double clicking on SGIvizserver-win32.exe will start the installation procedure. Just follow the instructions on your screen.

2.4.6 Mac OSX

Double-click the installation .tar.gz file to expand it using StuffitExpander. Double-click the resulting .pkg file to install the package. Follow the installation instructions. The root password is required.



2.5 Server Licensing

OpenGL Vizserver 3.5 requires the use of the 3.4 licenses. Customers with a valid support contract can get 3.4 license upgrades for free by calling 800-800-4SGI. Non-support customers, please contact your local sales office.

As of the 3.2 release, OpenGL Vizserver has moved to floating licenses from nodelocked licenses previously.

The types of licenses which are available for OpenGL Vizserver are :

Server license "OGL vsr Server"
Collaboration license "OGL vsr Collab"
Workstation Server license "OGL vsr Workstation"

Running a server on an Onyx2, Onyx3000, Onyx300, Onyx4 or Prism machine requires at least one count of Server license. To run a multi-pipe application, the same count of Server licenses are needed. For example, to run two pipe application, two count of Server licenses are needed.

Running a server on an Octane, Octane2, Fuel, Tezro or Prism Deskside machine requires the Workstation Server license. When the Workstation Server license is not available but the Server license is available, the Server license can be used for the workstations.

Starting a collaborative session requires one count of Collaboration license along with at least one count of Server license but the Workstation Server license doesn't require any Collaboration license. The maximum number of clients in a collaborative session depends on the available number of collaboration license. The Workstation Server license limits the number of concurrent clients to two in the collaborative session.

2.6 Backward Compatibility

OpenGL Vizserver 3.5 is not compatible with OpenGL Vizserver 3.4 clients and vice versa. The 3.5, 3.4.4, 3.4.3, 3.4.2 and 3.4.1 versions are compatible. In addition, as of 3.1 release, the server's configuration file has been changed. So upon upgrade from a version prior to 3.1, any changes made to the previous configuration file should be transferred to the new file. However, the following components from previous versions can be used, although not with all its features:


3. Changes and Additions


Release 3.5

Release 3.4.4

Release 3.4.3

Release 3.4.2

- Dynamic pipe allocation. Note that on Silicon Graphics Prism systems the display manager in use is gdm, unlike IRIX's xdm.
- utmpx accounting support - typing the last(1) command will display an entry (vss#) per pipe used by an OpenGL Vizserver session.
- Documentation web pages on the server machine - go to http://<server>/vizserver to view it.

Release 3.4.1

Release 3.4

Release 3.3

Release 3.2.1

Release 3.2

Release 3.1.1

Release 3.1

- Master, a client starting a session, is no longer limited to run on the server machine. The master can be either local or remote.
- Master decides whether or not other clients can join.
- Supported number of clients in a collaborative session are 2 to 5.
- Session control window shows the list of clients participated in the collaborative session.
- Input control between multiple clients is provided.

Release 3.0.2

Release 3.0.1

Release 3.0

- The Windows client no longer depends on the Hummingbird Exceed X server.
- Each client uses its native windowing and drawing tools, resulting in potentially improved client performance.
- The applications look the same on the server and on the client (in terms of windows decoration etc.).
- Most of the limitations imposed by the client's X server capabilities are removed.

Release 2.0.1

Release 2.0


4. Bug Fixes


Release 3.5

Release 3.4.4

Release 3.4.3

Release 3.4.2

Release 3.4.1

Release 3.4

Release 3.3

Release 3.2.1

Release 3.2

Release 3.1.1

Release 3.1

Release 3.0.2

Release 3.0.1

Release 3.0

Release 2.0


5. Known Problems and Workarounds


This chapter lists the known problems in this version of OpenGL Vizserver and, where known, ways to work around them. Bug numbers from the SGI bug tracking system are included for reference.

5.1 Open bugs

5.2 Limitations

5.3 Platform Support Issues

5.4 Application Support Issues


6. Documentation Resources and Last-Minute Updates


6.1 Documentation Resources

All OpenGL Vizserver documentation is available on-line on IRIX servers (assuming it was installed with the server) by going to the following URL:

http://server-machine/vizserver

6.1.1 Manual Pages

These manual pages can be viewed using man(1) on IRIX, Solaris, Linux and Macintosh. The administrator's manual pages are available only on IRIX and Silicon Graphics Prism systems.

6.1.2 HTML Manual Pages

All the above mentioned manual pages can be viewed in HTML versions on all platforms:

6.1.3 User's Guide

A user's guide is available in HTML version on all platforms:

6.1.4 Administrator's Guide

An administrator's guide is available in HTML version on server machines:

6.2 Documentation Last-Minute Updates

N/A