OpenGL Vizserver 3.5
Release Notes
- Introduction
- Installation Information
- Changes and Additions
- Bug Fixes
- Known Problems and Workarounds
- Documentation Resources and Last-Minute Updates
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:
- Introduction
- Installation Information
- Changes and Additions
- Bug Fixes
- Known Problems and Workarounds
- 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.
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:
- IRIX 6.5.11 or higher
- Solaris 2.6 or higher
- Linux IA32 - Red Hat Linux 8, Red Hat Linux 9, SUSE Linux 9 and Fedora Core.
- Windows NT 4.0 / Windows 2000 / Windows XP
- Mac OSX 10.3.5 or higher
- Linux IA64 - SGI ProPack 3 Service Pack 6
The server software is supported on the following systems running
IRIX 6.5.11 or higher:
- SGI Onyx 3000 series with InfiniteReality3 or InfiniteReality4 graphics
- SGI Onyx 3000 series with InfinitePerformance graphics
- SGI Onyx 300 series with InfiniteReality3 or InfiniteReality4 graphics
- SGI Onyx 300 series with InfinitePerformance graphics
- Silicon Graphics Onyx2 with InfiniteReality2, InfiniteReality3 or InfiniteReality4 graphics
- Silicon Graphics Octane or Octane2
- Silicon Graphics Fuel
- Silicon Graphics Tezro
The server software is supported on the following systems running
IRIX 6.5.22 or higher:
- Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision
The server software is supported on the following systems running
Linux IA64 SGI ProPack 3 Service Pack 6:
- Silicon Graphics Prism and Prism Deskside containing at least two CPUs.
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:
- XFree86 version 4.0 or higher.
- glibc version 2.2 or higher.
- libstdc++ version 3.2 or higher.
- libgcc version 3.2 or higher
Disk space usage: about 3 MBytes.
2.2.4 Windows
Your workstation must be running one of these operating
systems:
- Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later
- Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later
- Microsoft Windows XP
And have these programs installed:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later
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:
- http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/download/
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:
- vizserver_server.sw : Main component needed for
server systems. It includes session manager and server manager
executables. This subsystem also requires the installation of
vizserver_server.modules.auth, and IRIX 6.5.11 or later.
- vizserver_server.modules : Authentication, compression,
reservation client, hardware readback and Performance Co-Pilot OpenGL Vizserver PMDA
modules for the server. vizserver_server.modules.perf requires
the installation of a pcp_eoe subsystem. vizserver_server.modules.pam_auth
requires the installation of a eoe.sw.pam subsystem. vizserver_server.modules.readback
requires the installation of a ml_sgc.sw.eoe subsystem. Note that vizserver_server.modules.comp
no longer contains the old fixed-latency (non-interframe) compressors.
- vizserver_server.web : The web interface for OpenGL
Vizserver pipe reservation and on-line documentation (Optional). vizserver_server.web.res
requires the installation of vizserver_server.modules.auth.
- vizserver_server.collab : OpenGL Vizserver client for
local collaboration. Only required for collaborative support.
This system requires the installation of vizserver_client.sw.client.
- vizserver_server.books : OpenGL Vizserver
Administrator's Guide (Optional).
- vizserver_server.man : Server man pages and release notes.
- vizserver_client.sw : The client software for the product.
This subsystem requires IRIX 6.5.11 or later.
- vizserver_client.books : OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide (Optional).
- vizserver_client.man : Client man pages and release notes.
- vizserver_dev.sw : OpenGL Vizserver compression,
authentication, and reservation APIs and examples.
- vizserver_dev.man : Man pages of the APIs.
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:
- sgi-vizserver-*.ia64.rpm : The client software for the product.
It also contains authentication and compression
libraries, man pages, release notes and user's guide.
- sgi-vizserver-server-*.ia64.rpm : The OpenGL Vizserver server.
It contains several programs required for the normal operation of the OpenGL Vizserver
server, as well as man pages, an administrator's guide, configuration files, and so on.
The installation of the server subsystem requires the installation of the client subsystem.
- sgi-vizserver-devel-*.ia64.rpm : The OpenGL Vizserver modules development
toolkit. It contains header files, libraries, and example code.
2.3.3 Solaris
OpenGL Vizserver for Solaris includes these subsystems:
- SGIvizsvr-solaris : The client software for the product.
It also contains authentication and compression
libraries, man pages, release notes and user's guide.
- SGIvizdev-solaris : OpenGL Vizserver compression and
authentication development toolkit. (Optional)
2.3.4 Linux IA32
OpenGL Vizserver for Linux includes these rpm files:
- SGIvizsvr-linux.i386.rpm : The client software for the product.
It also contains authentication and compression
libraries, man pages, release notes and user's guide.
- SGIvizdev-linux.i386.rpm : OpenGL Vizserver compression
and authentication development toolkit. (Optional)
2.3.5 Windows
OpenGL Vizserver for Windows includes one self-extracted SETUP
file: SGIvizsvr-win32.exe. It contains the following optional
components:
- Documentation : OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide.
- SDK : OpenGL Vizserver Compression and Authentication
modules SDK.
- SDK Documentation : OpenGL Vizserver Compression and
Authentication modules SDK reference pages.
- SDK Example Code : OpenGL Vizserver Compression and
Authentication modules SDK example code.
2.3.6 Mac OSX
OpenGL Vizserver for Mac OSX includes these pkg files:
- SGIvizsvr-macintosh.tar.gz : The client software for the product.
It also contains authentication and compression
libraries, man pages, release notes and user's guide.
- SGIvizdev-macintosh.tar.gz : OpenGL Vizserver compression
and authentication development toolkit. (Optional)
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:
- Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS, AUTO"
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:
- Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS, AUTO"
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:
- Users database.
- Reservation database.
- Reservation Web Interface configuration file.
- Reservation client (including the Reservation Web Interface).
Release 3.5
- A Macintosh client was added. Computers running Mac OS X 10.3.5 and up are supported.
- New JPEG comressor/decompressor was added.
- The option for ZLIB compression of the OpenGL and non-OpenGL (pure X) regions was added.
- Support for the Scalable Graphics Capture (SGC) hardware readback card was add to the Silicon Graphics Prism server.
- Desktop Sharing mode was added. In desktop sharing mode, the whole desktop as viewed on the server is viewable on the client, rather than specific application windows. Working in this mode is recommended in conjunction with the SGC card.
- Support for the hardware compositor was added. For this purpose, the notion of a "video group" was added. For details, see the "The /var/vizserver/topology and /var/vizserver/videoGroups Files" section in the OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide.
- The vizserver_workstation license is now supported on the Silicon Graphics Prism Deskside platform.
Release 3.4.4
- The OpenGL Vizserver client is no longer supported on Linux Red Hat distributions prior to Red Hat Linux 8.
It is supported on Red Hat Linux 8, Red Hat Linux 9, SUSE Linux 9 and Fedora Core.
Release 3.4.3
- Support for performance monitoring using Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) on Prism systems was added.
The vizserver PMDA is installed at the /usr/pcp/pmdas/vizserver directory. Refer to the README file in this
directory for usage instructions.
- A simple command line tool for configuring X servers on Prism was added. This is an intermediate solution until
the full functionality of vsconfig on IRIX is proted to Prism. Refer to the vscfg(1m) man page for details.
- The OpenGL Vizserver client is no longer supported on Solaris 2.5.1.
Release 3.4.2
- The following features available in the IRIX version were added to the Silicon
Graphics Prism version:
- - 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.
- The latency viewed by the user (the time between moving the mouse on the client side and
seeing the effect in the application window on the client) was reduced for cases where the client is
the performance bottleneck. In the worst case scenario, where the client's performance is much
lower than the server's, the latency was reduced by about a half.
Release 3.4.1
- The only new functionality in this release of OpenGL Vizserver (aside from bug fixes) is the support for the Silicon Graphics Prism
platform as a server and as a client. The feature set of OpenGL Vizserver for Silicon Graphics Prism is a subset
of the feature set on IRIX. The features which are unsupported at this point include dynamic pipe
allocation, stereo applications, hardware readback, reservation API and reservation web interface,
vsconfig and documentation web pages on the server machine.
Release 3.4
- Added a new spoiling mode - time-based readback. As opposed to the "spoiling on" and
"spoiling off" modes, In this mode the generation of new frames by the OpenGL Vizserver server
is not tied to the application behavior. Instead of generating a new frame every time the
application calls one of the readback trigger functions (glFlush, glFinish and glXSwapBuffers),
the server attempts to generate new frames as fast as possible, performing frame readback
asyncronously with the application. This feature is useful with applications which don't
"behave well" in terms of OpenGL Vizserver compatibility.
- The client now enables the user to select which screens out of the available ones in the
session should be served to the client. For instance, when a user starts a three-pipe session,
he can select to serve only screen 0, and then if a software composition application which uses
screen 0 as the target screen is served using OpenGL Vizserver, only the target window is observed
on the client side.
- A served application can now use glxQueryExtensionsString(3G) to check if it runs under a
collaborative OpenGL Vizserver session. In such a case, the string GLX_SGI_vizserver_collab is
added to the supported GLX extensions string.
- A new environment variable - VS_LATENCY - was added to the client. This variable controls the
number of frames allowed to be "en route" between the server and the client at any given moment.
This is an advanced performance tuning variable applicable to high-latency networks. Please refer
to the Performance Tuning chapter in the OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide for details.
Release 3.3
- Added support for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (pam(8)),
available on IRIX versions 6.5.22 and up. In order for OpenGL Vizserver to authenticate using PAM,
specify AUTH-PAM as the authentication module to be used by OpenGL Vizserver server, make sure the PAM
system is active ("chkconfig pam on") and edit the file /etc/pam.d/vizserver according to your system
configuration and your security needs.
- Added a new server configuration parameter: Vizserver*BaseXF86Config. This parameter allows the
administrator to have a customized XFree86(1) configurarion file for OpenGL Vizserver, when used on Onyx4
server. Please refer to the OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide for details.
- Added support for the SGC hardware readback device. The SGC device is a PCI-X card
which can be installed on an Onyx4 server. It grabs output from the graphics pipe through a DVI cable
connecting the pipe's output jack with the card's input jack. Using hardware readback on the server
can potentially improve the overall performance of OpenGL Vizserver (depending on the other bottlenecks
in the system and the application being served). Please make sure the SGC card is installed and
configured properly before attempting to use it with OpenGL Vizserver. Other than installing the card,
connecting the cables and installing the card's driver (the ml_sgc product), the XFree86(1) configuration
file used by OpenGL Vizserver should be configured to output TMDS on the graphics pipe's first channel -
OpenGL Vizserver will not make this change automatically, to prevent unexpected behavior. Please refer
to the sgc(7) man page and the ml_sgc release notes for details. A new server configuration
parameter, Vizserver*SGCFrameSkip was added to control the frame drop rate of the SGC card - please
refer to the OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide for details. Note: The Administrator's Guide states that
the default value for this parameter is -1, which is incorrect - the default is 1.
- Added support for stereographic applications on Onyx4 servers and clients. Stereo is supported both
with and without the SGC card. Note that the stereo mode setting on Onyx4 is different than the way
it's done on previous IRIX machines - please refer to the Vizserver(1) man page for details about video mode
switching on the client side. Note that if you would like to serve stereo applications from an Onyx4 server,
the XFree86(1) configuration file used by OpenGL Vizserver should be modified to have the stereo related options
in the "Device" section - OpenGL Vizserver will not add these options automatically, to prevent unexpected behavior.
- Improved the overall performance of OpenGL Vizserver when serving OpenGL applications. This performance
improvement is most noticable when using the SGC hardware readback device on an Onyx4 server, and when using
fast clients.
Release 3.2.1
- Added support for Onyx4 UltimateVision servers.
- Removed the old fixed-latency (non-interframe) compression modules from the distribution. If you have a specific need for these compression modules (which is not likely since the newer delta compression modules have the exact same image quality but require considerably less network bandwidth), please contact SGI support.
Release 3.2
- Floating license scheme: Refer to section 2.5 for a
detailed description.
- Improved application compatibility (Opus Realizer, CATIA v5, GoCad and more).
- Improved performance of UI intensive applications.
- Enhanced client command line interface.
- Five client limitation in collaborative session is removed on Onyx class servers.
Automated video mode switching for stereo applications is now supported. On the first attempt, OpenGL Vizserver Irix client will now prompt the user for confirmation on video mode switching. This will help workaround failures due to monitor incompatibilities. After the test, the user can save this setting for that Irix client machine. Given that a compatible stereo video mode was found on the client, OpenGL Vizserver will serve stereo applications transparently with the correct stereoscopic functionality.
A more detailed description of this feature will come in a later release. For more details on stereo features, please refer to the OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide, Chapter 1, "Using an Application with Stereo".
Release 3.1.1
- Solaris 2.5.1 Client is now supported.
Release 3.1
- Multi-client collaboration: OpenGL Vizserver collaborative
session now enhances the features as following:
- - 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.
- Late join: User(non-master) can join in a collaborative
session after it has started and can leave at any time during the
running session.
- Stereo is supported on IRIX clients equipped with quad-buffer stereo.
- Clients behind firewall are supported.
- License scheme has been changed: Refer to section 2.5 for a
detailed description.
- OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide is revised heavily to reflect
the new and enhanced features of this release.
- Authentication API is included.
Release 3.0.2
- Authentication API is removed and now shipped separately.
Release 3.0.1
- Overlapping windows do not affect performance.
- Improved memory tracking: Shared memory resources are handled
under all conditions.
- Applications interfering with an OpenGL Vizserver session are
no longer visible.
- Cursor tracking in non-collabrative sessions is turned off.
- Performance improvements.
- Improved keyboard support: Numeric keypad and CapsLock
problems are fixed.
Release 3.0
- OpenGL Vizserver no longer relies on the X protocol between
the server and the client. This has several implications:
- - 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.
- OpenGL Vizserver server can now run on Silicon Graphics
Octane, Octane2 and Fuel workstations.
- The compression module (libvsCCC.so) was replaced by a new
compression module - libvsIFCCC.so. This module includes all the
old compression schemes, modified to send only image changes
rather than the whole image, resulting in improved compression
ratio in most cases. A lossless interframe compression was also
added. The old non-interframe, fixed-latency decompression module
(libvsCCC.so) is still available, as a non-default component (see
section 2.3 for details).
- The server can now allocate graphics pipes which are used by
non-logged-in xdm(1) X servers to OpenGL Vizserver sessions
(Dynamic Pipe Allocation). Refer to OpenGL Vizserver
Administrator's Guide for details.
- Performance Monitoring tools were added to the server. The
Performance Co-Pilot OpenGL Vizserver PMDA allows for session
performance monitoring using Performance Co-Pilot
(pmchart(1)). vsmonitor(1m) is a text based tool for
session performance monitoring. Refer to OpenGL Vizserver
Administrator's Guide for more details on OpenGL Vizserver
sessions' performance monitoring.
- An OpenGL Vizserver web page is installed on the server. This
web page includes links to the Reservation Web Interface, to all
OpenGL Vizserver's documentation in html format, and to external
links which are relevant to OpenGL Vizserver users (such as OpenGL
Vizserver software download pages).
- OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide was added to the
server. This guide covers in detail subjects like OpenGL Vizserver
server installation, configuration, performance tuning and
troubleshooting. This is a recommended reading also for
experienced OpenGL Vizserver users and administrators.
Release 2.0.1
- Running multi-pipe sessions is now possible. This can be
done both in collaborative sessions (number of pipes is determined
by the local client'sX server configuration) and in single-user
sessions (number of pipes selected in the "Start Session" window
on the client's GUI). Reservation of more then one pipe is now
also possible.
- Single user sessions are now logged to the wtmpx database on
the server. This allows the use of utmpx-based commands (like
last(1)) for session accounting. Refer to
vsserver(1m) for details.
Release 2.0
- Running an OpenGL Vizserver session in collaboration between
a local client (running on the server machine) and a remote client
is now possible. Refer to vizserver(1) and to OpenGL
Vizserver User's Guide for details.
- An API for development of authentication modules is provided.
Refer to vsAuth(3) for details.
- OpenGL Vizserver now allows for pipes to be reserved for
use. The reservation system should be activated using the config
file (see vsserver(1m)). Reservations should be made using
a reservation client - see the next two items.
- A simple reservation web interface is provided. Refer to
vsreservation(1m) for administration details and to
OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide for usage instructions.
- An API for development of custom reservation clients is
provided. refer to vsReservation(3) for details.
- Dynamic configuration of the server is now possible. For
details about dynamic configuration refer to vsconfig(1m)
and vsserver(1m).
Release 3.5
- 926881: Prism server: Client error message misleading when no gfx pipes available on the server
- 927273: Prism session: vssession gets <defunct> when killing Vizserver's owned X server
- 927673: Prism session: vssession thread starvation issues
- 929384: Prism session: race condition between coverage and geometry updates
- 931552: Prism local collab sessions: must set "xhost +localhost" for session to start
- 932019: Prism server: vizserver starts session on a managed, logged in pipe
- 932877: Linux Client: Xerror when switching desktops with CeiEnsight
- 934096: PAM authentication: doesn't handle account and session features of PAM
- 934932: Prism server: -disabledForVizserver in gdm.conf prevents GFX from starting
- 935646: Prism server: vsserver subprocesses don't die with vsserver
- 936262: Prism vscfg: vscfg should quit with an error when run as non-previliged user
- 936491: Prism server: dynamic pipe allocation fails if XKeepsCrashing runs console prompt
- 936531: Prism server: vsserver hangs while waiting for its subprocess to die
Release 3.4.4
- 918530: SGIvizdev can't be used on RedHat 9 - libelf dependency and compiler version
- 923925: Prism server: sticky window moves
- 927621: Linux client: vizserver seg faults when ypbind deamon is stopped on client
- 927657: Vizserver/LSPrepost: session crash when gl window fully out of screen bounds
- 927658: Vizserver/LSPrepost: session crashed when synchronizing splitted windows' draw
- 927768: UNIX Client: bad GUI state after logging out during a session
- 927772: Prism server: restarting the server daemon sometimes fails due to race condition
- 928129: Prism server PCP: vizserver pmda dies when closing session
- 928371: Prism server: X server + kernel crash when exiting Paradigm RNAV
- 928423: Prism server: clipping error on RNAV startup causes vssession crash
- 928424: Linux client: Windows can be placed on top of KDE3.x panel
- 928452: Prism server: vizserver console sometimes disappears when closing an app
- 928683: Prism server: server daemon crashes in SEGV when session dies
- 929870: O2 IRIX Client: Delta lossless compressor doesn't work on O2
- 930455: Linux client: vizserver seg faults on logout
- 931004: Prism server: UI and EV threads starvation in time-based readback
- 932516: Linux client: wrong stacking order of console window with KDE 3.x
Release 3.4.3
- 913094: LINUX CLIENT: served windows appear in all of the multiple desktops
- 923998: IA64: init attempts to start vizserver in every runlevel change
- 925035: LINUX CLIENT: console disappears when it's focus is lost
- 925153: IA64 Server: Wrong message when user not in users DB
- 925154: SERVER: user can't log in if not in users DB, hence can't join session
- 925647: APP: client crash with ICEMSURF and ivview's bg color editor
- 925718: SESSION: no stereo when No Compression
- 926964: CLIENT/Win32: Black image on 16-bit display
- 927123: compressor crash with small gl drawables
- 927449: killing vsserver makes it exit with SEGV
- 927757: SESSION/Onyx4: Performance regression with SGC readback
Release 3.4.2
- 922257: Vizserver UNIX CLIENT: empty hostname means local host
- 922270: Vizserver SESSION: vssession crashed when a client left
- 923620: Vizserver IRIX SESSION: Maximized OpenGL windows corrupted by consol window
- 923644: Vizserver IA64 SERVER: "chkconfig vizserver on" overwrites vsserver log
- 923664: Vizserver IA64 APP: session exits when running inView
- 923667: Vizserver IA64 APP: vssession crash when running scirun
- 923879: Vizserver SERVER: Dynamic pipe allocation overrides static pipe allocation
- 923975: Vizserver SERVER: vsserver does not update display manager's running status
- 924346: Vizserver SESSION: deadlock on exit
- 924379: Vizserver SERVER: xf86Parser fails violantly on erronous XF86Config files
- 924729: Vizserver APP: in ivview's bg color editor, small gl drawables are not vizserved
Release 3.4.1
- 918596: SESSION: wrong 'total frames' in vsmonitor when SGC+Time-based
- 918508: Compressors: minor artifacts with scaled compressors
- 921046: Vizserver Server: sometimes crash / wrong tag when trying to write to the syslog
- 919547: local client: if no -A switch is specified, only screen 0 is active by default
Release 3.4
- 870519: MPK applications cannot vizserve only one pipe
- 873559: QE: mpk2.1 sdk 2-pipe configs do not work when running with a script
- 880970: Windows vizserver crashed when running MPK SDK 2.1.1
- 886234: CLIENT: Solaris client exhibits small problem with MPK
- 893960: SESSION: MPK support problems with Pbuffer pipe compositing
- 900652: Clients: crash when different screen area between the client and server
- 900812: SERVER: external (non-xdm) pipe usage is not updated
- 905211: VOYAGER: sometimes XFree86 fails to start
- 908532: Occasional hang during collaborative session
- 911708: VSCONFIG: On Onyx4, when mutipipe X server are defined, screens order is inverse
- 911719: Client: on Opteron+Suse64 client, image colors are psychedelic
- 914501: CLIENT: solaris 2.8 client hangs
- 915283: Floating license issue with Vizserver
- 915387: APP: CEI Ensight fails in stereo mode
- 915393: SESSION: hang when using the DVI splitter between the pipe and Vanier
- 916207: CLIENT: win32 client crash with OpenDX
- 917209: Vizserver 3.3 vsserver starts before xdm
- 917210: Vizserver 3.3 vsserver overwrites its log
- 917549: O2 Vizserver client: iv models disappears when compression is on
- 917823: Vizserver 3.3 does not support FireGL X2/R350 on Onyx4.
- 917861: APP: lsprepost has latency problems
- 918055: CLIENT: pixel-padding problem on O2
- 918080: CLIENT: crash on O2 in GL decompressor code
- 918598: SERVER: BaseXF86Config is not updated by vsconfig until vsserver restart
Release 3.3
- 907464: Linux Client: No vizserved windows on Linux with Gnome/Enlightment, metacity.
- 908447: Session: Periodic pauses during Vizserver GL image streaming.
- 908459: Server: Wrong error message when reservation active.
- 908523: Linux Client: OpenGL Vizserver Windows can't be lowered when using metacity window manager.
- 909193: libvsx: Performance waste with glXSwapBuffers and glXMakeCurrent.
- 909194: libvsx: crashes when calling glFlush out of GL context.
Release 3.2.1
- 878773: client crashes due to failed XConfigureWindow.
- 892190: ICEM CFD doesn't work with Vizserver.
- 896705: double clicking on an iconed vizsered window causes invalid state.
- 896729: WIN32 client: Scroll bar is disabled when no input control.
- 899235: vsmonitor crashes server after running for a while.
- 900361: vizserver sometimes crashes when querying the serial number on SN1 machines with IRIX 6.5.13 or lower.
- 900468: very high latency with more than 4 collab users.
- 900807: rejecting joined request from queue of users.
- 901268: TCL/TK apps crash session.
Release 3.2
- 859420: Running Opus Realizer causes fault.
- 866116: CATIA: problem with overlapping gl windows in MDI.
- 873249: GOCAD - performance and rendering problems with Vizserver.
Release 3.1.1
Release 3.1
- 872299: If OpenGL Vizserver session fails for some reasons
after the client received the successful session start signal,
the client might hang.
- 881494: OpenGL Vizserver 3.0.2 Window clients does not work
through NAT firewall.
- 881688: OpenGL Vizserver cannot start a session if NIS user has
permission 750(drwxr-x---) at the user's home directory.
- 882326: Using an alternate network interface for starting a
session does not work.
Release 3.0.2
Release 3.0.1
- 859144: Window manager system menu is not served.
- 869286: OpenGL Vizserver 3.0 does not support numeric keypad.
- 864180: Non served windows show up and accept input.
- 871273: On multi-pipe sessions, the tracked cursor showed up
on multiple screens.
- 871420: Shared memory and message queue leaks.
- 871772: Clip GL Window to parent.
Release 3.0
- Applications support is much improved.
- 780944: The server now detects client disconnects using TCP's keep alive mechanism.
- 802557: XSGIvc applications are now supported.
- 804307: multiple application stacking order is enforced.
- 837280: X server commandline is configurable.
Release 2.0
- Color index rendering is now supported.
- User Names more than 8 characters long are now supported
(same as IRIX).
- If OpenGL Vizserver server software detects that it cannot
obtain X access to the client machine, a warning message is
presented.
- The IP address of the client is logged to the syslog
on failed login attempts.
- Drawables which update infrequently are guaranteed not to be
starved.
- The client's display name is identified by the client's IP
address, thus removing the NIS/WINS conflict with the Windows
client.
- The Windows client displays a message box to indicate a
fatal error (instead of just writing the error to the Event
Log).
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
- 863426 - When moving or resizing a window, its
changing frame is not seen. The workaround is to set the
"Opaque Window Move" to on in the window manager (this is
the default behavior on Prism, while on IRIX the change
is in the toolchest->Customize->Windows window).
- 885738 - Setting 4Dwm "Auto Window Placement" to
"Off" is incompatible with OpenGL Vizserver. In a single-user
session or remote collaborative session, if server side
doesn't use Auto Window Placement(window manager option),
the session appears to be hung. However, in reality, the
server is just waiting for input from the client to place a
window. So a workaround is to turn on the option.
5.2 Limitations
- Only one master client per user is allowed on a single server:
Currently the server manager only supports one master client
per user in the server system. That is, user can be a master on
only one session -- either a single-user session or a collaborative session.
- Transparent interface does not support setuid root programs:
The transparent interface uses the _RLD_LIST feature
of rld(5) to override OpenGL and X functions in the original libraries.
For security reasons rld ignores the _RLD_LIST when running setuid root
programs.
- Windows client display issues: In the current release,
an 8-bit (256 color) desktop is not supported. Supported
desktop modes include: 32-bit, 24-bit, and 16-bit color. Also
the client will work properly on multiple screen desktops as
one large virtual screen. This is the default desktop
configuration. However, the OpenGL Vizserver client will not
work with independent displays and may not work well with
Win32 applications that use this configuration.
- 865102 - Vizserver windows do not work with Desk
Overview.
- Xinerama flag must be turned off in OpenGL Vizserver
server: When starting a dual-pipe session with
xinerama flag on, the OpenGL Vizserver console window gets
input but does not get updated, except on an expose event. The
xinerama flag in chkconfig should be turned off.
- 896375 - On the server, changing the license file and then using
update will not reload the license file.
5.3 Platform Support Issues
- 921019 - On Silicon Graphics Prism servers, s-bit applications won't work under vsx.
setuid applications, such as su, mount, umount, ping, traceroute,
rsh, rlogin, rcp, crontab and passwd, require that all the libraries
which appear in the LD_PRELOAD variable have also the s-bit set. This is
not the case for libvsx.so, nor for libGL.so and libX11.so. This causes setuid
applications to fail, with an error message saying that the shared library
could not be found. A workaround is to temporarily unset LD_PRELOAD in the
OpenGL Vizserver console before running a setuid application.
- 919386 - On Silicon Graphics Prism servers, no handling of iconified windows with
gnome and kde. The reason is that on window managers such as Gnome's metacity
and KDE's kwin the iconified state of windows is managed by a separate client,
distinct from the window manager, which is not run by default in the OpenGL
Vizserver X server. A workaround for this problem is to set two environment
variables in the OpenGL Vizserver startup script /etc/init.d/vizserver:
export VSX_WM_COMMAND=/usr/bin/gnome-session and
export VSX_WM_TAG=metacity. This solution is not set as default since
in case there is a modal warning dialog popped up upon gnome desktop startup, this
dialog is not served, and can annoyingly obscure the initial vizserver
console.
- Message queues limit on Silicon Graphics Prism - by default there is a
system limit of 16 message queues in the system. Since every process of a Vizserver
served application opens a message queue, this limit can be a problem when running many applications
(typically when running multiple sessions concurrently). The solution is to change
this limit - for instance, to change it to 32 use the command:
echo 32 > /proc/sys/kernel/msgmni.
- Gamma value when the SGC hardware readback device is used on Onyx4 -
The OpenGL windows served by OpenGL Vizserver might look somewhat brighter when
the SGC hardware readback device is used than when the software readback
path is used. This is a result of the SGC grabbing the frames after the
video output had passed the gamma correction phase, and on Onyx4 the default
gamma(6D) value is 1.7. you can change this behavior by setting the server's
gamma(6D) value to 1.
- Multi-Pipe sessions when the SGC hardware readback device is used on Onyx4 -
Use of the SGC hardware readback device requires that memory pages be
locked in the session process. There is a system limit on the amount of
memory pages that a non-privilged user can lock (2000 pages by default). This limit
can be reached in OpenGL Vizserver multi-pipe sessions, in which case a message "Could not mpin buffer..."
will be written in the server's SYSLOG and the session will fall back to using
software readback. If such case is encountered, the system administrator can
use the command "systune maxlkmem <pages>" to increase this limit (an amount of
1300 pages per pipe should suffice for the most extreme cases).
- Dynamic pipe allocation on InfinitePerformance graphics
system - Due to bug #847169 "gfxinit command fails on the
odyssey graphics", dynamic pipe allocation does not run
correctly on systems with InfinitePerformance graphics.
The workaround is to set the nvram variable console=d before
doing the pipe allocation.
- 864414 - On Solaris 2.7, some special key combinations (arrow
keys, ALT with a key) are not propogated correctly to the server.
- Solaris shared memory X connection - Better
performance may be achieved by using X shared memory transport.
This can be done by setting two environment variables
XSUNTRANSPORT and XSUNSMESIZE to shmem and
4096, respectively, in the shell window before launching
an OpenGL Vizserver client. This will set up a 4096K shared
memory buffer for all X calls.
- 894873 - Sometimes, on Solaris and Linux clients,
messages might be hidden below OpenGL Vizserver windows.
- 896274 - In rare occasions, on Windows client, while running a
session, the main OpenGL Vizserver window vanishes. This is harmless to the
ongoing session. Stopping the session causes the window to reappear.
- 865943 - Different X Window Managers have different features and special
key combinations. In general, the OpenGL Vizserver client should work correctly with most Window
Managers on the supported platforms. However, some Window Managers were tested to be
fully compliant with OpenGL Vizserver client:
- - IRIX - 4Dwm
- - Solaris - CDE
- - Linux - Metacity (Gnome), Kwin (KDE)
5.4 Application Support Issues
- Applications which use a shared arena:
The transparent interface of OpenGL Vizserver uses a shared arena
for its uses. This might decrease the size of shared arena available
for an application, not allowing it to run. If such a problem occurs,
the shared arena size limit in the server should be increased. Refer
to vsx(1) man page (SHARED MEMORY section) for details.
- MPSDK support:
In order to visual serve the destination pipe of an MPSDK
application, the MPSDK configuration file should leave the
corresponding 'display' field unspecified. The application will
then use the X display value which is set by OpenGL Vizserver into
the OpenGL Vizserver console, for this pipe. The source pipes
contributing to the MPSDK application must be managed by an Xsgi
server, and the name of this server must be specified as part of
the corresponding 'display' fields in the MPSDK configuration
file.
- Maya and Alias support:
859418 - Maya software and Alias software are currently not supported.
- Voxel Geo support:
877782 - The "Auto" rendering mode in Voxel Geo does not
swap the double buffered drawable correctly, thus disabling
an OpenGL Vizserver's capture operation when using the "spoiling on" and "spoiling off"
modes. OpenGL Vizserver operates correctly when using the "Box" style
rendering, or by setting the spoiling mode to "time-based".
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.
- User's manual pages: vizserver(1), vsx(1)
- Administrator's manual pages: vsserver(1m),
vsconfig(1m), vsreservation(1m),
vsadmin(1m), vsacct(1m), vsmonitor(1m)
- Developer's manual pages: the list is availabale in
/usr/share/catman/p_man/cat3/vizserver/ (on IRIX),
in /usr/man/man3 (on Solaris and Linux) and in
/usr/share/man/man3 (on Macintosh).
6.1.2 HTML Manual Pages
All the above mentioned manual pages can be viewed in HTML
versions on all platforms:
- User's: /usr/share/vizserver/doc/user (on IRIX,
Solaris, Linux and Macintosh) or <Installation
directory>\doc\user (on Windows).
- Administrator's: /usr/share/vizserver/doc/user (on
IRIX).
- Developer's: /usr/share/vizserver/doc/developer
(on IRIX, Solaris, Linux and Macintosh) or <Installation
directory>\doc\developer (on Windows).
6.1.3 User's Guide
A user's guide is available in HTML version on all platforms:
- IRIX: SGI OpenGL Vizserver User's Guide in SGI
EndUser Bookshelf of Infosearch(IRIX 6.5.17 or later) or of
Insight(IRIX 6.5.16 or before).
- Solaris: /opt/SGIvizsvr/usr/share/vizserver/books/user/html
- Linux: /usr/share/doc/vizserver/books/user/html
- Macintosh: /usr/share/vizserver/doc/books/user/html
- Windows: <Installation directory>\books\user\html
6.1.4 Administrator's Guide
An administrator's guide is available in HTML version
on server machines:
- IRIX: SGI OpenGL Vizserver Administrator's Guide in
SGI Administrative Bookshelf of Infosearch(IRIX 6.5.17 or
later) or of Insight(IRIX 6.5.16 or before).
- Linux: /usr/share/doc/vizserver/books/admin/html
6.2 Documentation Last-Minute Updates
N/A