Configure windows client for VGL Transport

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marcus

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Apr 18, 2019, 3:17:44 AM4/18/19
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Hi,

I'm new to VirtualGL and encounter a problem when configuring the windows client. In ver 2.6.1 doc, there is a step that I got stuck:

5. Add server to the CYGWIN system environment variable (create this environment variable if it doesn’t already exist)

 I'm not very familiar with cygwin so I'm wondering what the 'server' path is in this scenario. (I believe 'CYGWIN' variable refers to PATH and i could add it through 'export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/server')

Thank you!

DRC

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Apr 18, 2019, 11:08:07 AM4/18/19
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The CYGWIN environment variable is used to tweak the behavior of
Cygwin's Unix emulation layer. It has nothing to do with the PATH.
However, according to the documentation
(https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html), setting
CYGWIN=server is apparently no longer necessary. It was necessary at
one time in order to fully enable shared memory emulation.

marcus

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Apr 18, 2019, 7:20:25 PM4/18/19
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Thanks for the information! I see why this step is needed previously. Now I am able to continue and MIT-SHM does appear in the xdpyinfo output.

For the next part, connecting to the VirtualGL server, I tried to use the command:

/opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglconnect user@server

but vglconnect does not exist in that location. There's no /opt directory to start with. I'm only able to find vglconnect in ./cygdrive/c/Users/username/AppData/Local/Packages/MirrorName/LocalState/rootfs/opt/VirtualGL/bin/. Also running it gives me 

./vglconnect: line 111: ./vglclient: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error
[VGL] ERROR: vglclient failed to execute.

Did I install it wrong or is it something else? Thanks in advance!



Here is the output when I ran vglcygsetup script:
$ ./vglcygsetup 
Fetching setup.ini ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.3.3-20131014.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.3.90-20140717.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.4-20150126.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.4.1-20150612.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.4.90-20151027.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.5-20160215.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.5.1-20161001.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.5.2-20170302.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.5.90-20180425.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.6-20180824.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching x86_64/VirtualGL-2.6.1-20190101.tar.bz2 ...
Fetching Cygwin setup ...
Launching Cygwin setup ...
note: Hand installation over to elevated child process.
and I followed the setup window to install VirtualGL. 

DRC

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Apr 18, 2019, 7:30:55 PM4/18/19
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Are you running vglconnect inside of a Cygwin Bash shell? If not, then
please do so.

On 4/18/19 6:20 PM, marcus wrote:
> Thanks for the information! I see why this step is needed previously.
> Now I am able to continue and MIT-SHM does appear in the xdpyinfo output.
>
> For the next part, connecting to the VirtualGL server, I tried to use
> the command:
>
> /opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglconnect /user/@/server/
> <https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html>), setting
> CYGWIN=server is apparently no longer necessary.  It was necessary at
> one time in order to fully enable shared memory emulation.
>
> On 4/18/19 2:17 AM, marcus wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm new to VirtualGL and encounter a problem when configuring the
> > windows client. In ver 2.6.1 doc, there is a step that I got stuck:
> >
> >     5. Add |server| to the |CYGWIN| system environment variable
> (create
> >     this environment variable if it doesn’t already exist)
> >
> >
> >  I'm not very familiar with cygwin so I'm wondering what the 'server'
> > path is in this scenario. (I believe 'CYGWIN' variable refers to PATH
> > and i could add it through 'export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/server')
> >
> > Thank you!
>
> --
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DRC

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Apr 18, 2019, 7:32:02 PM4/18/19
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NOTE: You also need to run vglcygsetup from a Cygwin Bash shell, as the
User's Guide instructs.

On 4/18/19 6:20 PM, marcus wrote:
> Thanks for the information! I see why this step is needed previously.
> Now I am able to continue and MIT-SHM does appear in the xdpyinfo output.
>
> For the next part, connecting to the VirtualGL server, I tried to use
> the command:
>
> /opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglconnect /user/@/server/
> <https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html>), setting
> CYGWIN=server is apparently no longer necessary.  It was necessary at
> one time in order to fully enable shared memory emulation.
>
> On 4/18/19 2:17 AM, marcus wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm new to VirtualGL and encounter a problem when configuring the
> > windows client. In ver 2.6.1 doc, there is a step that I got stuck:
> >
> >     5. Add |server| to the |CYGWIN| system environment variable
> (create
> >     this environment variable if it doesn’t already exist)
> >
> >
> >  I'm not very familiar with cygwin so I'm wondering what the 'server'
> > path is in this scenario. (I believe 'CYGWIN' variable refers to PATH
> > and i could add it through 'export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/server')
> >
> > Thank you!
>
Message has been deleted

marcus

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Apr 18, 2019, 7:49:14 PM4/18/19
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Yes. My step for the setup:

Install cygwin.
In cygwin terminal:
download 'vglcygsetup' and run it to install VirtualGL package in the popup cygwin setup GUI
run 'cygserver-config'
In windows PowerShell:
run 'net start cygserver'
Close all windows 
Open a new cygwin terminal:
'xinit' to start cygwin/X server
in the popup xterm window:
'xdpyinfo' and made sure MIT-SHM appears
In a new cygwin terminal:
'vglconnect' and got error

DRC

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Apr 18, 2019, 7:57:06 PM4/18/19
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No idea. When I do the same thing, /opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglconnect exists.

On 4/18/19 6:45 PM, Yilin Zhu wrote:
> Yes. My step for the setup:
>
> Install cygwin.
> In cygwin terminal:
>
> download 'vglcygsetup' and run it to install VirtualGL package in
> the popup cygwin setup GUI
>
> run 'cygserver-config'
>
> In windows PowerShell:
>
> run 'net start cygserver'
>
> Close all windows 
> Open a new cygwin terminal:
>
> 'xinit' to start cygwin/X server
>
> in the popup xterm window:
>
> 'xdpyinfo' and made sure MIT-SHM appears
>
> In a new cygwin terminal:
>
> 'vglconnect' and got error
>
>
> <mailto:virtualgl-users%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > <mailto:virtualgl-use...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:virtualgl-users%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> > To view this discussion on the web visit
> >
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtualgl-users/e4b6b002-c270-408a-b41b-3a96b346232c%40googlegroups.com
> >
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtualgl-users/e4b6b002-c270-408a-b41b-3a96b346232c%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
> --
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> */
> /*
> */Yilin Zhu (Marcus)/*
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marcus

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Apr 18, 2019, 8:03:08 PM4/18/19
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Okay. I'll try to find out what else is wrong. Thank you very much for the help!
>     <mailto:virtualgl-users%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
>     > To view this discussion on the web visit
>     >
>     https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtualgl-users/e4b6b002-c270-408a-b41b-3a96b346232c%40googlegroups.com
>     >
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>     > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
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marcus

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Apr 19, 2019, 2:17:13 AM4/19/19
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Solved. When running vglcygsetup to install VirtualGL package, the setup is configured to install from Local Directory, so its dependencies were not found (libgl1,libglu...) so installation failed. I manually installed dependent packages from internet and virtualgl can be succesfully installed.

For vglconnect to work, I also need to install openssh so that cygwin will not use the default window ssh (from WSL).

Also, 'start xterm' refers to installing xinit pacakge and run 'startxwin' in cygwin bash.

Just put all the pieces and bits here so they would probably be useful for someone with the same question. Also, please consider updating the document to make it easier for us to install and use VirtualGL.

Thank you!


On Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 5:03:08 PM UTC-7, marcus wrote:
Okay. I'll try to find out what else is wrong. Thank you very much for the help!

On Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 4:57:06 PM UTC-7, DRC wrote:
No idea.  When I do the same thing, /opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglconnect exists.

DRC

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Apr 19, 2019, 11:58:32 AM4/19/19
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The document was accurate to the best of my knowledge. In order to
update it, I have to spend significant time reproducing the issues you
had and determining how universally applicable they are. I will try to
do so, but I can't promise anything. The VGL Transport is not a heavily
used feature these days.
> >     > <mailto:virtualgl-use...@googlegroups.com
> >     <mailto:virtualgl-users%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> >     > To view this discussion on the web visit
> >     >
> >    
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtualgl-users/e4b6b002-c270-408a-b41b-3a96b346232c%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtualgl-users/e4b6b002-c270-408a-b41b-3a96b346232c%40googlegroups.com>
>
> >     >
> >    
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>
> >     > For more options, visit
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> >
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> >
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> > /*
> > */Yilin Zhu (Marcus)/*
> >
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DRC

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May 10, 2019, 7:17:47 PM5/10/19
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Several notes:

- The 'xinit' step is not really necessary.  You should be able to start Cygwin/X using the Start Menu icon, and this is what I recommend.  Regardless, whereas the VGL User's Guide does stipulate that you should start Cygwin/X, the procedure for doing that belongs in the Cygwin documentation, not ours, since that procedure is not specific to VirtualGL.

- The VGL User's Guide already stipulates that vglconnect should be run from a Cygwin xterm: https://cdn.rawgit.com/VirtualGL/virtualgl/2.6.1/doc/index.html#hd005003

- The need to manually install the dependencies prior to running vglcygsetup is a legitimate problem, but vglcygsetup is admittedly a hack.  I think the best long-term solution is to publish a VirtualGL package using the official Cygwin package submission procedure.  However, I don't personally have the resources to do this, since I don't use the VGL Cygwin client (nor do any of my paying customers, to the best of my knowledge.)  Thus, I really need someone to volunteer to maintain that package.  I can modify our build system to generate the package using cygport, but someone will need to interface with the Cygwin developers to get that package published.
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