[AG-TECH] Starting VIC without a GUI

[Christoph Willing]

On 02/03/2007, at 10:35 AM, Piers O'Hanlon wrote:

> Hi Sam,
>
> On 01/03/07, Sam Gundry <sgundry at vpac.org> wrote: Arh, okay. Thanks  
> guys, I've had a look through numerous docs but
> couldn't find anything. I thought I'd read somewhere that there was  
> such
> a command...
>
> Unfortunately, as mentioned, it isn't currently possible to run vic  
> without an interface as the tcl GUI is integral to the tool. One  
> solution, if you for example you have a headless UNIX machine,  
> would be to point the DISPLAY at a vncserver (a virtual X11 server)  
> - that way you don't have the GUI showing up anywhere and vic just  
> runs - though you'd need to set it up to transmit on startup. You  
> could remotely access the GUI using a vnclient.
>


Along similar lines, you could also run vic in a virtual frame buffer  
version of X (Xvfb). Using Xen or some other machine virtualisation  
system, this technique can be used to have a "separate" capture  
machine along with a display machine both in the same physical box.  
For an example implementation, see http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/ 
research/accessgrid/software/xenag/). These days, Linux KVM (kernel  
virtual machine, not keyboard/video/mouse) is probably a better way  
to do the machine virtualisation. I believe you need kernel 2.6.20 to  
do KVM without patches (and supported cpu).


chris



> Robert Olson wrote:
> > That's correct, unlike rat which is split explicitly into audio- 
> engine,
> > controller, and UI components, vic is a monolithic app that has  
> the GUI
> > stuff wrapped up at a fairly fundamental level.
> >
> > --bob
> >
> > On Mar 1, 2007, at 7:44 AM, Derek Piper wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>     That should be:
> >>
> >> vic -t ttl address/port
> >>
> >> e.g.
> >>
> >> vic -t 127 233.2.171.246/59966
> >>
> >>     .. and that just starts VIC with those network settings, it
> >> doesn't hide the GUI. As far as I know there are no such arguments
> >> that do that.
> >>
> >>     Derek
> >>
> >> Mike Daley wrote:
> >>> Hi Sam
> >>> the command line is
> >>> vic -ttl address port
> >>> i.e
> >>> vic -127 233.2.171.246/59966
> >>> Mike
> >>> Sam Gundry wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> Does VIC have a command-line argument to start without it's GUI?
> >>>>
> >>>> Regards,
> >>>> Sam
> >>
> >> --Derek Piper - dcpiper at indiana.edu - (812) 856 0111
> >> IRI 323, School of Informatics
> >> Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
> >>
> >
>
>
> --
> Centre for Computational Prototyping
> Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing
> www.vpac.org
>
>

Christoph Willing                       +61 7 3365 8350
QCIF Access Grid Manager
University of Queensland