OO w/o X11

foge · Newbie Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 3

I would also like to run OO as a server daemon. However, I am constrained to a custom OS (based on unix) that does not include an X11 distribution. I've looked through the basic build documents, but it lists X11 as a requirement for building OO. I've done a web search for OO distributions w/o X11, but I couldn't find any.

Is it possible to build OO w/o using X11? If no custom distributions exist, would it be very difficult to modify the build to get it to work? Where would I start (other than grepping for all instances of "include.*X11")?

Thanks,
Kevin

DannyB · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:11 am Post subject:

On this custom OS would it be possible to use a real X server that just draws into a bitmap in memory? i.e. that does not use a real physical display?

What about VNC? The vncserver is just an X display that draws into a bitmap in memory. It has the additional property that you can connect to it using a remote VNC client if you wish to see what is drawn on the "display".
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Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left?

foge · Newbie Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 3

The problem is that the custom OS does not have any X support. It is designed to run on headless server boxes. When you log in to configure the box, you do it through a serial port or telnet/ssh. The idea of a X server that writes to a buffer is interesting, but I have a feeling that I'd have to port it to my OS. I'm going to investigate that angle a bit more.

I started sifting through the OO code. It looks like the X11 stuff is fairly isolated to two directories: dtrans/source/X11 and vcl/unx/source. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to snip that out of the build.

DannyB · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:15 am Post subject:

I was assuming exactly what you said that the machine has no hardware support for X, and is "headless". The serial terminal login you described clarifies this even more.

A "headless" X server is what I meant. Like VNC server. It doesn't use any hardware display. It just draws pixels in memory. It does do network operations to allow a remote VNC connection, and to allow X programs, such as OOo to connect and draw things onto the "display" in memory.

If the machine is very unix like, then maybe you can just compile the vnc server from source.

In fact, using this technique is a way for a headless server to have a full blown GUI with gui administration tools. (Not that this necessarily makes sense.)
_________________
Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left?

foge · Newbie Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 3

Ah, now I understand. For some reason I thought that the VNC software replaced just a particular X driver. I didn't realize it replaced X entirely. That does look very promising.

Thanks a lot for the help.

DannyB · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 6:24 am Post subject:

A list of command line options are here.

http://www.openoffice.org/files/documents/25/60/Command_line_arguments_in_OpenOffice.html

Note the -server, -invisible, and -headless options to the soffice command.

This is a different approach that could be much simpler without involving use of any X server.

As for the VNC / X approach. Divide and conquer. Break one large problem into multiple sub-problems that can be independantly solved, and *verified*.

First problem, getting X working. I would consider this a milestone. Second problem, getting OOo working.

Compile the VNC server.

Compile some trivial X program, like, say, xcalc. Or xeyes. Or some trivial X program.

Get things so that you can SSH/telnet in to the box, start vnc server, start xeyes or xcalc or something. Without logging out of your text console, from a gui machine (like from a Windows box) run a VNC remote viewer. Connect to your box and view the gui's pixels in memory. You should see xeyes or xcalc. You should be able to use the mouse to move the eyes around or operate the calculator.

Once you can do this, you have a working X server, even though the display is offscreen in memory somewhere. Any remote VNC viewer can view it, and provide mouse/keyboard input to it. Furthermore, the VNC server does also offer a web page that serves up a trivial page with a java applet that is a remote viewer. So you should be able to view the GUI using nothing but a java enabled web browser. But I would first use a remote VNC viewer before trying viewing with only a web browser.

Once you can do this, you should be able to run OOo without running it in -headless mode.
_________________
Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left?

Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 7:15 am Post subject:

Hi, DannyB

Unfortunately it seems that -headless still requires a running X server Crying or Very sad

. I tried to run it, but it returns an error indicating that the DISPLAY variable is not set.

Can't even get the command-line options - it just throws the error.

However, your VNC suggestion works perfectly in my case. I don't have Xvfb installed, so VNC should be able to do the trick. Cool

Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 6:45 pm Post subject:

So.... is it possible to run without X11 or not??
What does "-server/-headless/-invisible" do, exactly?

I've tried for hours to try and get a working solution without resorting to Xvfb.

DannyB · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:08 am Post subject:

It is definitely possible to run OOo using VNC as an X server so that everything is done off screen. An X server is required, but since VNC is the X server, it can all be done "in the background" without using an X server that displays something on the hardware monitor of the machine. See this....

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14448#14448
_________________
Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left?

AJesse · General User Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 13

DannyB · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:51 pm Post subject:

It is definitely possible to use Xvfp instead of vncserver.

On SuSE Linux 8.1, I did this.....