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I'm trying to run Binvox (http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~min/binvox/) via web server, on an Amazon EC2 server with Nvidia GRID K520 GPU and running Ubuntu 14.04. I'm using the system(binvox, $ret) function call in my PHP script. However, Binvox uses an X11 window to display its processing, and thus fails to run.

According to the documentation, the -pb option should make it work on a headless server, however, that did not work for me. I tried using Xvfb to run it but I get the following error:

Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":99". freeglut (./binvox): OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display ':99'

Note that applications like firefox and xclock work fine with Xvfb, but I get a similar error with glxinfo. I tried the suggestions/solutions given here on stackoverflow and here on askubuntu, but it did not work for me. I'm not sure where should I start looking to fix it.

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  • Did you try its -pb option?
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Sep 13, 2014 at 13:07
  • @MichaelHampton, yes I did; but it still did not work for want of a display. With Xvfb, I was able to run other applications like firefox and xclock, however while running binvox, I get the following error: Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":99". freeglut (./binvox): OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display ':99'. I get a similar error with glxinfo, so it's probably some error in my setup; I am trying to find it and fix it first.
    – foriequals0
    Commented Sep 13, 2014 at 16:55
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    Please edit the question to say Xvfb doen not work for you - otherwisw it would be a duplicate.
    – Volker Siegel
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 0:14

1 Answer 1

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This is made possible by installing Xvfb (X virtual frame buffer apt-get install xvfb) and specifying the DISPLAY variable.

Xvfb :25 -screen 0 1900x1080x32 &
export DISPLAY=:25
binvox [WHATEVER OPTIONS AND SWITCHES YOU WANT TO PASS TO binvox] &

Hat tip to @Gilles' answer to this U&L Q&A titled: How can I run Firefox on Linux headlessly (i.e. without requiring libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0)?.

Some more information is available here in this articled titled: Running Selenium Headless.

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