From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)>
Subject: Re: Maxwell Standalone Renders on OSX
   Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:59:34 -0500
Msg# 1826
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Luke Cole wrote:
> We are experiencing a problem getting maxwell standalone renders  
> working successfully on osx.   The problem appears to be due to the  
> maxwell standalone renderer needing to open a graphical console  
> window to output logging information rather than writing to stdout.
> 
> Rush is configured to run apps on the osx machines under a dedicated  
> render user account, and if this user is not logged in to the osx  
> window server, the maxwell standalone "command line" client (mxcl)  
> fails with the following error, because the dedicated render user  
> does not have permission to access the window server:
> 
> _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to  
> the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.
> 
> Annoyingly, there appears to be no means of forcing mxcl to run in a  
> silent mode - it will always attempt to open a graphical console  
> window.   On our dedicated osx render nodes, this is not really an  
> issue, as we are able to leave these machines logged in under the  
> dedicated render user, and all is well.
> 
> We would like to be able to render on some of our high-end osx  
> workstations in the evenings however, and as these are usually left  
> logged in under artist user accounts, the jobs end up failing due to  
> the above error.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone might have any suggestions on how we could  
> work around this issue?

	I'd suggest opening a dialog with the Maxwell guys right away.
	GUIs make unattended/distributed rendering almost impossible.

	Best thing I can advise trying is making the executable
	setuid root, eg:

chown 0:0  /path/to/maxwell/executable
chmod 4755 /path/to/maxwell/executable

	..and see how that flies.

-- 
Greg Ercolano, erco@(email surpressed)
Seriss Corporation
Rush Render Queue, http://seriss.com/rush/
Tel: (Tel# suppressed)
Fax: (Tel# suppressed)
Cel: (Tel# suppressed)

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