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-   -   [OpenFOAM] OpenFoam (Ubuntu): paraFoam via Xming+PuTTY (https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/paraview/111928-openfoam-ubuntu-parafoam-via-xming-putty.html)

raketenmaid January 18, 2013 05:07

OpenFoam (Ubuntu): paraFoam via Xming+PuTTY
 
After months of trial and error we have found a way to use paraFoam on our workstation (using Ubuntu).

I usually log on to the machine via Exceed but which is unable to process 3D graphics. So paraFoam could not be launched.

What we do now is to start an x-server via xming and then I connect to the workstation via PuTTY which opens a terminal by which I can use paraFoam successfully.

However, when I have paraFoam running I can no longer enter commands to the terminal and I would have to open another connection to the workstation in parallel - which is anything but convenient.

But what is even worse: When I want to close paraFoam I can only do so by closing it completely by which I also close the x-server it seems. Now if I want to relaunch paraFoam it does not work and I have to disconnect from the workstation, relaunch the x-server and reconnect to the workstation.

This is really awkward to work like this. So I highly would appreciate if somebody could help me by showing me how I can avoid to shut down the x-server by closing paraFoam or how to keep it running anyway.

PS: I am a neophyte with OpenFoam and I am not a workstation expert either.

wyldckat January 18, 2013 05:56

Greetings raketenmaid and welcome to the forum!

My brief experiments with Xming indicated that it's not a very stable system. Nonetheless, it does have some functionality that can be good enough for some cases.

As for your case, you can run any application in Linux as a job. For example, you can make paraFoam start as a background job like this:
Code:

paraFoam &
For more about this, search online for:
Quote:

linux shell jobs
As for ParaView not wanting to exit... could you describe the steps you take and what happens exactly? Perhaps with an image showing how things stop!?

Best regards,
Bruno

raketenmaid January 18, 2013 06:24

First thanks, Bruno, for your advice.

As for paraFoam: When I want to close it I either click on the X on the upper right corner of the paraFoam window or use the exit option via the menu of paraFoam. It closes as expected but when I restart paraFoam via the terminal I just get the splash screen (that little colourful square that appears when paraFoam starts up and that disappears as soon as the window with paraFoam opens). And that's where it sticks.

No error message or such. I have to close PuTTY violently to close down everything and then I have sometimes to explicitely close xming (via the task bar). In order to run it again I have to restart xming and PuTTY.

raketenmaid February 4, 2013 13:22

It seems that I have a solution now to my problem:

I start from putty an xterm in the background from which I can launch (also in the background) paraFoam which allows me to close and open the paraFoam window as often as I like without crashes.

wyldckat February 5, 2013 06:20

Many thanks for sharing your solution!

I've been keeping this thread on my to-do list, but I didn't manage to look into this sooner.


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