Xvfb not working on Red Hat Linux

headlessx11

I'm trying to get an X server going on a headless box and I'm using Xvfb.

Invocation:

 Xvfb -fbdir . &

Result

_XSERVTransmkdir: Owner of /tmp/.X11-unix should be set to root
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!

Message when quitting:

FreeFontPath: FPE "built-ins" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.

Core Problem:

Attempting to run the headless Java test(I have another program that I'm actually trying to run, but this sample code reproduces the error) at http://www.j2ee.me/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/headless/ gets me this error:

(.:31027): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

Best Answer

I know this sounds dumb, but did you try chown root:root /tmp/.X11-unix to address that first warning when starting up?

Also, I think you're not using the appropriate DISPLAY variable when launching your program. Try Xvfb -display :1, then DISPLAY=:1 ./yourprogram and see if that works.

If display :1 is taken, try :2, etc.

Alternatively, you could consider VNC as it serves roughly the same purpose.

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