Running a GUI program with no X?

Greenstuff · 2009-11-03 06:33:49

Hi,
I want to run a GUI program on my server, which has no X installed. Of course, the program would normally not run since it needs X (GUI only). I don't really need to be directly using this software, it just needs to run. Anybody here knows if there is any way to fool it into thinking X is there, so it'll still run on my server, preferably as a service in the background?

PS
I probably need the same thing for sound too, no alsa or pulse either.

Any help's appriciated.

Lich · 2009-11-03 07:05:41

You can't fool it to think X is running. It will try to draw it's window and will fail, since it actually needs a running X to draw the widgets. Unless the application has an option to be ran as a daemon or something, you're out of luck.

Ranguvar · 2009-11-03 12:17:19

I have no clue what I'm talking about, but maybe this would be helpful?

Trent · 2009-11-03 14:02:33

What program is this? If it can run as a daemon, you should be able to trigger that mode from the command line somehow so that it won't try to start the GUI. If not... why are you using it?

sctincman · 2009-11-03 15:48:39

I remember there being a curses backend for GTK. That might be what you're looking for.

Stalafin · 2009-11-03 17:30:58

Greenstuff wrote:

Hi,
I want to run a GUI program on my server, which has no X installed. Of course, the program would normally not run since it needs X (GUI only). I don't really need to be directly using this software, it just needs to run. Anybody here knows if there is any way to fool it into thinking X is there, so it'll still run on my server, preferably as a service in the background?
PS
I probably need the same thing for sound too, no alsa or pulse either.
Any help's appriciated.

Wut? You want to output sound without anything that is able to output sound? Is it me or is that just plain weird....? o.O

ataraxia · 2009-11-03 19:15:26

Xvfb (a "fake X server") is made for this kind of thing. There's a script "xvfb-run" in the xorg-server package that makes it easy. Note that you still have to install the X server to get Xvfb.

Greenstuff · 2009-11-03 21:22:34

I probably owe you guys an explanetion: The program in question is Skype. I'm sick and tierd of having skype steal recources when all my other IMing is done in bitlbee. That's why I came up with the following solution: I've done some reading, and turns out skype has a bitlbee plugin.

However, that plugin uses the skype API which means I can't get around having skype. So, I decided to try the following setup: Run a bitlbee server from my home server. Have skype sorta just run in there doing nothing, and use the bitlebee plugin so I can connect with my own computer and use skype with bitlbee (Note: this is so I can chat with friends, not so I can video / audio chat so I don't care about those features). Basicly that was my idea and i'm exploring the posibility. Skype sadly has no deamon mode, but it does offer a shell pipe login so I'll start skype in my server, and do that setup. Of course now that I see i'll need to install x no matter what i'm not sure if it's worth it. I don't need X on my server for any other purpuse and X will steal recources from my server. I do however love not needing a skype client nativly. Anyone has any experiance / ideas / advice about my idea?

Stalafin wrote:

Greenstuff wrote:
Hi,
I want to run a GUI program on my server, which has no X installed. Of course, the program would normally not run since it needs X (GUI only). I don't really need to be directly using this software, it just needs to run. Anybody here knows if there is any way to fool it into thinking X is there, so it'll still run on my server, preferably as a service in the background?
PS
I probably need the same thing for sound too, no alsa or pulse either.
Any help's appriciated.
Wut? You want to output sound without anything that is able to output sound? Is it me or is that just plain weird....? o.O

I realize it sounds comfusing but Skype needs somewhere to dump sound apperantly (I found that out on my resharch). So I need a way to fool it into thinking there's such a device.

Last edited by Greenstuff (2009-11-03 21:24:29)

Anikom15 · 2009-11-03 23:08:53

Something that accomplishes it would probably as much a pain as using X.

Greenstuff · 2009-11-04 07:44:07

Yes that's what I figured too. Why must my friends use Skype?

Anyways thanks for the insight. Of course if someone can prove us wrong it'll be great so speak up people.

Last edited by Greenstuff (2009-11-04 07:45:03)

Zeist · 2009-11-04 07:51:01

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=83856

If you have the time to wait you will most likely eventually get a working console version.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-03 06:33:49

Running a GUI program with no X?

#2 2009-11-03 07:05:41

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#3 2009-11-03 12:17:19

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#4 2009-11-03 14:02:33

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#5 2009-11-03 15:48:39

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#6 2009-11-03 17:30:58

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#7 2009-11-03 19:15:26

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#8 2009-11-03 21:22:34

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#9 2009-11-03 23:08:53

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#10 2009-11-04 07:44:07

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

#11 2009-11-04 07:51:01

Re: Running a GUI program with no X?

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