Using a 3D proxy with VirtualGL and FastX

FastX can work as a proxy to connect and take care of 2D drawing while a separate server does the 3D rendering using VirtualGL (See VirtualGL section 9.2)

This is accomplished with the -d <display> command of vglrun

Setting up the VirtualGL server

VirtualGL requires access to an X Display for rendering.  Typically  DISPLAY :0 (the physical display) does not listen on TCP connections.  In this example we are using GDM as the Display Manager

  1. Log in as root
  2. Edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf
  3. In the [security] section, disable DisallowTCP 
    [security]
DisallowTCP=false
  4. Edit /etc/X0.hosts
  5. Add the hosts you will grant access to
    a single line + grants access to all
    See man xhost for more information
  6. Restart GDM  service gdm restart

Display :0 will now listen for TCP connections and be able to render remote VirtualGL traffic

Connecting using FastX

From the FastX Session, run

vglrun -d your.virtualglserver.com:0 --  opengl_application app_options app_arguments

For more information and options see the VirtualGL Documentation