fiji (graphical) remote access problem

[David Pirotte]

Hello,

I've just notice that trying to use fiji in a vnc client (vinagre in this case),
running a remote xfce4 session, buttons and their respective icons are visible,
but no text ... as you can see on the attached a screencopy.

Any hints?

Thanks,
David

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ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Curtis Rueden]

Hi David,

I was unable to replicate this problem using Ubuntu 18.04 with vncserver,
plus macOS's built-in VNC viewer. You may need to experiment with different
VNC server and client software and configurations to glean more information
about the conditions under which this problem occurs.

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden
Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 6:07 PM David Pirotte <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've just notice that trying to use fiji in a vnc client (vinagre in this
> case),
> running a remote xfce4 session, buttons and their respective icons are
> visible,
> but no text ... as you can see on the attached a screencopy.
>
> Any hints?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Sho Fujisawa]

This is common occurrence for us as well.
We use Win 7 computers and when we remote desktop, all the text and images go away. And data go away as well if you're running a macro. So we have to be careful not to remote in when a computer is running a macro.

I heard Win10 fixed the issue, but never tested it.


Sho Fujisawa
Senior Digital Microscopist
Molecular Cytology Core Facility
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
417 E68th St. ZRC-1840
New York, NY 10065
646-888-2186

-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis Rueden [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2019 4:31 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: fiji (graphical) remote access problem

Hi David,

I was unable to replicate this problem using Ubuntu 18.04 with vncserver, plus macOS's built-in VNC viewer. You may need to experiment with different VNC server and client software and configurations to glean more information about the conditions under which this problem occurs.

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 6:07 PM David Pirotte <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've just notice that trying to use fiji in a vnc client (vinagre in
> this case), running a remote xfce4 session, buttons and their
> respective icons are visible, but no text ... as you can see on the
> attached a screencopy.
>
> Any hints?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html



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[David Pirotte]

Hi Curtis,

> I was unable to replicate this problem using Ubuntu 18.04 with vncserver,
> plus macOS's built-in VNC viewer. You may need to experiment with different
> VNC server and client software and configurations to glean more information
> about the conditions under which this problem occurs.

Ok. Maybe this would confirm that this is a viewer problem, because on my side, both
the server and the client (my laptop) are running Debian buster (testing), and the
following software:

        Server side:
                vnc4server 4.1.1+X4.3.0+t-1 (on the server)

        [ I don't seem to have access to another vncserver, but I'll ask on
        [ #debian-next

        Client side:
                vinagre 3.22.0-6
                xtightvncviewer 1:1.3.9-9

        [ none of these let me see any fiji text (nor menu, nor warings, such the
        [ need to update my imagej/fiji version for example)

I also have access to another server, equipped with far more desktop options, and I
also tried LXDE, GNOME Classic, Openbox, and none are working (for fiji only, other
applications seems to be fine).

I am going to talk to the vinagre folks on #gnome, but in the mean time, if anyone
finds a solution wrt this, please let me know ...

Many thanks,
Regards,
David

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ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Curtis Rueden]

Hi David,

For what it's worth, I performed my test with tightvncserver, rather than
vnc4server. For window manager I was using xfce locally, and had trouble
launching another xfce during vncserver session initialization ("there is
an instance already running") so I just tested without any running window
manager. And the ImageJ text painted as expected in the client.

Other things you could try testing:

* Try plain ImageJ 1.x from https://imagej.net/ij/download.html
* Try tightnvcserver instead of vnc4server
* Write a couple of very simple Java UI apps using java.awt and javax.swing
and see if those also suffer from the issue

Sorry I can't be more helpful. It would be great if others who use Fiji
over VNC could do some more exploration and testing to gather more
information.

I filed an issue on GitHub to keep track of this problem and center future
discussion:
  https://github.com/fiji/fiji/issues/218

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden
Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 9:20 PM David Pirotte <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi Curtis,
>
> > I was unable to replicate this problem using Ubuntu 18.04 with vncserver,
> > plus macOS's built-in VNC viewer. You may need to experiment with
> different
> > VNC server and client software and configurations to glean more
> information
> > about the conditions under which this problem occurs.
>
> Ok. Maybe this would confirm that this is a viewer problem, because on my
> side, both
> the server and the client (my laptop) are running Debian buster (testing),
> and the
> following software:
>
>         Server side:
>                 vnc4server      4.1.1+X4.3.0+t-1        (on the server)
>
>         [ I don't seem to have access to another vncserver, but I'll ask on
>         [ #debian-next
>
>         Client side:
>                 vinagre         3.22.0-6
>                 xtightvncviewer 1:1.3.9-9
>
>         [ none of these let me see any fiji text (nor menu, nor warings,
> such the
>         [ need to update my imagej/fiji version for example)
>
> I also have access to another server, equipped with far more desktop
> options, and I
> also tried LXDE, GNOME Classic, Openbox, and none are working (for fiji
> only, other
> applications seems to be fine).
>
> I am going to talk to the vinagre folks on #gnome, but in the mean time,
> if anyone
> finds a solution wrt this, please let me know ...
>
> Many thanks,
> Regards,
> David
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

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[David Pirotte]

Hi Curtis,

> For what it's worth, I performed my test with tightvncserver, rather than
> vnc4server. For window manager I was using xfce locally, and had trouble
> launching another xfce during vncserver session initialization ("there is
> an instance already running") so I just tested without any running window
> manager. And the ImageJ text painted as expected in the client.

I guess it uses your built-in Mac app remote access rendering engine anyway,
and so I am not surprise, but thanks for the info.

> Other things you could try testing:

> * Try plain ImageJ 1.x from https://imagej.net/ij/download.html
> * Try tightnvcserver instead of vnc4server
> * Write a couple of very simple Java UI apps using java.awt and javax.swing
> and see if those also suffer from the issue

So far ) tried with tightvncserver, after I removed (purged) vnc4server, but just
'out of the box', with the exact vncserver config I used for vnc4server, I couldn't
connect (I can create the tunnel ssh successfully, but both xtightvnc (client) and
vinagre report a 'VNC server closed connection' and abort: I didn't try to solve
this (probably minor issue) yet.

> Sorry I can't be more helpful. It would be great if others who use Fiji
> over VNC could do some more exploration and testing to gather more
> information.

You have been very helpful: thanks to your answer (and you did take some of your
time to try ...), I know there is a configuration for which it works, which I can
report to the Gnome/Vinagre team.

> I filed an issue on GitHub to keep track of this problem and center future
> discussion:
>   https://github.com/fiji/fiji/issues/218

Ok,
Thanks again,
David

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[David Pirotte]

Hi Curtis,

> I filed an issue on GitHub to keep track of this problem and center future
> discussion:   https://github.com/fiji/fiji/issues/218

I don't use github, but I have two more facts to add to this vnc4server and/or
vnc client java GUI remote rendering problem:

1- same problem when using Win-10 and the latest RealVNC client;

2- it also happens when running Weka (outside fiji, just weka), two
        screenshots attached so you can see that none of the GUI elements are
        rendered, no frames, no buttons, no text

So, it is not a fiji/imagej problem, and maybe you'd like to close this issue.

Cheers,
David

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[David Pirotte]

Hi again,

> So, it is not a fiji/imagej problem, and maybe you'd like to close this issue.

The weird thing is that when using (remtely) fiji, it sometimes partially works!
Here is a session when that happened, while trying to track this down .... But if I
quit and start again, mot of the time the invite to update will also be totally
empty.

Cheers,
David

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