NVIZ fails to start

[ewcgrass]

NVIZ fails to start in any of the four GRASS versions on my computer. Running Fedora 10, kernel 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686. I have GRASS-6.2.0 (compiled by me), GRASS-6.2.3 (compiled by me), GRASS-6.4.0-RC3 (compiled by me) and GRASS-6.3.0-6.fc10 (installed from repository). All were compiled/installed on 29 January 2009 with the OS updated as at that date, using defaults for compiling. NVIZ in GRASS-6.0.2, GRASS-6.2.3 and GRASS-6.4.0-RC1 ran fine in Fedora Core 5 back in December 2008 and/or early January 2009. I upgraded from FC-5 to Fedora 10 (clean OS install) on 26 January 2009. NVIZ failure to start noticed today, with all available updates and bug fixes as at 3:00 pm Atlantic Time on 03 March 2009.

When running GRASS-6.2.0 and GRASS-6.2.3 by clicking the icon on the display window, NVIZ stops at the tiny grey NVIZ screen plus tiny black screen with red "please wait" (both stay up until I close the tiny windows). Running NVIZ from the command line I get the following messages for GRASS-6.2.0 and GRASS-6.2.3 respectively:

--snip-- Loading data translating colors from fp Update elev null mask Loading data --snip--

and

--snip-- ading data Update elev null mask Loading data translating colors from fp --snip--

When running NVIZ from GRASS-6.3.0-6.fc10 or from GRASS-6.4.0-RC3 by clicking the display icons, the tiny NVIZ windows quickly flash on and off.

When trying to run NVIZ from the pull-down menu in GRASS-6.3.0 I get this error:

--snip-- nviz elevation=Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links Loading Data

translating colors from fp

Update elev null mask Loading Data

Error in startup script: could not create rendering context

while executing

"togl .middle.draw.canvas -rgba true -double true -depth true"

(procedure "Nv_makeGUI" line 56) invoked from within

"Nv_makeGUI .top"

(file "/usr/lib/grass-6.3.0/etc/nviz2.2/scripts/nviz2.2_script" line 1045)

--snip--

When trying to run NVIZ from the pull-down menu in GRASS-6.4.0-RC3 (either from tcltk or the wxpython GUI) I get this error:

--snip-- nviz elevation=Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Translating colors from raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Error in startup script: could not create rendering context

while executing

"togl $Nv_(TOP).canvas -rgba true -double true -depth true"

(procedure "Nv_makeGUI" line 56) invoked from within

"Nv_makeGUI $Nv_(AREA)"

(file "/usr/local/grass-6.4.0RC3/etc/nviz2.2/scripts/nviz2.2_script" line 1052)

--snip--

I have also run NVIZ in earlier versions of GRASS on Fedora Core 5 and FC-2 machines, as well as as on Red Hat 7 and 9 machines, all with success. The error messages above seem to suggest script issues (??), unless there is a call somewhere that is Fedora 10 specific? One of the bug upgrades applied via Fedora repository today was to tk libraries. Can't tell whether this is the cause of the problem, however, as I have not run NVIZ since upgrading to Fedora 10 in January.

Hope this information is useful. Beyond this, I'm at a loss, and cannot think of anything else to add.

Regards, Rick

P.S. Grass Team, you have done and continue to do a wonderful job :-)

[cmbarton]

There have been a lot of bug fixes and improvements to nviz between GRASS 6.2 and 6.4. Could you try nviz with just 6.4 and report what the problems are? Also, what version of TclTk do you have?

Michael

[ewcgrass]

I replied to you directly by email and now realize I should have replied here. I'm pasting that email below.

I'm running linux kernel 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686, tcl-8.5.3-1.fc10, and tk-8.5.3-5.fc10 (which was upgraded from repo just last week). Using a small raster file that did open in NVIZ before in an earlier grass-6.4.0svn and/or RC1 (? sorry, can't remember which) and in earlier versions of grass, prior to upgrading from FC-5 to Fedora-10.

I have this morning tried the following four things:

1) From grass-6.4.0svn-07-03-2009 (generic file using installer), I get nothing when clicking on display NVIZ button, and when bringing NVIZ startup gui from drop-down menu, I get a pop-up window with message "chile process exited abnormally". When I click OK, a small grey "dialog0" window opens, but nothing else.

2) Using grass-6.4.0-RC3, when clicking display NVIZ button, a small grey NVIZ window and a small window with "please wait" in quickly flash, then nothing. When I bring NVIZ startup gui from drop-down menu, I get the following message in the output-gis.m window"

--snip-- nviz elevation=Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Translating colors from raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>...

Error in startup script: could not create rendering context

while executing

"togl $Nv_(TOP).canvas -rgba true -double true -depth true"

(procedure "Nv_makeGUI" line 56) invoked from within

"Nv_makeGUI $Nv_(AREA)"

(file "/usr/local/grass-6.4.0RC3/etc/nviz2.2/scripts/nviz2.2_script"

line 1052) --snip--

3) From grass-6.4.0-RC3 using wxpython gui, from nviz startup gui I get from drop down menu, I get the following error message:

--snip-- Mon Mar 9 10:59:10 2009) nviz elevation=Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>... Loading raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>... Translating colors from raster map <Site_plan_elevation3@Ocean_Links>... Error in startup script: could not create rendering context

while executing

"togl $Nv_(TOP).canvas -rgba true -double true -depth true"

(procedure "Nv_makeGUI" line 56) invoked from within

"Nv_makeGUI $Nv_(AREA)"

(file "/usr/local/grass-6.4.0RC3/etc/nviz2.2/scripts/nvi

z2.2_script" line 1052) (Mon Mar 9 10:59:12 2009) Command finished (1 sec) --snip--

4) From grass-6.4.0snv-07-03-2009 using wxpython gui, from nviz startup gui I get from drop down menu, I get the following error message:

--snip-- /usr/local/grass6.4.0svn-i686-pc-linux-gnu-07_03_2009/etc/nviz2.2/nviz: error while loading shared libraries: libtk8.4.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory --snip--

It appears that the latest snv is looking for an older tk, and obviously libtk8.4.so is not present.

One more thing I have noticed since making the upgrade to tk.i386 8.5.3-5.fc10 late last week, is the lower half of the GIS Manager window redraws much more slowly than before, particularly when selecting a vector layer. This may be a tk thing related to the NVIZ problem?

I could try to undo the upgrade, if that does not cause too many dependency problems, and if the upgraded tk version is not planned to be a permanent one for Fedora and/or other linux distros. Please advise.

Regards, Rick

[marisn]

First - if You upgraded Tcl/Tk, You also need to recompile GRASS (nviz).

Second - as Tcl/Tk UI development has stopped, it's not up to date with new 8.5 features/changes. Some things may not work as expected or not work at all. I strongly suggest to stick with 8.4 Tcl/Tk releases, as they got most of testing and bugfixing.

[mmetz]

Replying to marisn:

as Tcl/Tk UI development has stopped, it's not up to date with new 8.5 features/changes. Some things may not work as expected or not work at all. I strongly suggest to stick with 8.4 Tcl/Tk releases, as they got most of testing and bugfixing.

It works fine for me, using Fedora 10 with tcl/tk 8.5.3. After such an upgrade (FC5 to Fedora 10), pretty much all programs you compiled yourself need to be newly configured and compiled (make distclean, configure, make, optionally make install).

[cmbarton]

Please test nviz on a GRASS standard dataset, like Spearfish or North Carolina. That way we can tell if it is the program or how your data interacts with the program.

BTW, I'm using TclTk 8.5 with no problem.

Michael

[ewcgrass]

All current versions of grass were compiled and installed after doing a clean upgrade from FC5 to Fedora-10 (i.e. drive partition with grass installation directories were reformatted). I'm thinking that if it's tcl/tk related, then the relative change in redraw time for the lower part of the GIS-manager that I noticed after the tk upgrade leads me to believe the bug-fix upgrade from tk-8.5.3-4 to tk-8.5.3-5 may have broken things ... might this be so? The trouble is, I don't recall needing to run NVIZ after upgrading to Fedora 10 but before tk-8.5.3-5, so I have nothing to compare to other than what I'm used to running FC-5.

I just now reinstalled grass-6.3.0 using yum and ran my files and also spearfish elevation.dem, both with same disappointing results.

The following is the error message I get when trying to run NVIZ from gui from drop-down menu in grass-6.4.0-RC3 and spearfish elevation.dem.

--snip-- Loading raster map <elevation.dem@PERMANENT>...

Loading raster map <elevation.dem@PERMANENT>...

Translating colors from raster map <elevation.dem@PERMANENT>...

Error in startup script: could not create rendering context

while executing

"togl $Nv_(TOP).canvas -rgba true -double true -depth true"

(procedure "Nv_makeGUI" line 56) invoked from within

"Nv_makeGUI $Nv_(AREA)"

(file "/usr/local/grass-6.4.0RC3/etc/nviz2.2/scripts/nviz2.2_script" line 1052)

--snip--

I don't expect that I should have to recompile grass 6.2.0, 6.2.3 and 6.4.0-RC3 after doing a minor upgrade from tk-8.5.3-4 to tk-8.5.3-5, but I guess one never knows for sure without trying. I need to leave for a couple of hours but when I return (and checking here first), I will remove, compile, and reinstall all versions of grass and report my findings using both my files and spearfish.

[ewcgrass]

Here's the latest:

I recompiled and ran grass-6.4.0-RC3 using tk-8.5.3-5 ... same problem and same error message as before. Thinking it best to look forward, I did not bother recompiling earlier versions of grass.

I manually replaced tk-8.5.3-5 files with tk-8.5.3-4 files (the default files on the original Fedora 10 distro DVD) and ran all versions of grass (6.2.0, 6.2.3, 6.3.0, 6.4.0-RC3) ... same problem and same error messages as before. So tk-8.5.3-5 alone does not appear to be the culprit. That officially puts me at a loss.

Curious: Michael, what version of tk are you running?

[mmetz]

Replying to ewcgrass:

I don't expect that I should have to recompile grass 6.2.0, 6.2.3 and 6.4.0-RC3 after doing a minor upgrade from tk-8.5.3-4 to tk-8.5.3-5, but I guess one never knows for sure without trying. I need to leave for a couple of hours but when I return (and checking here first), I will remove, compile, and reinstall all versions of grass and report my findings using both my files and spearfish.

I agree, at least I didn't have to do that on my Fedora 10 installation. You said you installed grass-6.3.0 from repository, everything else you compiled yourself. At the moment I guess that grass-6.4.0RC3 is the version of choice for production work. Can you remove grass-6.3.0, sudo ldconfig and try nviz with 6.4 again? The idea is that there may be a conflict between grass libraries, and that the grass-6.3.0 libraries are somewhere in a system-wide location. Hopefully this removal doesn't mess up the gdal installation. This is a wild guess, if this doesn't work, you must hope for some help from someone knowing nviz and its tcl/tk usage. All I can say is that it works on my Fedora 10 installation, and that I don't use grass versions from the repository, instead sandbox versions of 6.4, 6.5 and 7, all work fine.

[cmbarton]

I've got TclTk 8.5.5 installed with the dependencies from William Kyngesburye's Mac frameworks. These are very up-to-date. You may have an openGL issue if NVIZ is not working right.

Michael

[ewcgrass]

Thanks Michael, an openGL issue was the cause. I tried a few other applications that require openGL and found that that the problem appears to be related to nvidia graphic card drivers after applying recent Fedora upgrades (within the last week, but I unfortunately did not keep track on which).

I suggest the following caveat for Fedora 10 users who run nvidia video card drivers. It appears that a recent Fedora upgrade breaks nvidia drivers for at least two legacy cards (GeForce4, GeForceFX5xxx are the ones that I've tested). Applications needing 3D acceleration either don't work, or cause X to restart! Results for applications that need 3D without acceleration vary; NVIZ will not run, but IBM's openDX does. A temporary fix is to remove (rename) the xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 to allow X to revert to using the default (non-accelerated) video driver (nv in my case I presume). Now NVIZ runs fine (including redraw rate for lower half of GIS-manager), but my son will be disappointed to learn that google-earth and tux racer no longer do. Lets hope Fedora fixes this soon so I can keep my sanity as a parent!

Thanks again Michael. In light of your greater experience on these matters, I will let you decide whether this issue should be closed as resolved and how so. In the mean time, I will post this issue on the nvidia forum and I will test with nvidia drivers from time to time following future upgrades to see if Fedora fixes this, and report back (do so here?) if/when they do.

[cmbarton]

Glad that you were able to work out the source of the problem. Closing this ticket.

Michael