Gtk-WARNING when trying to install glassfishV2 on headless Ubuntu

curtisa · 10-17-2008, 01:07 PM

Hi,
I'm running some Ubuntu servers as clients on a host with VMWare server installed (all are Ubuntu 8.04) and I don't have any KDE, GOME etc installed. These are just meant to be headless servers.
When I try to install glassfish with the

Code:

java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2ur2-b04-linux.jar

command, I just get ..

Code:

(.:5768): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

Now I thought it should install in headless mode but I guess there's something it needs.
Can anyone help with what I need to do, without having to install all the GUI packages (I'd like to keep the installed packages down to the bare minimum if possible)

Many thanks,
Alex

arizonagroovejet · 10-19-2008, 11:58 AM

The error message indicates that the program is trying to open a window on an X display. If you don't have X running, that's why you get an error. You could try logging in to the server via ssh from a machine which is running X with X forwarding enabled and try running the program:

Code:

$ ssh -X user@host

curtisa · 10-20-2008, 01:10 AM

Fantastic - thanks very much. I ssh'd in from my macbook with -X and it's working. I never knew about this -X option and more importantly that it fixed that cryptic Gtk message.

Thanks again,
Alex

arizonagroovejet · 10-20-2008, 03:12 AM

The "cannot open display" message, or a very similarly worded variant on it, is fairly standard when an application attempts to open a display on an X server but cannot do so. E.g

Code:

mike@machine_a:~> ssh machine_b
Password:
mike@machine_b:~> xeyes
Error: Can't open display: