Compiling without Qt to run a parallel server on a GPU cluster.

ParaView Support
1

Hello, experts and more experienced users.

I aim to get a server-client Paraview setup to work on our cluster, which has GPU nodes, so that the server makes use of GPUs in the nodes. The GPU nodes do not have a desktop environment, and no Qt, so I wish to enable offscreen rendering, with EGL. I have been following https://kitware.github.io/paraview-docs/latest/cxx/Offscreen.html to do so, but I keep running across several issues about which your input would be appreciated.

  1. Following the website’s direction, I tried to configure with cmake:

cmake VTK_USE_X=OFF VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL=ON Python3_LIBRARY=/trinity/opt/apps/software/python/Python-3.7.2/libpython3.7m.a Python3_INCLUDE_DIR=/trinity/opt/apps/software/python/Python-3.7.2/Include …/paraview

But somehow the Python variables or their values are not recognized:

– Could NOT find Python3 (missing: Python3_LIBRARY Python3_INCLUDE_DIR Development) (Required is at least version “3.2”)

From what happens in VTK/CMake/patches/3.13/FindPython3.cmake I do not really understand what header files and libraries it is looking for.

  1. I have also tried configuring with ccmake, and turned off all the Qt options, into:

BUILD_TESTING OFF
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Debug
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX /trinity/opt/apps/gtecton/paraviewEGL/paraview
PARAVIEW_BUILD_EXAMPLES ON
PARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI OFF
PARAVIEW_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_CATALYST ON
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_COMMANDLINE_TO ON
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_FFMPEG OFF
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_NVPIPE OFF
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_OPENTURNS OFF
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_PYTHON ON
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_QT_SUPPORT OFF
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_VISITBRIDGE OFF
PARAVIEW_ENABLE_XDMF3 OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Acceler ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_AdiosRe OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_AdiosRe OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Analyze OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_ArrowGl ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_CDIRead ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Digital ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Embossi ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_EyeDome ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_GmshRea OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_InSituE OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Moments ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_MooseXf ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_NetCDFT ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_NonOrth ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Panoram ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_SLACToo ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_StreamL ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Streami ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Surface ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_Thicken ON
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_VDFRead OFF
PARAVIEW_PLUGIN_ENABLE_pvNVIDI ON
PARAVIEW_PYTHON_VERSION 3
PARAVIEW_USE_MPI ON
PARAVIEW_USE_OSPRAY OFF
PARAVIEW_USE_VTKM OFF
VTK_GROUP_ENABLE_ParaViewCore YES
VTK_GROUP_ENABLE_ParaViewQt NO
VTK_GROUP_ENABLE_ParaViewRende YES
VTK_GROUP_ENABLE_Qt NO
VTK_PYTHON_VERSION 3
VTK_SMP_IMPLEMENTATION_TYPE OpenMP

But configuring with these options gives:

CMake Error at VTK/CMake/vtkModule.cmake:811 (message):
The ParaView::pqApplicationComponents module requires the disabled module
ParaView::pqComponents.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
CMakeLists.txt:519 (vtk_module_scan)

And I see no module pqComponents or anything looking like it in the ccmake list.

Moreover, CMakeLists.txt , line 282, says:

if (PARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI)
list(APPEND paraview_requested_modules
ParaView::Common
ParaView::ServerManagerApplication
ParaView::ServerManagerCore
ParaView::ServerManagerDefault
ParaView::pqApplicationComponents
ParaView::pqComponents
ParaView::pqCore)

So it seems that the option PARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI that I set to ‘OFF’ is not interpreted as such…

What I am doing wrong?

Thank you very much for your help!
Lukas

2

Hi Lukas,

Are you compiling master ?
If yes, there is a big overhaul ongoing and I would recommend starting over with ParaView 5.6.0 sources.
If no, which version are you using ?

3

Hi Mathieu,

I am compiling the code I got from
git clone https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview.git
following https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView:Build_And_Install#Download_ParaView_Source_Code

I got it to compile with default and Qt stuff in, just to see if everything else worked, and it showed to be version 5.6.0.

4

This would indeed give you master, which as I said, is undergoing a big overhaul.
I would recommend running the following command just after the git clone.

git checkout v5.6.0

5

The correct syntax to create or update a cmake cache entry is -D <var>:<type>=<value>, -D <var>=<value>

so your command line should look like:
cmake -DVTK_USE_X=OFF etc…

use -D in front of all options you want to pass to cmake

6

Thank you! With both your help combined I could cmake and make.

Not everything works yet. Still a `Server DISPLAY not accessible’, which the EGL should have fixed,

and an unexplained crash,ERROR: In [path]/Core/vtkSMSessionClient.cxx, line 792
vtkSMSessionClient (0x5cde680): Server failed to gather information.

and

ERROR: In [PATH]/System/vtkSocket.cxx, line 567
vtkClientSocket (0x403e000): Socket error in call to send. Broken pipe.

and some issues with fonts:

Fontconfig warning: “/etc/fonts/fonts.conf”, line 5: unknown element “description”
Fontconfig warning: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 4: unknown element “its:rules”
Fontconfig warning: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 5: unknown element “its:translateRule”
Fontconfig error: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 5: invalid attribute ‘translate’
Fontconfig error: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 5: invalid attribute ‘selector’
Fontconfig error: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 6: invalid attribute ‘xmlns:its’
Fontconfig error: “/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf”, line 6: invalid attribute ‘version’

Times many, beause Akira Tagoh commited something in fontsconfig without thinking about the consequences:

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/commit/?id=9a0fcb948fe7346f6c68028b2e54ab600a2a2a6f

but I will puzzle on these myself for a bit, here, and see if i can find the missing pieces. Maybe they are related. The many joys of running a server-client setup of anything is first getting the two to communicate without ripping each other to shreds. :wink:

Thanks again for you help :slight_smile: