pvpython offscreen rendering segfault

ParaView Support
1

Hi all,

I am trying to run pvpython in headless mode (--force-offscreen-rendering).
I followed this guide and configured ParaView with VTK_USE_X=ON and VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON.
Unfortunately, it segfaults on ubuntu 16.04:

#0  0x00007fffe5844ab8 in typeinfo for vtkXRenderWindowInteractor () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkRenderingOpenGL2-pv5.5.so.1
#1  0x00007fffe55dd205 in vtkXRenderWindowInteractor::Initialize() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkRenderingOpenGL2-pv5.5.so.1
#2  0x00007fffe5188f42 in vtkRenderWindow::Render() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkRenderingCore-pv5.5.so.1
#3  0x00007ffff024a917 in vtkPVRenderView::Render(bool, bool) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVClientServerCoreRendering-pv5.5.so.1
#4  0x00007ffff0242a0a in vtkPVRenderView::StillRender() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVClientServerCoreRendering-pv5.5.so.1
#5  0x00007ffff76700c0 in vtkPVRenderViewCommand(vtkClientServerInterpreter*, vtkObjectBase*, char const*, vtkClientServerStream const&, vtkClientServerStream&, void*) ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerManagerApplication-pv5.5.so.1
#6  0x00007fffec8812b9 in vtkClientServerInterpreter::CallCommandFunction(char const*, vtkObjectBase*, char const*, vtkClientServerStream const&, vtkClientServerStream&) ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#7  0x00007fffec881662 in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessCommandInvoke(vtkClientServerStream const&, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#8  0x00007fffec8821ee in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessOneMessage(vtkClientServerStream const&, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#9  0x00007fffec88244d in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessStream(vtkClientServerStream const&) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#10 0x00007ffff0811505 in vtkPVSessionCore::ExecuteStreamInternal(vtkClientServerStream const&, bool) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#11 0x00007ffff081132b in vtkPVSessionCore::ExecuteStream(unsigned int, vtkClientServerStream const&, bool) ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#12 0x00007ffff080fed5 in vtkPVSessionBase::ExecuteStream(unsigned int, vtkClientServerStream const&, bool) [clone .localalias.5] ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#13 0x00007ffff0d4ac8b in vtkSMViewProxy::StillRender() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerManagerRendering-pv5.5.so.1
#14 0x00007ffff2692ec0 in vtkSMAnimationScene::TickInternal(double, double, double) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVAnimation-pv5.5.so.1
#15 0x00007ffff56101ef in vtkAnimationCue::Tick(double, double, double) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkCommonCore-pv5.5.so.1
#16 0x00007ffff76dbe0d in vtkSMAnimationSceneCommand(vtkClientServerInterpreter*, vtkObjectBase*, char const*, vtkClientServerStream const&, vtkClientServerStream&, void*) ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerManagerApplication-pv5.5.so.1
#17 0x00007fffec8812b9 in vtkClientServerInterpreter::CallCommandFunction(char const*, vtkObjectBase*, char const*, vtkClientServerStream const&, vtkClientServerStream&) ()
   from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#18 0x00007fffec881662 in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessCommandInvoke(vtkClientServerStream const&, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#19 0x00007fffec8821ee in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessOneMessage(vtkClientServerStream const&, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#20 0x00007fffec88244d in vtkClientServerInterpreter::ProcessStream(vtkClientServerStream const&) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkClientServer-pv5.5.so.1
#21 0x00007ffff08317d6 in vtkSIProperty::ProcessMessage(vtkClientServerStream&) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#22 0x00007ffff082917c in vtkSIVectorPropertyTemplate<double, int>::Push(double*, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#23 0x00007ffff0829429 in vtkSIVectorPropertyTemplate<double, int>::Push(paraview_protobuf::Message*, int) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#24 0x00007ffff0836800 in vtkSIProxy::Push(paraview_protobuf::Message*) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#25 0x00007ffff0814a8d in vtkPVSessionCore::PushStateInternal(paraview_protobuf::Message*) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#26 0x00007ffff0810f4f in vtkPVSessionCore::PushState(paraview_protobuf::Message*) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#27 0x00007ffff080fe45 in vtkPVSessionBase::PushState(paraview_protobuf::Message*) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerImplementationCore-pv5.5.so.1
#28 0x00007ffff65aa53f in vtkSMProxy::UpdateVTKObjects() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVServerManagerCore-pv5.5.so.1
#29 0x00007ffff2694c4e in vtkSMAnimationSceneProxy::UpdateAnimationUsingDataTimeSteps() () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVAnimation-pv5.5.so.1
#30 0x00007fffcf3897c9 in PyvtkSMAnimationSceneProxy_UpdateAnimationUsingDataTimeSteps(_object*, _object*) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPVAnimationPython27D-pv5.5.so.1
#31 0x00007fffe1fd3772 in PyEval_EvalFrameEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#32 0x00007fffe210a05c in PyEval_EvalCodeEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#33 0x00007fffe1fd2f1d in PyEval_EvalFrameEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#34 0x00007fffe1fd3044 in PyEval_EvalFrameEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#35 0x00007fffe1fd3044 in PyEval_EvalFrameEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#36 0x00007fffe210a05c in PyEval_EvalCodeEx () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#37 0x00007fffe1fcbda9 in PyEval_EvalCode () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#38 0x00007fffe204609e in PyRun_FileExFlags () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#39 0x00007fffe20476e7 in PyRun_SimpleFileExFlags () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#40 0x00007fffe1ffced9 in Py_Main () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0
#41 0x00007ffff5b30d0d in vtkPythonInterpreter::PyMain(int, char**) () from /home/lukas/.bdm/third_party/paraview/lib/libvtkPythonInterpreter-pv5.5.so.1
#42 0x0000000000402380 in ParaViewPython::Run(int, int, char**) ()
#43 0x00007ffff4989830 in __libc_start_main (main=0x401ed0 <main>, argc=4, argv=0x7fffffffddd8, init=<optimized out>, fini=<optimized out>, rtld_fini=<optimized out>, stack_end=0x7fffffffddc8)
    at ../csu/libc-start.c:291
#44 0x0000000000401f39 in _start ()

I checked out ParaView v5.5.2 and cherry picked 931c779d to fix a Qt 5.11 compilation issue.

$>cmake \
  -DVTK_USE_X=ON \
  -DVTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="../paraview-install" \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING="Release" \
  -DPARAVIEW_ENABLE_PYTHON:BOOL=ON \
  -DPARAVIEW_ENABLE_MPI:BOOL=OFF \
  -DPARAVIEW_INSTALL_DEVELOPMENT_FILES:BOOL=ON \
   ../paraview

$>grep OSMESA CMakeCache.txt
OSMESA_INCLUDE_DIR:PATH=/usr/include
OSMESA_LIBRARY:FILEPATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libOSMesa.so
VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA:BOOL=ON
VTKm_ENABLE_OSMESA:BOOL=ON
//ADVANCED property for variable: OSMESA_INCLUDE_DIR
OSMESA_INCLUDE_DIR-ADVANCED:INTERNAL=1
//ADVANCED property for variable: OSMESA_LIBRARY
OSMESA_LIBRARY-ADVANCED:INTERNAL=1
//ADVANCED property for variable: VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA
VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA-ADVANCED:INTERNAL=1
//MODIFIED property for variable: VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA
VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA-MODIFIED:INTERNAL=ON
//MODIFIED property for variable: VTKm_ENABLE_OSMESA
VTKm_ENABLE_OSMESA-MODIFIED:INTERNAL=ON

Many thanks for your help!

Lukas

2

The documentation you linked has the following line:

  • If VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL or VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA is ON, the build supports headless rendering, otherwise VTK_USE_X must be ON and the build does not support headless, but can still support offscreen rendering.
    According to that you can do offscreen rendering with VTK_USE_X=ON, but it won’t be “headless” (i.e. you’ll need a display). For headless rendering you can use either EGL or OSMESA, but then VTK_USE_X must be OFF. EGL allows headless rendering with an NVidia GPU (assuming recent enough drivers), while OSMESA provides software rendering (in several flavors: llvm, swr).

Hope this helps,

Scott

3

Hey Scott,

Many thanks for your quick reply!
I interpreted the documentation differently:

If VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL or VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA is ON, the build supports headless rendering, otherwise VTK_USE_X must be ON and the build does not support headless, but can still support offscreen rendering.

If VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL=ON or VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON → headless support
otherwise (VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL=OFF and VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=OFF) → no headless support and VTK_USE_X must be turned on.

However, it does not exclude the case where VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON and VTK_USE_X=ON.

Further down it is mentioned that:

it’s possible to build ParaView with onscreen and headless support simultaneously

Is this a fault in the documentation?

Thanks again,
Lukas

4

Lukas https://discourse.paraview.org/u/lukas
https://discourse.paraview.org/u/lukas
June 28

Hey Scott,

Many thanks for your quick reply!
I interpreted the documentation differently:

If VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL or VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA is ON, the build supports
headless rendering, otherwise VTK_USE_X must be ON and the build does not
support headless, but can still support offscreen rendering.

If VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL=ON or VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON → headless support
otherwise (VTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL=OFF and VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=OFF) → no
headless support and VTK_USE_X must be turned on.

However, it does not exclude the case where VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA=ON and
VTK_USE_X=ON.

I guess that’s true, and according to the documentation, that specific
combination is possible, though I don’t have any experience building that
way. In that case it says that “all the OpenGL and OSMesa variables should
point to the Mesa libraries”. I think it would help if that were more
explicit, but maybe it’s enough to get you pointed in the right direction.

FWIW: If you have an NVidia GPU with at least driver version 384, I
recommend the EGL approach to headless rendering, Here are my build
options from a recent EGL build:

cmake
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/home/ubuntu/paraview
-DBUILD_TESTING:BOOL=OFF
-DPARAVIEW_BUILD_QT_GUI:BOOL=OFF
-DPARAVIEW_ENABLE_PYTHON:BOOL=ON
-DVTK_USE_X:BOOL=OFF
-DVTK_OPENGL_HAS_EGL:BOOL=ON
-DEGL_INCLUDE_DIR:PATH=/tmp/egl
-DEGL_LIBRARY:FILEPATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-384/libEGL.so
-DEGL_opengl_LIBRARY:FILEPATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-384/libOpenGL.so
…/src/

You have to download the EGL headers yourself probably, as described in
this older blog post about EGL:

https://blog.kitware.com/off-screen-rendering-through-the-native-platform-interface-egl/

Further down it is mentioned that:

it’s possible to build ParaView with onscreen and headless support
simultaneously

Is this a fault in the documentation?

Perhaps it could be more clear, as there are lots of combinations of
options. However, I’ll leave it to someone else to chime in on that aspect.

Cheers,
Scott

5

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your suggestion to use EGL. Unfortunately though, I don’t have a Nvidia GPU.

I need headless support to run tests on Travis-CI. I got it working using xvfb.
For those who are interested; before running pvpython execute:

export DISPLAY=:99.0
util/xvfb-initd.sh start

Here the script to start the xvfb server.

Also check out Travis’ documentation

Thanks and all the best,
Lukas