use a dummy display?

[webee]

I am calling an application as a background thread from inside a servlet(with a -nodisplay option) using the Runtime.exec() command. This application requires a valid DISPLAY environment variable even tho I do not use the DISPLAY option at all. The application has an option to specify an xdisplay during start up. Can I set this to a dummy (but valid, since DISPLAY=null doesnt work.) display?? I am relatively new to Linux, so any pointers on this is much appreciated.
thanks.

[Dolda2000]

Well, this is a bit dirty, but you could start an Xvfb server.

[webee]

Thanks. I will check this out.

[webee]

Hi: I finally did some reading and understood what Xfvb is all about.
I have a problem running it tho-

I found all the X windows programs under /usr/X11R6/bin including Xvfb.

This is how I started Xvfb on the command line after cd to the bin directory (as root)-
Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1x1x8 & and I get the following error -
**
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
**

From what I found on google, I understand that this means X11 has not been fully installed. Is that right? Does it mean that X11 has to be installed fresh or can I do something to just get Xvfb working? If its the former I should aproach our admin guys - but I would really prefer doing it myself(a linux newbie) if its not too complicated. Any pointers, suggestions?

Thanks.

[Dolda2000]

I don't know what exactly the problem is, but I do know that I can use Xvfb perfectly well.
I don't think that you have to ask the admin to fix it, just download the XFree86 source tree and compile it yourself and run your own copy of it, right?

[webee]

Hi: I got it working!
It gave me the error about the font, but the server had been started in the background. My application works fine with this.

Thanks so much for your help.


webee