20000414: GEMPAK color allocation

Devin,

An easy solution for generating GIF images is to run a virtual X server
such as Xvfb. This acts as a screen to draw images to, without having to
have a user logged in, as well as solving the problem of color conflicts.

You can find details on Xvfb including configuration options from
the gempak support archives.

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support

On Fri, 14 Apr 2000, Devin Kramer wrote:

> Hey GEMPAK gurus!
> 
> This is something I have been trying to figure a way around for some
> time.  I run a couple of GEMPAK scripts on my web server that create GIF
> images for our weather pages.  One of these scripits is using sfmap to
> overlay surface data and Satellite imagery.  They all work fine as long
> as you dont have something like Netscape, IDL, or McIdas running at the
> same time in which case I get the dredded  errors:
> 
> [GEMPLT -46]  NCLRAL - Can not allocate read/write colors.
>  [GEMPLT -64]  NCBALOC  - Color bank not allocated.
> 
> All my surface maps and such work fine but no Sat images are generated
> b/c of the above errors.   I have avoided this for some time as nobody
> was actually using our web server as a workstation, but I would now like
> to use it to run a McIdas loop in our lab during the day.  However, when
> I fire up McIdas it means the end to my GEMPAK Satellite gif images.
> 
> Does anyone know of a good way around this problem?   On a related note
> I am still suffering from the  fact "someone has to be logged into the
> machine" in order for GEMPAK to create any gif images.  Has anyone found
> a workaround for this?
> 
> For the Record I am running GEMPAK v5.4 pl12 under Solaris 2.6 on an
> Ultra1.
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help!
> Devin Kramer
> 
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Programmer Analyst    Department of Atmospheric Science
> University of California Los Angeles
> PH:(310)825-2418 FAX:(310)206-5219
> http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/geninfo/comp/how_to.html
> --------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
>