ERROR : Compiling shaders requires a valid Display

Flame Flame Questions
1

I get this error when trying to compile a shader with

./shader_builder -m -x ~/glsl/shader.glsl

I get the same error in both the Flame 2020.2 & Flame 2021.1 directories.
One other person on the internet has had this problem.
You can guess who answered.

-Ted

2

Yes, you do need a GUI display (IE logged into KDE) to compile, you can’t do it if you’re just SSH’d into a shell for instance. For whatever reason shader_builder opens a tiny little window briefly so it needs an X environment.

If you’re trying to do this remote via SSH, if the workstation is sitting there logged into KDE as a user or even sitting at the login window, try doing:

env DISPLAY=:0 ./shader_builder -m -x ~/glsl/shader.glsl

and see if that works.

3

(I should also point out that if you’re trying to do this in the background on a system that someone else is using, you might annoy them as the little window pops up and steals focus briefly…)

4

I was on my Mac Pro at home, no SSH involved, but your fix seems to work anyway!
What does

that do?

5

env sets environment variables, in this case just one called DISPLAY set to :0 and then runs whatever’s after it in that environment, which, on Linux, tells a GUI app you’re wanting it to use display 0 which is your main monitor.

Why that works (or even means anything) on Mac, I’m not really sure! :smiley:

1 Like
6

if your having trouble and on a mac. You need this:
https://www.xquartz.org