[Rd] X11() dies in remote background

[Vincent Carey 525-2265]

> Vincent Carey 525-2265 <stvjc at channing.harvard.edu> writes:
>
> > this is not a problem with R but a request for related advice.
> >
> > i am trying to run a lengthy batch job from my home.
> >
> > the OS is ...
> > Linux jedi.bwh.harvard.edu 2.4.22-openmosix1smp #1 SMP Fri Sep 5 01:05:37 CEST
> > 2003 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
> >
> > i start the job and put it in the background.  while i am connected, all is
> > well.  eventually my ISP shuts down the connection if i do not do any
> > input.
>
> One thing you might try is using screen.  The screen program lets you
> multiplex terminals in a single window, but the feature you want here
> is that it allows you to detach and reattach to a session.  So you
> could start a screen session at work or home, start something running,
> detach, and then come back later and attach to see how things are going.
>
> However, screen may further complicate your desire to use X11(), but
> perhaps with Xvfb run from the screen session things will work.  Do
> all of the graphics devices require access to X11()?  I thought you
> could use pdf() for example, without X11() but I'm not certain.

it looks like pdf() would work.  but ... qcBeadLevel runs png() ...
and the ultimate desire seems to be to have images that will load
nicely in a browser in html.  admittedly i could hack qcBeadLevel
to run pdf and then imagemagick the results into png.

so far it looks like Xvfb will do the trick if i can authenticate
properly.  and so far, that is out of my hands.

it seems i can get the ISP to refrain from timing me out if i
print to screen from the process with some frequency.  but i don't know if
that will work indefinitely