[X2Go-User] X2Go Windows Client on Windows 8

[James M. Pulver]

We just get the Windows pop-up saying the program VcXsrv failed to start. No mention of a log file. This is with the version you linked me...

--
James Pulver
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael DePaulo [mailto:mikedep333 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2014 9:25 AM
To: James M. Pulver
Cc: x2go-user at lists.x2go.org
Subject: Re: [X2Go-User] X2Go Windows Client on Windows 8

On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 8:55 AM, James M. Pulver <jmp242 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> We are having great success using the X2Go Client on Windows 7. 
> However, some outside users are running Windows 8 or Windows Vista, 
> and no matter what we can think to do, we cannot get the X2Go Client 
> to run. It starts, freezes for a few seconds, says “Cannot Start X Server” and then exits.
>
> Is this a known problem with those OSs? Is there some configuration to 
> make it work? Any ideas?
>
> James Pulver
>
> CLASSE Computer Group
>
> Cornell University

Hi James,

I am the maintainer of the Windows Client.

I am sorry to hear that you are running into this issue.

And I actually do most of my testing on my Windows 8.1 64-bit desktop.

I have seen this problem happen occasionally for various reasons. I think they have always been due to external factors. So I suspect that some external factor is the cause.

1st, what version of X2Go Client are you using? For security fixes and bugfixes, you should be using 4.0.2.0+build2, but I will still troubleshoot this issue for you even if you are not:
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:release-notes-mswin:x2goclient-4.0.2.0

2nd, are you using 64-bit Windows Vista, 7 and 8 or 32-bit Windows Vista, 7 and 8?

3rd, is this option set in X2Go Client?
Options -> Setttings -> X-Server settings -> use integrated X-Server

4th, do you have any other X servers running? The only freeware and FOSS X servers are VcXsrv (which we bundle and use), Xming 6.9, and Cygwin X11. Commercial ones include Hummingbird/OpenText Exceed.

5th, can you try launching our bundled VcXsrv from the command-line and see if it launches successfully?

Run this command on 64-bit windows from command prompt:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\x2goclient\VcXsrv\vcxsrv.exe" -multiwindow -clipboard :0

or this command on 32-bit windows from command prompt:
"C:\Program Files\x2goclient\VcXsrv\vcxsrv.exe" -multiwindow -clipboard :0

VcXsrv should start successfully. You should not see any output in command prompt. However, you should see the X server tray icon show up. You can right-click the icon to end the X server.

Note that if VcXsrv does not start successfully, it should tell you that it wrote a log file with the errors. Please attach that log file to the reply.

-Mike#2