Xpra: Ticket #10: Xdummy standalone and packaging

There are a number of issues that can only be solved by having a proper supported Xvfb server with modern extension support (randr, etc), ie: #1, #2 (and potentially others - original winswitch ticket)

Although this is not strictly an Xpra thing, and is unlikely to live in the this xpra source repository, it is best to record this somewhere. There are number of tasks:

All the info should now be here: wiki/Xdummy]



Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:22:01 GMT - Antoine Martin: type, description changed


Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:06:24 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed

Posted an some patches which can be used to generate a /usr/bin/Xdummy binary suitable for Xpra.


Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:28:21 GMT - Antoine Martin:

There are now binary packages available here (fedora, centos, debian, ubuntu)

To test that your Xorg supports the new non-root options, run:

wget http://xpra.org/src/Xdummy/xorg.conf
Xorg +extension GLX +extension RANDR +extension RENDER -logfile log -config ./xorg.conf :200

Note: you must ensure that Xorg is not suid. On Fedora (and possibly others) this means that you have to copy the existing binary, ie:

sudo cp /usr/bin/Xorg /usr/local/bin/Xorg

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:03:54 GMT - Antoine Martin:

You can help get this moving by testing the packages (or building from source with the patch) and providing "Tested-by:" tags for this one


Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:03:53 GMT - Antoine Martin:

... or "Reviewed-by" tags like this one

Please help get this merge with a quick test (there are binary packages built - so it doesn't take long...)


Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:04:28 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution set

The changes have been merged upstream in commit ead968a4300c0adeff89b9886e888b6d284c75cc xf86-video-dummy should be tagged before the next server release too, so we can then automatically enable Xdummy with a simple X server version test:

$ X -version 2>&1 | grep "X Server"
X.Org X Server 1.11.2

Starting with soon-to-be-released 1.12


Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:18:16 GMT - Antoine Martin:

xf86-video-dummy 0.3.5 has been released


Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:22:44 GMT - Antoine Martin:

For more information on Xdummy, see the top-level page: Xdummy


Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:19:13 GMT - Antoine Martin: component, milestone changed


Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:19:36 GMT - Antoine Martin: version set


Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:18:12 GMT - https://me.yahoo.com/a/Ft5BHTVktN6dS7LFG2ZUKJr3mQ--#4cb6e: cc set


Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:43:37 GMT - Antoine Martin: attachment set

patches required for building Xdummy for centos 5.8


Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:43:52 GMT - Antoine Martin: attachment set

patches required for building Xdummy for centos 6.2


Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:46:35 GMT - Antoine Martin: attachment set

patches required for building Xdummy on Fedora


Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:47:41 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Added Xdummy packages for CentOS 5.8 and 6.2 here, the CentOS and Fedora specific patches are archived in this ticket. The Fedora binaries will no longer be updated since Fedora 17 is the current release and includes the patches already.


Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:09:30 GMT - Antoine Martin:

As of r1286 (+ fix in r1295), we install an xpra.conf with Xdummy support if the distro supports it (ie: if Xorg version is >= 1.12 and if the Xorg binary is not suid)

This works for recent Debian / Ubuntu but not for Fedora/CentOS as those ship with a suid /usr/bin/Xorg (no easy way around that - we cannot copy the binary from the specfile's post-install scripts as was done in r1256 and later reverted, as system updates would break our copy... and also it wouldn't get updated)


Thu, 13 Sep 2012 04:45:25 GMT - Antoine Martin:

We could provide support for Xdummy on Fedora 17 (and others with suid-only binaries) by copying the /usr/bin/Xorg binary every time before we use it, something like /usr/bin/xpra_Xvfb:

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p ~/.xpra
cp /usr/bin/Xorg ~/.xpra/Xorg
~/.xpra/Xorg "$@"

I have filed a bug with Fedora asking for a non-suid Xorg to be installed.


Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:33:35 GMT - Antoine Martin:

r1549 adds support for suid Xorg installations (Fedora, etc)


Tue, 25 Sep 2012 05:08:25 GMT - Antoine Martin:

More Xdummy work now in #186


Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:54:40 GMT - redneb:

The solution of copying /usr/bin/Xorg does not work with gentoo because the executable is installed as -rws--x--x. If I'm not mistaken this is a common practice, ie to make root suid executables not readable by anybody else. Gentoo does it automatically for all such executables.


Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:09:13 GMT - Antoine Martin:

redneb: thanks, this was already discussed on the mailing list (see here) and the fix is in r1984: gentoo users just won't be able to use Xdummy until Xorg is either not suid or readable, sorry.


Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:16:50 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Looks like there may be some useful randr changes coming to Xvfb (maybe in Xorg 1.14?): this patch

It will be a while before this is shipped in any distro though.


Fri, 16 May 2014 11:43:49 GMT - Antoine Martin:

If you want to know more about Xdummy and how to configure it, see wiki/Xdummy


Fri, 16 May 2014 11:46:01 GMT - Antoine Martin: description changed


Sat, 22 Nov 2014 19:42:15 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Follow up and related tickets: #601, #732, #728, #349, #56


Sat, 23 Jan 2021 04:43:07 GMT - migration script:

this ticket has been moved to: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/10