[MC-40824] nogui option ignored (osx)

On Mac OS X, the server appears to ignore the `nogui` option and fails to start due to inability to connect to the window server. (In this configuration, it would not be possible to access the window server since the machine is headless and being accessed over ssh.)

What I expected to happen was...:
As per documentation here and here, I would have expected this to lead to a successful server start, as it has in past versions.

What actually happened was...:
Uncaught java exception. Log is attached.

Steps to reproduce...:
1. ssh into Mac OS box with java installed.
2. Attempt to launch headless server (a minimal invocation seems to be java -jar minecraft_server.1.7.2.jar nogui).
3. Observe the resulting traceback with the error that there are insufficient permissions to connect to a window server.

Linked issues

is duplicated by 1

MC-45276 Launching server on Mac OS X as daemon requires active window server Resolved

Attachments

log.txt

tmp.8UxjKYxisE

Comments 27

Ezekiel 2013-11-25T16:02:32Z

This isn't an issue for me, using the following code works fine

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
cd $DIR
java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.*.jar nogui

Robbie Harwood 2013-11-25T18:18:37Z

If you can't reproduce, I guess there's not a lot that can be done here. For what it's worth, the code that you posted still triggers the problem for me. Guess I'll have to wait until the next bukkit release, since that works.

Talven81 2013-11-25T18:30:15Z

FYI for future reference, Bukkit is NOT supported on this bug tracker. Bukkit is not made by Mojang, please use their forums for Bukkit issues.

Robbie Harwood 2013-11-25T19:04:46Z

This is a minecraft bug, not a bukkit bug. When the minecraft server refuses to start, I'm pretty sure the bug lies with minecraft, not bukkit.

Ezekiel 2013-11-25T19:27:01Z

If you can reproduce this in vanilla Minecraft, (aka more than 'pretty sure') then we will investigate.

17 more comments

Robbie Harwood 2013-11-25T19:42:55Z

Second time; this time showing the ssh, and that I don't have any relevant data in my directories.

Robbie Harwood 2013-11-25T19:43:39Z

Please see attached files. There is no "pretty sure" about this; I am certain that vanilla minecraft is not starting.

Ezekiel 2013-11-25T19:50:09Z

ReOpening.

Tim Bedford 2013-12-02T21:11:04Z

I have this problem too. Running on OS X 10.9 with Server.app tools installed.

My start.sh script looks like:
tail -n 0 -f stdin.commandlist | java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui 1>>command.log 2>>error.log

I can run the server only when locally logged into the machine and the server does open a window. Currently reverted to version mine craft 1.6.4 until this is fixed.

Robbie Harwood 2014-01-16T22:18:59Z

Yes, I just checked downloading the latest jar from https://minecraft.net/download and the issue persists. I've updated the version accordingly.

kumasasa 2014-01-16T22:26:00Z

The nogui parameter has to be leaded by two dashes:

java -jar minecraft_server.jar --nogui

Tim Bedford 2014-01-17T15:22:36Z

The use of two dashes did not make a difference. Don't mark as invalid unless you have tested it and found it to be workIng.

Ezekiel 2014-01-17T15:38:13Z

Reopened

kumasasa 2014-01-17T18:56:37Z

The use of two dashes did not make a difference. Don't mark as invalid unless you have tested it and found it to be workIng.

😞 Sorry.

Rainman Noodles 2014-01-19T03:34:16Z

I believed this to be resolved with the '--nogui' flag but I was wrong. Here's some relevant output of what I see upon boot:

Jan 18 22:06:12 domain.com java[257]: Set a breakpoint at CGSLogError to catch errors as they are logged.
Jan 18 22:06:12 domain.com java[257]: On-demand launch of the Window Server is allowed for root user only.
Jan 18 22:06:12 domain.com java[257]: CGSLookupServerRootPort: Failed to look up the port for "com.apple.windowserver.active" (1102)
Jan 18 22:06:12 domain.com java[257]: On-demand launch of the Window Server is allowed for root user only.

After login:

Jan 18 22:08:07 domain.com WindowServer[146]: [cps/setfront] Failed setting the front application to net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer, psn 0x0-0x1c01c, securitySessionID=0x186ab, err=-600
Jan 18 22:08:08 — last message repeated 1 time —

From a StackOverflow question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18603055/getting-a-mac-to-trust-an-application-synergy-on-loginwindow
the Apple document here might be useful:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2083/_index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS10003794-CH1-SUBSECTION14

This indicates why I saw it "resolved" but then realized it wasn't. Normally, the window server is not available until a user logs in. Once started, the window server may quit and/or restart. (The Apple dev document explains this in detail). It seems there may be some RARE cases where the window server is available for a time, which caused it to appear solved by coincidence.

As for 'nogui' vs '--nogui', I did a test on my laptop, manually running it under a user account so I could see the window if it appeared. When I ran it using no option or using the incorrect '-nogui', I saw the actual server GUI window as expected. Running 'nogui' or '--nogui' did NOT show the window, which would seem fine, BUT it still showed the Java icon and showed the reverse domain style identifier 'net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer' in the menubar. The 'nogui'/'--nogui' option is still using the window server. It isn't creating the window, but it's still loading the Java libraries that trigger the window server, and that's where the problem comes from.

Rainman Noodles 2014-03-13T15:54:38Z

I notice this keeps getting bumped to the next version whenever a build is released... is Mojang ever going to actually fix this, or are they going to just keep pushing it forward? Remember guys, fixing bugs is more important than adding mini games to Realms, even if it's not as flashy...

Robbie Harwood 2014-03-13T16:05:35Z

Actually, it keeps getting bumped to the latest build releases because I do that. [Mod] Talven81 complained when I did not, but it will be worth it to me to have been manually correcting this flaw in the bts if the bug actually gets fixed.

Tim Bedford 2014-03-13T19:22:00Z

I appreciate you keeping on this. I'm still stick running 1.6.4 because of it.

I consider it a major bug to not be able to run a server software on an actual server machIne. This bug means it can't be run headless.

Robbie Harwood 2014-04-09T11:06:05Z

Okay, 1.7.6 was released today. This is the fourth incremental release that's been affected by this bug. Does Mojang have plans to make OSX work again headless (since 1.8 is being foreshadowed, it seems appropriate to ask...)?

Nathan Adams 2014-04-14T11:11:46Z

We did some testing and this seems to be a java issue, java 6 tries to pop up but java 7 does not. Are you all using java 6?

Ezekiel 2014-04-14T11:33:47Z

@unknown, probably, Java 6 is the version that downloads when you try to run minecraft with os x. You need to prompt the user to download java 7 (which isn't hard, but almost nobody will download unless they need to) to get them to. Almost all can, but they won't.

Rainman Noodles 2014-04-14T11:47:20Z

Additionally, you need to be aware that installing Java 7 isn't possible for some people. On my server, installing Java 7 will cause several applications to stop working because they aren't compatible with 7. Since Java doesn't have a way to manage versions, this leaves some people stuck on 6.

Unfortunately this is what consumers have to deal with when someone decides to use Java instead of doing it natively.

Nathan Adams 2014-04-14T12:13:06Z

If it is indeed a java issue, it would not be something we can fix. You can, however, install multiple versions of java for your separate programs (are there programs that require java 6 and not 7? Java is fully forwards-compatible)

But we'll need to figure out if it is a java problem first or if we can somehow work around it 🙂

Rainman Noodles 2014-05-15T19:28:35Z

So as a brief update, I finally managed to move all of the mission-critical Java 6 dependent software into isolated virtual machines, so I was able to install Java 7 on the host machine. It does in fact work. I honestly have no idea if it's going to ever work on Java 6, but I hope you're able to get it working somehow.

Nathan Adams 2014-05-15T19:56:27Z

I'm afraid that I will have to close this ticket as I can't find any workaround that we can perform, and that it also appears to be entirely out of our control. From research, and feedback here, it appears to be an issue specific to OSX and Java 6 which may be triggered by Log4j2 (possibly through no fault of its own).

You can perhaps try to reproduce the issue with the latest version of log4j2, confirm it exists and report it to them - but as it is ultimately caused by a bug in java 6 for OSX it is possible they would not be able to do anything about it neither.

Though it is true that the launcher requires Java 6 on OSX, as @unknown points out, the launcher is graphical by nature and it is not logical that you would run that (and thus impose the requirement) on a headless system. We recommend the use of java 7+ for server usage.

Robbie Harwood 2014-05-15T20:09:36Z

Well, I guess that's that then. It's really unfortunate that support for 10.6 was removed in this manner from 1.7.2.

Rainman Noodles 2014-05-15T20:19:13Z

It's unfortunate, and it's also why in my own software I avoid Java like the plague. I refuse to put my users through the crap it causes...