Maya headless command line rendering

[Anonymous]

Hi all,  

We have an issue with trying to render on networked macs via the command line.

We're using the Render call, generally located at /Applications/Autodesk/maya2018/Maya.app/Contents/MacOS/Render on OSX with s, e, proj and rd flags.

The error we're getting currently is:

_RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.
Assertion failed: (err == kCGErrorSuccess), function +[_NSCGSTransaction initialize], file /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppKit/AppKit-1561.60.100/CGS.subproj/NSCGSTransaction.m, line 241.

This error only occurs if a user isn't logged in - we know apple released a security update back in March 2018 that prevented access to the window server while on the login prompt. 

Does anyone know a way to work around this? Is there some flag we can tell Maya to not access the window server so we can run it in an headless state?

[lab.licenses]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the update. Is there any ETA when Update 5 will be released?

[Anonymous]

I've installed Update 5 but I'm still having this issue.  Sean -- was a fix for this supposed to be in place?  As others in the thread, we're also EDU licensing and trying to network batch render at the login screen in a computer lab.  This is critical functionality for us.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Unfortunately we didn't have a fix that was 100% stable in time for Update 5's release. That said a fix for this is planned for the next update/release of Maya in the near future.

[Anonymous]

This issue appears to still be present in Maya 2019, running under MacOS 10.13.6.  Maya is unable to command line render while the Mac is at the login screen.  I looked through the "known issues" page for Maya 2019 but didn't see this listed.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Yes sadly the fix for this didn't make it into 2019, however a fix is planned for a future update for I believe both 2018 and 2019.

[mattgidney]

This is exactly the same issue we have and it is also CRITICAL for us on campus.   Frankly, this is a huge oversight from Autodesk no?   It is impossible to render on our Tractor farm with Arnold or RenderMan or anything that requires Maya to be invoked remotely.   I appreciate Apple makes it difficult for Autodesk, but we now have no farm and students returning next week.

[mattgidney]

Hi

Can we get early access to this fix for the command line invocation on OSX.  Right now we cant offer maya on our farm at all.  Thanks

[Anonymous]

@mattgidney FWIW we went back to MacOS 10.13.2 to dodge this issue, otherwise we'd be completely dead in the water.  Obviously this is not a sustainable solution, and it's not even an option if you're on a brand new Mac that can't go back to 10.13.2.  

[mattgidney]

Well we are completely screwed now unless autodesk will share a prerelease version of maya with us.

Students starting tomorrow.

we cant roll back as we have many new machines

[mattgidney]

Confirming that we are also seeing this error being reported from ALL farm machines when trying to create ASS files from maya as a batch command.   (same for rib generation with or any command line rendering using a maya batch or Render call)  We obviously cannot have the user logged into the client blade so that this security issue means we cannot render at all.    Can we please have a patch release if you have a solution you are sitting on?   We are in need now.  We do have educational licenses.  We have hundreds and we have 400 animation students in need.

Please can we escalate this issue - id be happy with a bandaid at this moment as I am sure others would be too.  But fast!

----------- _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL. Assertion failed: (err == kCGErrorSuccess), function +[_NSCGSTransaction initialize], file /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppKit/AppKit-1561.60.100/CGS.subproj/NSCGSTransaction.m, line 241. [2019/03/18 08:18:15 killed - signal (SIGIOT) rc=-6, ["maya", "-batch", "-proj", "/Volumes/dabrender/work/project_work/mattg/TESTING_Renderfarm/Maya", "-command", "arnoldExportAss -f \"/Volumes/dabrender/work/project_work/mattg/TESTING_Renderfarm/Maya/arnold/ARN_test_cube_100.0001/ass/ARN_test_cube_100.0001\" -startFrame 7 -endFrame 12", "-file", "/Volumes/dabrender/work/project_work/mattg/TESTING_Renderfarm/Maya/scenes/arnold/ARN_test_cube_100.0001.ma"]] ====[2019/03/18 08:18:15 process complete, exit code: -6]====

---

---

[lab.licenses]

Fortunately, we switched one of our Mac labs to PCs at the beginning of this year so we can still provide a render farm to our students. However, it would be great to get a hotfix from Autodesk if Apple hasn't locked macOS down too much.

[Anonymous]

A solution from Autodesk would be great - our mac labs are still out of action from the maya batch/network rendering.

For the time being, what we've done is repurposed 20 old pc's to run linux with maya to help those who are still trying to network render.

We have mainly transitioned to using Arnold kick however, though this requires the students to manually export and package their scene into .ass files for our grid. I'm not sure how tractor plays with Arnold scene files (if it can or not) but perhaps this would be a quick fix?

[mattgidney]

Our farm jobs on tractor look structurally the same 

maya -> rib . then prman

maya -> ass . then kick

houdini - > ifd then mantra/prman

I was hoping to work around this by manually exporting rib/ass from the workstation then let tractor manage the kick/prman jobs.   It will get there as soon as I have a few hours to put it together and make it student proof.

a hotfix would be better.

[Wobbek]

The fix did not even make it into Maya 2019, did it? I just tried and got the same message about not being able to access the WindowsServer (_GSDefaultConnection() is NULL)

[macintosh]

I'm going to add my own frustration to this list.  Same here!

Is there (even an ugly) workaround that we can use at our own risk?  My Macs are capable of 10.12.x, so I *could* reinstall them all this summer, but this has gone on for quite enough time.  Why is a command line app requiring the GUI at all?  This looks like poor programming.

[mattgidney]

Is Autodesk actually doing anything about this??????????

We cant run any maya batch commands on the renderfarm.

Cant remotely make .ass or .rib files.

Please escalate this issue - Febuary was a long time ago.

[Anonymous]

Hi @sean.heasley, 

Has this issue been fixed yet?  It's been over a year since the issue began, and 6 months since Maya 2019 was released.  This is still a show-stopping bug for many EDU renderfarm environments.  I haven't seen anything about this in either the "resolved" or "known issues" sections in any update release notes.

[Anonymous]

Hi @sean.heasley ,

I tested this again with the recently released Maya 2019.2 update, and unfortunately it seems the issue remains unresolved.  Additionally, I can find no mention of this problem in the release notes.  Not being able to render while the Mac is at the login window is a show-stopping issue for network render farms, especially those in EDU computer lab environments.  Does Autodesk have any update on when this will be fixed?  

[mattgidney]

Thanks for doing the test - and keeping this thread updated.  Same for us - still not working, still a show stopper and nothing in the notes.

Sean are you actually escalating this at Autodesk????

Matt

[syracoj]

paper trail.

this relates to issue MAYA-93696