RE: HTML to PDF Generator (X-Server on i)

Wow, thanks, Scott, for that excellent synopsis! While I cannot really do
anything with it at present, it is something I could set up when (if!!!) I
finally return home, so my interest is piqued. :)

How about xdm instead of (super-insecure) VNC for those who do want a whole
desktop? Have you ever seen that on i? That's actually what I envisioned
when I mentioned X-server. But I do know from daily experience that with
secure connection capability (e.g. putty), VNC isn't bad.

"chew your own foot off." Yow!!! I need no more description than that!

Dennis Lovelady
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennislovelady
--
Nobody can outstubborn your mother.

On 8/5/2010 11:19 AM, Dennis Lovelady wrote:

Brings up an interesting question. Has anyone on this list

successfully

installed and exercised an X server on their System i?

Yep.

IBM has a tool for Java goons named "NAWT." It's supposed to allow you
to write/run graphical Java applications on IBM i.

What it really does is install a copy of XFree86 (an older, open source,
version of X11) in PASE. The NAWT actually outputs the Java GUI stuff
using X11. IBM also includes VNC server with NAWT, and they recommend
that you run the VNC server, and use a VNC client to view it. They also
include the iceWM window manager so you can have a full desktop-like
thing running on IBM i.

Despite all of this VNC stuff, if you have an XServer running on your
PC, you can have it output the Java GUI as well as any X11 software
running in PASE directly to your PC desktop. I did that extensively
with FreeBSD as my desktop and IBM i using the XFree86 server.

You can even use the free Cygwin support for X11 on Windows to run AIX
or Java programs running on IBM i, and display them directly on your
Windows desktop. Unfortunately, I've had some issues with Cygwin-X --
in particular, issues where keyboard input doesn't seem to work in the
xterm provided with IBM i. IBM never seemed to be able to figure out
what the problem was, so they told everyone not to use Cygwin-X, and in
fact, they say the best approach is to use VNC. (I disagree, since VNC
is noticably slower, and who the heck wants a whole desktop?!) But, I
digress...

The point is... IBM ships a version of X11, already set up for running
on IBM i. (So it should be possible to get wkhtmltopdf to work...
though I haven't used that particular tool.)

Unfortunately, IBM's documentation for this is very poor. They explain
NAWT in the Information Center, but provide no information (that I can
find) for how to install it.

They reference VNC as requiring LPO 5799-PTL, but the links to the web
site for 5799-PTL are all broken. The links broke about the time that
IBM i 7.1 was released this spring -- but even the 7.1 docs refer to
the
same link. And nowhere do they explain that X11 is used with NAWT
(even
though it clearly is, when you look at what's happening.)

It's enough to make you want to chew your own foot off.