JfreeChart Apps under Mac OSX 10.6? Can't connect to window

[daveb48]

Re:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to window server - not enough permissions.

Unless there is someone out there who has found a work-around, I am going to have to switch to a new graphics application and re-write a lot of code.

I've spend several days trying to find a work-around to this problem, and am convinced at this point there is no resolution.
I am afraid this is the end of Jfreechart running as an application (i.e., cron or launchd process, no GUI invloved) under Mac OS X 10.6+. Apple has cranked up the security of their OS significantly, which breaks Jfreechart as an application because it cannot securely connect to the Window Server.

For several years, I have had a collection of Java (v1.6) applications running on our Mac Xserver (v10.4), producing data figures of real-time satellite data. Recently we added a new Xserve running Mac OS X 10.6, and I ported one of the applications over. Running via Apple Remote Desktop (the GUI I/F), everything worked fine. But when I tried running via SSH (either normal user or root), I got the stacktrace pasted below. When operationally run from a cron or launchd process, the same stacktrace results.

I've searched all the forums/posts I could find and tried various work-arounds: -Djava.awt.headless=true does not work - the most frequent suggested work-around. As mentioned running as root does not work.

An very detailed description of the problems of using the Window Server from a Daemon/Agent can be found at:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/ ... n2083.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fri Dec 18 18:11:30 xxx.yyy.zzz java[75172] <Warning>: 3891612: (connectAndCheck) Untrusted apps are not allowed to connect to or launch Window Server before login.
Fri Dec 18 18:11:30 xxx.yyy.zzz java[75172] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to window server - not enough permissions.
at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1861)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1762)
at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:823)
at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1045)
at sun.security.action.LoadLibraryAction.run(LoadLibraryAction.java:50)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.awt.NativeLibLoader.loadLibraries(NativeLibLoader.java:38)
at sun.awt.DebugHelper.<clinit>(DebugHelper.java:29)
at java.awt.Component.<clinit>(Component.java:560)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Taqua]

The headless mode works perfectly, if you stick to the sane limitations that come with it. Do not (I repeat: DO NOT) create heavyweight AWT components and you should be totally fine. If your code makes use of a ChartPanel, a ApplicationFrame or other similar classes, you are doing it wrong. Stick with Graphics2D, AWT-images and stay away from every class that extends java.awt.Component. A Component will try to generate a heavyweight peer and that of course requires a valid GUI system.

[daveb48]

Bingo. Thanks so much for your help - I just took out the "extends ApplicationFrame" from the class definition, and it works fine now from launchd daemon (which now replaces cron) on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I should have seen that.