Because Maxwell Render depends on an X server, it seems like overkill to install a full X window system in each render node. The solution is Xvfb. Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer) is an X server that can run on machines with no display hardware and no physical input devices. It emulates a dumb frame-buffer using virtual memory. The first step is to install it:
On Debian-like distros
# apt-get install xvfb
Or fedora-like distros
# yum install xvfb
The second step is to run the server for testing:
# Xvfb -shmem -screen 0 1280x1024x24
This command starts a virtual X server with virtual display :0 which has virtual resolution of 1280×1024 and 24 bit virtual colors. To test it you can run a following command:
# DISPLAY=:0 xdpyinfo
If everything works fine, you’ll get lots of status information about your server. In the previous command, DISPLAY=:0 specifies which X display information is wanted. This variable can be exported once and then run any commands which require X server to be running.
To make this virtual server run all the time and restart in case of any problems use linux /etc/inittab file. Add the following line to this file:
xvfb:2:respawn:/usr/bin/Xvfb :0 -ac -screen 0 2048x1536x24
and reload it with init q command.
It is highly recommended that the Manager and Monitor run in the same CPU. This will avoid many transfer problems.