vsd leaves xvfb behind

[oliverschmidt]

The vsd script (http://appleii.ivanx.com/prnumber6/a2cloud-insert-a-disk-image/) kills the ADTPro process but it doesn't kill the xvfb process. So every disk image change leaves you with another unused xvfb.

[knghtbrd]

I'll have a look at this when I'm felling a little better (nasty virus thing). I think this has not been fixed, however the files on Ivan's website are no longer being updated, so you'll want to look at the sources on github going forward.

[oliverschmidt]

Thanks for your quick feedback. I looked at https://github.com/RasppleII/a2cloud/blob/master/setup/vsd.txt#L35 and I didn't see a relevant change.

[knghtbrd]

I'm under the impression, perhaps mistaken, that xvfb-run's purpose is to start Xvfb with appropriate arguments, then kill it when the command completes, and in my tests it seems to be doing that. It doesn't always die immediately on RPi, but it does exit.

[knghtbrd]

Ah, a thought: Do the extra Xvfbs disappear after 30 seconds?

https://github.com/RasppleII/a2cloud/blob/master/setup/adtpro.sh.txt#L143

[oliverschmidt]

I redid everything from scratch in order to reproduce:

• Install http://appleii.ivanx.com/rasppleii/files/RasppleII.zip (files in the ZIP all have the date 2015-03-17).
• Modify /usr/local/bin/adtpro-start to be

#!/bin/bash

# don't do anything if ADTPro is already running
if [[ $(ps aux | grep [A]DTPro) ]]; then

    1&>2 echo "ADTPro server is already running."

else
        echo -n "Please wait..."
        sudo nohup adtpro.sh headless ethernet &> /dev/null
        echo "ok."
fi

• Run adtpro-start
• Run vsd1 several times to mount a new disk image
• Wait quite some time and run ps -ef | grep --color=none vfb and get

root      3076     1  0 10:20 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :99 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.TkBQRf/Xauthority
root      3186     1  0 10:32 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :100 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.fOhgCn/Xauthority
root      3265     1  0 10:33 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :101 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.SHREYc/Xauthority
root      3324     1  0 10:34 pts/1    00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/xvfb-run --auto-servernum java -Xms256m -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/adtpro/lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm -Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ -cp ../lib/ADTPro.jar:../lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm/../RXTXcomm.jar:../lib/AppleCommander/AppleCommander-ac.jar org.adtpro.ADTPro ethernet
root      3337  3324  0 10:34 pts/1    00:00:01 Xvfb :102 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.TKcqUv/Xauthority
pi        3376  2985  0 10:47 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto --color=none vfb

[knghtbrd]

If they aren't dying after 30 seconds, that's definitely a bug. (They shouldn't need 30 seconds to die, but I've never really trusted that sleep as a means of keeping people from running ADTPro more than once on older Pis...) Still, if something's keeping Xvfb running, I'm not sure what it is--it's supposed to exit when the command does, and other clients do properly quit out. I wonder if java is just not exiting?

[knghtbrd]

Perhaps there's some way, as a workaround for the time being, that we can identify the Xvfb process in need of killing and dispatch it ourselves? Might have to rewrite the xvfb-run script to do it, although that'd make our solution portable to non-Debian-based Linux systems which have Xvfb, but don't have Branden's xvfb-run script. That's a plus all on its own since, although I intend to make things be installed using Debian packages, part of the reason for doing it that way is to eventually divorce A2CLOUD and A2SERVER from specific dependency on Debian by moving the Debianisms to Debian package scripts.

[oliverschmidt]

I wonder if java is just not exiting?

No. Many Xvfb, but only one xvfb-run and only one java:

pi@raspberrypi /usr/local/adtpro/disks $ ps -ef
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
root         1     0  3 15:03 ?        00:00:22 init [2]
root         2     0  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kthreadd]
root         3     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:0H]
root         6     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/u2:0]
root         7     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_preempt]
root         8     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_sched]
root         9     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_bh]
root        10     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [khelper]
root        11     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kdevtmpfs]
root        12     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [netns]
root        13     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [perf]
root        14     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [khungtaskd]
root        15     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [writeback]
root        16     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [crypto]
root        17     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [bioset]
root        18     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kblockd]
root        20     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rpciod]
root        21     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kswapd0]
root        22     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [fsnotify_mark]
root        23     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [nfsiod]
root        29     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kthrotld]
root        30     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQ-0]
root        31     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQr-0]
root        32     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQs-0]
root        33     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [iscsi_eh]
root        34     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [dwc_otg]
root        35     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [DWC Notificatio]
root        36     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:2]
root        37     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/u2:1]
root        38     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [mmcqd/0]
root        39     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQka-0]
root        40     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [SMIO]
root        41     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [deferwq]
root        42     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [jbd2/mmcblk0p6-]
root        43     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [ext4-rsv-conver]
root       158     1  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      1668     1  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i wlan0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1696     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i lo -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1717     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1731     2  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 [RTW_CMD_THREAD]
root      1759     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -s -B -P /var/run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -W -D nl80211,wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
root      1899     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/wpa_cli -B -P /var/run/wpa_action.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -p /var/run/wpa_supplicant -a /sbin/wpa_action
root      2025     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/a2pid --daemon
root      2043   158  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      2045   158  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      2124     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -c5
root      2185     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root      2203     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
root      2211     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
root      2234  2211  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
104       2244     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
avahi     2284     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon: running [raspberrypi.local]
avahi     2286  2284  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper
nobody    2324     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/gdomap -I /var/run/gdomap.pid -p
root      2325     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 startpar -f -- gdomap
root      2386     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/atalkd
109       2711     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m
nobody    2775     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/thd --daemon --triggers /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/ --socket /var/run/thd.socket --pidfile /var/run/thd.pid --user nobody /dev/input/e
xrdp      2785     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/xrdp
root      2788     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman
root      2826     1  0 15:04 tty1     00:00:00 /sbin/getty --noclear 38400 tty1
root      2827     1  0 15:04 tty2     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
root      2828     1  0 15:04 tty3     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
root      2829     1  0 15:04 tty4     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
root      2830     1  0 15:04 tty5     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
root      2831     1  0 15:04 tty6     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
root      2832     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /bin/bash /usr/local/sbin/usbgetty -h -L -scanttyUSB 4800 vt100
ntp       2833     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -c /var/lib/ntp/ntp.conf.dhcp -u 102:104
root      2837     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 dhclient -v -pf /run/dhclient.wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.wlan0.leases wlan0
root      2863  2832  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sleep 86399
root      2914     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root      2928  2914  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sshd: pi [priv]
pi        2934  2928  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sshd: pi@pts/1
pi        2935  2934  0 15:04 pts/1    00:00:02 -bash
root      2966     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad -l log_note
root      2971     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/afpd -U uams_dhx2.so -g pi -c 50 -n raspberrypi
root      2972     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/a2boot
root      3061     1  0 15:06 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :99 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.PpOfIX/Xauthority
root      3129     1  0 15:07 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :100 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.vNVTIC/Xauthority
root      3151     2  0 15:08 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:0]
root      3207     1  0 15:09 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :101 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.ogV947/Xauthority
root      3263     1  0 15:10 pts/1    00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/xvfb-run --auto-servernum java -Xms256m -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/adtpro/lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm -Dgnu.io.r
root      3276  3263  0 15:10 pts/1    00:00:01 Xvfb :102 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.OmeDId/Xauthority
root      3279  3263  5 15:10 pts/1    00:00:14 java -Xms256m -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/adtpro/lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm -Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ -cp ../lib/ADTPro.jar
root      3299     2  0 15:13 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:1]
pi        3301  2935  0 15:15 pts/1    00:00:00 ps -ef

[knghtbrd]

This is interesting. Would you please compare the sha1sum of your
xvfb-run script with e7de6023507d8944f61fe04d2d6c5ee29df636ee ?

It should be the same, and I've got no doubt that it is as I suspect
that script has changed one one iota since 2004. Its manpage clearly
says:

   When  the command exits, its status is saved, the Xvfb server
   is killed (using  the  process  ID  stored  earlier),  the  X
   authority  cookie removed, and the authority file deleted (if
   the user did not specify one to use).   xvfb-run  then  exits
   with the exit status of command.

If it's not, we can try jessie's xvfb-run. Otherwise, we're going to
have to modify things to save that PID and kill it off.

Joseph

On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 12:16:17PM -0700, Oliver Schmidt wrote:

I wonder if java is just not exiting?

No. Many Xvfb, but only one xvfb-run and only one java:

pi@raspberrypi /usr/local/adtpro/disks $ ps -ef
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
root         1     0  3 15:03 ?        00:00:22 init [2]
root         2     0  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kthreadd]
root         3     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:0H]
root         6     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/u2:0]
root         7     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_preempt]
root         8     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_sched]
root         9     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_bh]
root        10     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [khelper]
root        11     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kdevtmpfs]
root        12     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [netns]
root        13     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [perf]
root        14     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [khungtaskd]
root        15     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [writeback]
root        16     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [crypto]
root        17     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [bioset]
root        18     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kblockd]
root        20     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [rpciod]
root        21     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kswapd0]
root        22     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [fsnotify_mark]
root        23     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [nfsiod]
root        29     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kthrotld]
root        30     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQ-0]
root        31     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQr-0]
root        32     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQs-0]
root        33     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [iscsi_eh]
root        34     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [dwc_otg]
root        35     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [DWC Notificatio]
root        36     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:2]
root        37     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/u2:1]
root        38     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [mmcqd/0]
root        39     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [VCHIQka-0]
root        40     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [SMIO]
root        41     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [deferwq]
root        42     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [jbd2/mmcblk0p6-]
root        43     2  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 [ext4-rsv-conver]
root       158     1  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      1668     1  0 15:03 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i wlan0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1696     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i lo -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1717     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
root      1731     2  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 [RTW_CMD_THREAD]
root      1759     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -s -B -P /var/run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -W -D nl80211,wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
root      1899     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/wpa_cli -B -P /var/run/wpa_action.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -p /var/run/wpa_supplicant -a /sbin/wpa_action
root      2025     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /sbin/a2pid --daemon
root      2043   158  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      2045   158  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root      2124     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -c5
root      2185     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root      2203     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
root      2211     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
root      2234  2211  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
104       2244     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
avahi     2284     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon: running [raspberrypi.local]
avahi     2286  2284  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper
nobody    2324     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/gdomap -I /var/run/gdomap.pid -p
root      2325     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 startpar -f -- gdomap
root      2386     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/atalkd
109       2711     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m
nobody    2775     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/thd --daemon --triggers /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/ --socket /var/run/thd.socket --pidfile /var/run/thd.pid --user nobody /dev/input/e
xrdp      2785     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/xrdp
root      2788     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman
root      2826     1  0 15:04 tty1     00:00:00 /sbin/getty --noclear 38400 tty1
root      2827     1  0 15:04 tty2     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
root      2828     1  0 15:04 tty3     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
root      2829     1  0 15:04 tty4     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
root      2830     1  0 15:04 tty5     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
root      2831     1  0 15:04 tty6     00:00:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
root      2832     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /bin/bash /usr/local/sbin/usbgetty -h -L -scanttyUSB 4800 vt100
ntp       2833     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g -c /var/lib/ntp/ntp.conf.dhcp -u 102:104
root      2837     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 dhclient -v -pf /run/dhclient.wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.wlan0.leases wlan0
root      2863  2832  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sleep 86399
root      2914     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root      2928  2914  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sshd: pi [priv]
pi        2934  2928  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 sshd: pi@pts/1
pi        2935  2934  0 15:04 pts/1    00:00:02 -bash
root      2966     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad -l log_note
root      2971     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/afpd -U uams_dhx2.so -g pi -c 50 -n raspberrypi
root      2972     1  0 15:04 ?        00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/a2boot
root      3061     1  0 15:06 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :99 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.PpOfIX/Xauthority
root      3129     1  0 15:07 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :100 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.vNVTIC/Xauthority
root      3151     2  0 15:08 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:0]
root      3207     1  0 15:09 pts/1    00:00:02 Xvfb :101 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.ogV947/Xauthority
root      3263     1  0 15:10 pts/1    00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/xvfb-run --auto-servernum java -Xms256m -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/adtpro/lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm -Dgnu.io.r
root      3276  3263  0 15:10 pts/1    00:00:01 Xvfb :102 -screen 0 640x480x8 -nolisten tcp -auth /tmp/xvfb-run.OmeDId/Xauthority
root      3279  3263  5 15:10 pts/1    00:00:14 java -Xms256m -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/adtpro/lib/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-local/arm -Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ -cp ../lib/ADTPro.jar
root      3299     2  0 15:13 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:1]
pi        3301  2935  0 15:15 pts/1    00:00:00 ps -ef

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#30 (comment)

[oliverschmidt]

Stupid question: Have you tried to reproduce the issue?

[knghtbrd]

Yes, but not in the strictest sense. I've tested it on my Raspbian jessie beta briefly and it looks like it works. I tested it a little more extensively on my amd64 Debian sid development machine and again it appears to work fine. But I haven't tested Ivan's 2015 release at all, in part because I haven't got another microSD card at the moment and because I've never been able to actually build it, so patches are difficult.

This is somewhat less than ideal. It was supposed to be a nice, easy transition. Ivan had ported his build system to jessie which was supposed to be released for KFest. I was going to take the next six months and come up with a clean way to reproduce his release using something approximating standard build tools and get it right so that others can help develop it.

In September, with no release for jessie and no actually building codebase, I got handed the whole thing, except I can't actually edit anything on Ivan's website, and I didn't even have a functioning beta. In October, I released a beta to not one single report of success or failure, so I have no idea whether it works for anyone besides me even a little bit. Yours is the first feedback I've got, and it's for a bug I don't have against a version I can't test without basically backing up and wiping the "hard drive" of my test system for the year-overdue release I've been frantically trying to finish while dodging viruses, a fiancee who spent a week in the hospital, and there are still things I need to be able to do here that I just don't know how to do by myself.

I'm really trying to solve the problem here, but I'm grasping at straws. The manpage says Xvfb is supposed to be killed. I see that on my system, it is killed with a variety of clients, including ADTPro. But I'm not using the same OS version, the same JRE, or the same CPU architecture for the majority of my testing. Hopefully when there is an actual jessie release, that'll begin to change more. At the very least I hope to invest in another Pi 3 kit in the next several months so that I can go through the entire process end-to-end with the kit a new user would likely buy, on video.

[oliverschmidt]

First of all thanks for the detailed answer :-)

I can't actually edit anything on Ivan's website

Reminds me on the situation with cc65: The domain cc65.org is still not mine to present day and it took many months until the former maintainer of cc65 put a link on his site pointing to my site.

Yours is the first feedback I've got

Maybe I misunderstand things but as long as http://ivanx.com/rasppleii/ is the site coming up on Googling 'raspple 2' or and that site only links Ivan's 2015 release this likely won't change much.

Working hard for the community and not getting feedback at all sucks ! I know...

I'm really trying to solve the problem here

That doesn't make sense from my perspective! I only reported that issue to make you aware of it and help avoiding it in further releases. Now you are aware of it and likely will check for Xvfb proccesses now and then when testing upcoming releases.

And in case (although I don't think so) that it only happens when going for Ethernet instead of serial then that's okay too as you plan to support Ethernet in the future and will therefore likely test it.

So from my perspective everything is fine and there's no need for you to invest any more of your scarce time into this legacy release.

PS: Best wishes for a speedy recovery to your fiancee !