Setup an Xvfb display to use ArcGIS software through terminal services in a Linux or Unix environment

Summary

Difficulties may be encountered when executing ArcGIS software through terminal services in a Linux or Unix environment.

The third-party MainWin runtime must have a valid display set, even when nothing is being directed to it.

The recommended workaround is to use Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer) to create a virtual display. The following steps describe how to do this.

Procedure

To setup a Xvfb display:

$ Xvfb :500 -screen 0 1280x1024x24 &
$ DISPLAY=":500.0"; export DISPLAY

Note:
The user should end the Xvfb process after finishing using the ArcGIS software.