BioDesk Potential Problems

BioDesk is not without its eccentricities and yes, even bugs. However, most problems can be avoided.


Trouble with:

Trouble with Performance

Poor performance usually exhibits itself in the form of 'cursor lag'; you will notice at times that when you move your mouse, the cursor in BioDesk may pause before moving. Likewise, a mouse click may be delayed as well.
Patience is it's own reward; madly clicking at something will not make it happen faster, but it can really mess up things up in a hurry when the system catches up to you!

There are several variables that can effect the general performance of BioDesk:
  • Speed of Connection
  • Load on the Server
  • Speed/Load of Client Machine
 
Speed of Connection should only be a problem for people that want to work from home.
Even a 56k modem connection will cause BioDesk to behave sluggishly.
If you must work from home, be prepared for sluggish performance with some activities.

Load on the Server will be a random inconvenience for all BioDesk users.

Whenever a large application is launched, you will see a spike on the system Load Meter and you may experience a short lag period.

However, if you see a sustained high level of load (>60%), it may be worth your while to come back to your session at a later time; it may be that someone is running a very resource intensive application or that there are just too many users currently logged on.

Speed/Load of Client Machine may be an issue for those working from older machines, especially if they have poor video acceleration. The symptoms will be much like those of a low speed connection; cursor and button lag, slow screen refresh.
It may help to free up resources on your machine by closing all applications that you're not using.

Hints & Tips
There are a couple of viewer preferences (Connection Options) you can set that may help with performance issues if you are on a slow connection.
  1. Reduce color depth to 8bits.
  2. Change compression coding to "Tight" (for PCs only).

 

Trouble with Starting BioDesk Sessions

BioDesk relies on a correctly-configured and operational TCP/IP network, so please make 100% sure that your TCP/IP setup is correct.
Here are some things you should check before assuming it's a BioDesk problem; consult your local expert if you don't know how to check them:
  • Can you ping the server machine from the client?
  • Is the BioDesk session definitely running on the server machine?
    (See the Session Manager)
  • The server listens on port 5900+displaynumber. Can you telnet to this port from the client machine?
  • Have you specified the address correctly to the viewer? If you're using a display number other than zero for the server, (usually the case on Unix machines), did you remember to specify it?
  • Is the server name known to the DNS? Try using an explicit IP address instead of a name (eg. 128.196.124.145:# instead of amadeus:#).
  • Do you have any firewalls or proxies in the way that could be blocking access?
  • If using the java client, did you remember to specify the correct port as part of the URL? (eg. http://snoopy:5800)?
  • Can you try running the client on different machines on your network to find whether the problem is at one end or the other?
  • Can you try running the software on a different architecture? eg., if you are having problems viewing a PC from another PC, can you try connecting from a Unix machine?

Trouble with Stopping BioDesk Sessions

An important distinction to remember is the difference between closing your BioDesk viewer, and stopping your BioDesk session.
  • If you stop (kill) your BioDesk session, all desktop settings and contents are lost. Permanently.
    You will need to the Session Manager to start another BioDesk session. It will most likely have a different address.

  • If you close your BioDesk viewer, your session will remain active, and you can return to it at a later time. All of your desktop settings and contents will be held.

However, if you leave your session running idle (no mouse movement detected) for more than 72 hours, it will automatically be killed.
You will recieve an automated email message if/when this happens

A BioDesk session can be killed by two methods:

  1. Click on the 'EXIT' button on the Taskbar.
  2. Select 'Exit' from the BioDesk Menu.

Trouble with the BioDesk Viewer

The viewer, being a very small and simple application, is almost immune to technical problems of its own.
Most problems getting started are either with the session creation, or trying to connect to the session.

If you are having trouble connecting to the server, see above .

If your BioDesk desktop is too large for your monitor:

If you have to scroll excessively to work within BioDesk, you may want to try increasing your desktop size to a higher resolution(1024x768 is optimal).

Trouble Running Applications

It should be hard to get into too much trouble if you're only running the those applications that we've placed on the BioDesk menu.
However, if you experience problems there are a few things you can try:

If you've launched an application and you can't seem to get it to go away, you can do one of two things:

  1. Click on the desktop to get the BioDesk Menu and select 'Window Configuration', then 'Destroy'.
    Your cursor will become a Skull & Crossbones, click on the offending window and it will go away.
  2. Open an XTerminal session, type: 'xkill' at the prompt and hit return.
    Your cursor will become a small square, click on the offending window and it will go away.

If you accidently kill your Taskbar, go to the BioDesk Menu and select Modules, then 'Button-Bar'.

If you have launched an application, and then lost it, check the WinList to see if it has been minimized and/or the Pager to see if you have accidently moved onto another desktop.