Comment 6 for bug 478728

I think the problem is the --remote (-r) option, try this:

mik@mik-home:~$ gqview --remote some.jpg
Remote GQview not running, starting...
mik@mik-home:~$

mik@mik-home:~$ gqview --debug --remote some.jpg
debugging output enabled (level 1)
error connecting to socket: Connection refused
debugging output enabled (level 1)
loader reported [svg] [Scalable Vector Graphics] [.svg;.svgz;.svg.gz]
loader reported [wmf] [Windows Metafile] [.wmf;.apm]
loader reported [ani] [The ANI image format] [.ani]
loader reported [bmp] [The BMP image format] [.bmp]
loader reported [gif] [The GIF image format] [.gif]
loader reported [icns] [The ICNS image format] [.icns]
loader reported [ico] [The ICO image format] [.ico;.cur]
loader reported [jpeg2000] [The JPEG 2000 image format] [.jp2;.jpc;.jpx;.j2k;.jpf]
loader reported [jpeg] [The JPEG image format] [.jpeg;.jpe;.jpg]
loader reported [pcx] [The PCX image format] [.pcx]
loader reported [png] [The PNG image format] [.png]
loader reported [pnm] [The PNM/PBM/PGM/PPM image format family] [.pnm;.pbm;.pgm;.ppm]
loader reported [ras] [The Sun raster image format] [.ras]
loader reported [tga] [The Targa image format] [.tga;.targa]
loader reported [tiff] [The TIFF image format] [.tiff;.tif]
loader reported [wbmp] [The WBMP image format] [.wbmp]
loader reported [xbm] [The XBM image format] [.xbm]
loader reported [xpm] [The XPM image format] [.xpm]
error connecting to socket: Connection refused
image load completed "(null)" (current)
Remote GQview not running, starting...
client count 1
mik@mik-home:~$ image reset
image begin
read ahead cancelled for :(null)
read ahead set to :/some.jpg
HUP detected, closing client.
client count 0

mik@mik-home:~$

I use up-to-date Karmic 64 bit.