torque-client has incorrect path for xauth, preventing X forwarding

[Jeremiah Willcock]

The version of Torque (both torque-client and torque-client-x11) has an incorrect path for xauth, preventing Torque's X forwarding feature from working. To reproduce the problem, set the DISPLAY environment variable correctly on the head node and then run:

qsub -l nodes=1 -I -X

An error will then be produced:

qsub: xauth: : No such file or directory
qsub: Failed to get xauth data (check $DISPLAY variable)

That error will be produced even if your DISPLAY variable is set such that X applications will start when run directly. The issue is discussed at http://www.supercluster.org/pipermail/mauiusers/2008-March/003216.html, and I used the steps listed there to find the cause of the problem. The path to xauth in the qsub executable is /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth, while the actual path in Ubuntu is /usr/bin/xauth. The solution is to use the --with-xauth argument when configuring Torque; see http://www.clusterresources.com/torquedocs21/1.3advconfig.shtml for details.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[ian (ircwaves)]

Not entirely sure how a `/usr/X11R6/bin/xauth` has shown up in an ubuntu 14.04 package (when I `apt-get source -b torque-client` everything builds with `/usr/bin/xauth` as the default).

Though this still seems like a bug to me, there are ways to configure your way around the misconfigured build:

1. On compute nodes: edit `${TORQUE_HOME}/mom_priv/config` per
    http://docs.adaptivecomputing.com/torque/4-1-4/Content/topics/commands/pbs_mom.htm
2. On the scheduler edit `${TORQUE_HOME}/torque.cfg per
    http://docs.adaptivecomputing.com/torque/4-0-2/Content/topics/commands/qsub.htm