Running AirSim headless

[microsoft]

Running AirSim headless

[ricardodeazambuja]

Just to clarify, headless does work using docker on my computer (NVIDIA Driver Version: 418.56), but I can't use docker on the server I have access to (NVIDIA Driver Version: 410.79).

[ricardodeazambuja]

Ok, using Singularity (singularity version 3.1.1+ds) and the SDL_VIDEODRIVER_VALUE=offscreen, it's almost working... at least it seems to be using it now:

[2019.07.22-19.42.41:073][  0]LogInit: Initializing SDL.
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit: Initialized SDL 2.0.8 revision: 11184 (hg-12121:4358e537000a with EpicExtensions) (compiled against 2.0.8)
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit: Using SDL video driver 'offscreen'
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit: Display metrics:
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   PrimaryDisplayWidth: 1024
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   PrimaryDisplayHeight: 768
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   PrimaryDisplayWorkAreaRect:
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:     Left=0, Top=0, Right=1024, Bottom=768
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   VirtualDisplayRect:
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:     Left=0, Top=0, Right=1024, Bottom=768
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   TitleSafePaddingSize: X=0.000 Y=0.000 Z=0.000 W=0.000
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   ActionSafePaddingSize: X=0.000 Y=0.000 Z=0.000 W=0.000
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:   Number of monitors: 1
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:     Monitor 0
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:       Name: 0
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:       ID: display0
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:       NativeWidth: 1024
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:       NativeHeight: 768
[2019.07.22-19.42.41:153][  0]LogInit:       bIsPrimary: true

But it still fails:

[2019.07.22-19.42.42:429][  0]LogInit: Using SDL_WINDOW_OPENGL
Signal 11 caught.
Malloc Size=65538 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=65554 
CommonUnixCrashHandler: Signal=11
Malloc Size=65535 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=131119 
Malloc Size=52256 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=183392 
[2019.07.22-19.42.42:542][  0]LogCore: === Critical error: ===
Unhandled Exception: SIGSEGV: invalid attempt to read memory at address 0x0000000000000010

[2019.07.22-19.42.42:542][  0]LogCore: Fatal error!

[StanislavSychev]

I've run into the same problem and virtual screen setup helped me to overcome it.

[madratman]

Can you look at
https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim/blob/master/docs/docker_ubuntu.md#binaries
(ctrl+f "headless")

and the run binary linux script directly https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim/blob/master/docker/run_airsim_image_binary.sh
relevant snippets are

# this block is for running X apps in docker
XAUTH=/tmp/.docker.xauth
if [ ! -f $XAUTH ]
then
    xauth_list=$(xauth nlist :0 | sed -e 's/^..../ffff/')
    if [ ! -z "$xauth_list" ]
    then
        echo $xauth_list | xauth -f $XAUTH nmerge -
    else
        touch $XAUTH
    fi
    chmod a+r $XAUTH
fi

this thing

SDL_VIDEODRIVER_VALUE='';
while [ -n "$1" ]; do
    case "$1" in
    --)
        shift 
        break
        ;; 
    esac
    shift
done
 
for param in $@; do
    case "$param" in
    headless) SDL_VIDEODRIVER_VALUE='offscreen' ;;
    esac
done

just sets the value of the env variable to offscreen

[madratman]

-opengl3.. I would rather recommend using the -vulkan flag

Update
from 4.21, UE had moved to vulkan by default on linux. (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Unreal-Engine-4.21-Debuts , https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/8x0c78/unreal_engine_4_now_runs_with_vulkan_under_linux/)
Our binaries are cooked with UE 4.22.

I'd recommend trying the docker binary shell script with the headless param, minus the opengl tag

Please update if that works

[ricardodeazambuja]

@madratman, I'm trying to run it on Google Colaboratory so no docker, no tty, etc and that's why I tried singularity. On my laptop I managed to use docker to run airsim truly headless (without passing any display or volume with X11 stuff), but on google colab... I'm still trying :)

@stanislavsych, I tried to implement the solution you suggested, but I have problems with tty (there's no on google colab). I still need to try it maybe with singularity.

[ugurkanates]

So what happened? please update on this issue

[madratman]

@ugurkanates did you read the docker docs and try dockerfiles linked above? If so, can you please tell us what failed?
Or are you trying to run this in google collab as well?

[ugurkanates]

@ugurkanates did you read the docker docs and try dockerfiles linked above? If so, can you please tell us what failed?
Or are you trying to run this in google collab as well?

Yes @madratman , i am gonna run on google collab for most time and rent a cloud PC when i think its ok and see actual results. Would be lovely if you guys post a template for collab or fix tothe problem

[madratman]

I have added support for docker. See here https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim-NeurIPS2019-Drone-Racing#docker / #100

Closing this, as we don't have the bandwidth to support google collab.
If you figured this out, please update with your solution so others can benefit from it.