# Error loading slicer from a remote computer using ssh and X11 forwarding

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-loading-slicer-from-a-remote-computer-using-ssh-and-x11-forwarding/8739>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [October 10, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-loading-slicer-from-a-remote-computer-using-ssh-and-x11-forwarding/8739 "2019-10-10T23:13:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Keyur\_Shah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/keyur_shah/32/4906_2.png) [@Keyur\_Shah](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Keyur_Shah)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-loading-slicer-from-a-remote-computer-using-ssh-and-x11-forwarding/8739/1 "2019-10-10T23:13:10Z")

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I am a new MacOS user. I have a problem when I ssh into a remote computer using X11 forwarding. I am trying to view 3D Slicer from my remote computer. 3D Slicer loads correctly, but I am unable to visualize anything. However, if I hover the mouse I can see the menu options. But I am unable to see any data that I load. On the terminal, I see QOpenGLWidget: Failed to create context and composeAndFlush: QOpenGLContext creation failed composeAndFlush: makeCurrent() failed.

I tried updating my MacOS in the hope that the driver would also update. But that did not help either.

I am using a Mac mini (Late 2014), macOS Catalina with a 2.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor and Intel Iris Graphics.

The problem is on the Mac, since Slicer loads when I ssh into the remote computer using my Ubuntu laptop.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Operating system: macOS Catalina  
Slicer version: 4.10/4.11  
Expected behavior: Slicer loads correctly  
Actual behavior: Slicer doesn’t load correctly

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**Author:** ![muratmaga](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/muratmaga/32/3622_2.png) [@muratmaga](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/muratmaga)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-loading-slicer-from-a-remote-computer-using-ssh-and-x11-forwarding/8739/2 "2019-10-11T04:14:20Z")

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it sounds like your X11 server on the local machine doesn’t have opengl support. I am not entirely sure about mac, but in our lab we use VirtualGL ([https://virtualgl.org/vgldoc/2\_2\_1/](https://virtualgl.org/vgldoc/2_2_1/)) on the remote machine and connect to it from our desktop machines either using VNC (on windows/linux) or vglconnect (linux). That way opengl rendering is done on the remote machine. For us it works really well (a 1080TI easily supports 5-6 concurrent connections, all of which doing 3D rendering at reasonably large datasets 1-2 gigavoxels).

There are other alternatives that other may chime in.

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**Author:** ![pieper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/pieper/32/8_2.png) [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-loading-slicer-from-a-remote-computer-using-ssh-and-x11-forwarding/8739/3 "2019-10-11T17:42:34Z")

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The instructions are a bit rough, and geared toward doing the work on the cloud, but [this approach](https://github.com/QIICR/SlicerGCPSetup) is another way of using the remote GPU with Slicer.