File browsing unavailable in headless mode using guitarix -G GUI on second machine

[AtlantaScott]

I run guitarix in a headless mode using guitarix -N to start up the engine. I connect via link-local ethernet on a second machine to run the GUI only using guitarix -G. When I do this I can run everything just fine including all midi controllers. However if I try to browse for a file, for example in NAM or convolver plugins, I am unable to browse to a different folder even though I can select different files in the folder that is shown. It shows the path to this folder but the "File" button is grayed out and so I can't click to browse to a different folder. Any idea if this is expected behavior running the GUI like this?

In general I find I can avoid x-runs at lower latency on modest hardware by offloading the GUI to a second machine. For now I have to run the GUI locally or via RDP in order to browse for different folders in plugins like NAM and convolver. Once I set up the presets and save them I can run using the -no GUI switch and it works fine to use the already set up presets. It is surprisingly easy to set up a true headless system with the GUI running on a second machine. If I disable the GPU altogether on the CPU running the engine and then connect by SSH to the headless computer hosting the guitarix engine I can run the engine with no x-server and no desktop processes running. A simple local-link ethernet tether between the headless box and a cheap laptop and I'm all set. As long as I have guitarix installed on the laptop I just run guitarix -G and it finds the running server and just works (except for the file browsing :). This methods uses very few resources on the CPU running the guitarix engine, thus fewer/no x-runs at lower buffers like 32 frames 2 periods.