Running rgbdslam over multiple machines

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Hi,

I am trying to run rgbdslam over a distributed ROS system, running the openni nodes on a laptop aboard an iRobot Create with a kinect and running rgbdslam on a desktop computer. When I run rosrun rgbdslam rgbdslam (or roslaunch rgbdslam kinect+rgbdslam, or a modified launch file I made that is the same as kinect+rgbdslam but doesn't start the openni stuff), the GUI loads fine, I get no errors, but it always sits with blank screens in a 'waiting for image/motion' state.

Both computers can ping and ssh into each other and other applications (such as gmapping, amcl, and others) work fine when distributed like this (the data collection and minimal processing on the laptop, and heavier processing on the desktop). Furthermore, I can view the various camera streams from the kinect on the default topics on the desktop with image_view. I also can view rxgraph and the info on the various topics that rgbdslam needs and it all appears fine (identical to when I run everything on the desktop and it works).

Furthermore, as implied by the above comment, I can run rgbdslam on the desktop with a handheld kinect and it works fine.

The desktop and laptop are both running x64 Lubuntu 11.10. We're using ROS electric, and the current builds of rgbdslam and openni.

Is there any reason rgbdslam will not work distributed like this, or am I just doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance