Cannot open display on server

Hi group. I am writing a server/client-application, which does not use any kind of Gtk-windows or anything like that. However I am using the gtk-lib to handel events from sockets and stuff like that. The application is working, but I am unable to use it on a server with no X-server installed. Is there any way to keep the gtk-lib from crashing the whole application when trying to load it from a shell? Like making this crashing error into a non-crashing notice or something and still be able to use the Gtk-events from sockets? As said before, I dont use any windows or widgets anyway. -- Regards Kasper Johansen