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Category: Installed software

idl70 and goddard library upgrade

I basically followed the idl64 install instructions already posted in this blog.

Joel had received the idl70 update email from itt, and that contains the instructions on where to download the license file and the tar.gz file containing the install image.

[bduffy 2009-02-04: I’ve put a copy of the relevant license.dat and tar.gz files into /etc/secret/exchange/idl70/]

As root:

cd /usr/local

Because /usr/local/itt already existed and contained idl64, I moved the original /usr/local/itt to itt64 to move it out of the way. I will delete it later after I’m comfortable that the install went smoothly.

mv ./itt ./itt64
mkdir itt
cd itt
mv /root/idl70linux.x86.tar.gz
tar -xvzf idl70linux.x86.tar.gz
cd ./license
cp /etc/secret/idl7-license.txt ./license.dat

I then edited /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat to contain only the license entry for this box.

chmod 644 ./license.dat

cd /usr/local/itt

Then ran the ‘install’ script:

./install

Said ‘y’ to all prompts

Chose option 1) for creating symbolic links and defining the IDL environment. It created several symbolic links.

Finally the install script asked if we wanted to start “DICOM Network Services at boot time”. I answered ‘n’.

Restarted the license mgr by issuing these commands:

/usr/local/itt/idl70/bin/lmdown
/usr/local/itt/idl70/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat

NOTE: On Mirzam (but not Sirius) I ran into trouble issuing the lmdown command. Turns out the problem was that the ‘IDL_DIR’ env var was set in root’s .tcshrc file and that changed the scripts behaviour. I removed the setting of the ‘IDL_DIR’ from root’s .tcshrc file and that fixed the problem.

I also removed all the old idl6.3 related /etc/*/*_idl_* files on both Mirzam and Sirius.

Tested that idl70 was installed by issuing the ‘idl’ command at the command prompt. Seemed to work.

To get the idl lm to start at boot time, I edited /etc/rc.d/rc.local and removed this line:

/usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat

… and added this line:

/usr/local/itt/idl70/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat

Made sure all current users ~/.cshrc file contained the correct idl_setup call. They did. Here’s the proper command:

source /usr/local/itt/idl/bin/idl_setup

Then installed the goddard lib:

mkdir /usr/local/itt/idl70/lib/goddard

Downloaded http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp/astron.tar.gz
to /usr/local/itt/idl70/lib/goddard

cd /usr/local/itt/idl70/lib/goddard
tar -xvzf ./astron.tar.gz

konqueror (nautilus?) file browser and kwrite (kate?)text editor setup hints

Added by jmw 2020 may 28: Maybe these konqueror and kwrite config hints are still somewhat useful for nautilus and kate???

I find konqueror the best file browser for linux. To customize it a little, for example to get .idl files to open with my favorite text editor, kwrite:

with konqueror running:
settings>>configure konqueror gives some options like what your home dir should be (eg /home/youusername

to make conqueror behave a certain way with a certain kind of file, i made in my home dir (/home/jweisber) a file called dummy.idl

if you select it inside konqueror (one click to highlight it)

go to edit>properties
it should pop open a window labelled “Properties for dummy.idl – Konqueror”
‘way to the right of “type” is an icon of a bunch of tools. push on it.
it should pop open a window labelled “Edit file type application/idl KDEditFileType- Konqueror”
if its not already there, add a filename pattern of *.idl
that means any file ending with that will be treated in the way you are getting ready to set up

under application preference order, enter
kwrite

if you wish, you can also associate a pretty icon with *.idl by clicking on the “?” icon to left of “filename patterns”

click ok and from now on , when you dble-click on any file ending in .idl, it should open it with kwrite (see addition below)

(you may have to entirely quit and restart konqueror for the new properties to take)

–jmw january 2008

——addition feb 2008 – to get kwrite to use “syntax highlighting” (ie to color idl files with a certain color set; fortran etc etc):

open an idl file in kwrite.

in the kwrite toolbar up top, hit settings>configure editor>highlighting

now here is what took me more time than i am willing to admit:

the panel should now be labelled highlighting rules.

the first thing to do is to select a type from the pulldown menu near the top; eg “sources idl ”

then inside properties:file extensions, type *.pro;*.idl;*.batch

inside properties: MIME types, type application/idl

then hit the icon on the far right of this line and get a panel saying “Select the mimetypes you want highlighted using sources/idl syntax highlight rules”

and check the relevant mime types.

(note if the right mime types arent there, see joel)

note that some of these properties do not “take” until you jump out of konqueror and restart it!

xfig

OUT OF DATE as of 2008-11-01.

xfig, a figure drawing program, is now installed at /usr/share/astro . The executable is called xfig. The Imakefile I used to compile and install this program can be found a /etc/secret/Imakefile.xfig

If this ever needs to be compiled again, download the source and follow the directions to compile located in the README, using my Imakefile

IDL 6.4 upgrade

This is an entry to explain how IDL 6.4 was installed.

First we received an email telling us to upgrade our licensing to IDL 6.4. We followed the website instructions to upgrade our 3 licenses from 6.3 to 6.4. The newly upgraded license files were then emailed to Joel who forwarded them onto me(Josh).

I downloaded the tar file from the ITT website through Joel’s login.

I then went to /usr/local and created a directory called itt. I unpacked the 6.4 software in this directory using the command: tar -xvzf idl_linux.x86.tar.gz

Next, run the install binary by typing ./install if you are in the ITT directory or /usr/local/itt/install if you need the absolute path. You will be prompted a few times, just hit yes to install the software and yes to create the symbolic links. Ignore the web server questions just by hitting enter. IDL 6.4 is now installed.

However, in order to use the software, you must now do the licensing correctly.

I placed a copy of all 3 licenses in one flat file in /etc/secret/license.txt.

Copy license.txt and edit it so that the license for the machine you are installing to is the only entry in the file. Then rename the file license.dat.

Move this file to /usr/local/itt/license/

Then restart the license manager on the machine by typing:

/usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmdown

followed by:

/usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat

This will then restart the license manager with the new license for IDL 6.4

Now, make sure the license manager is starting at boot time. To do this, simply look in /etc/rc.d/rc.local.

If this command is not there, add it to the end of the rc.local script: /usr/local/itt/idl64/bin/lmgrd -c /usr/local/itt/license/license.dat

Added by JMW 07/2007: Note that idl without the goddard routines is like a fish without a bicycle.  As of July 2007, they must be manually copied on all three computers from the old idl’s lib directory to the new idls lib directory.  crude!  (See goddard libe entry below for more details, but basically root has to do a cp -r.)

Finally test and finish.

———————————————————————————————–

The final step is to make sure you have overwritten any environment variables you have set up in your .tcshrc or .cshrc.

To do this, look in your .cshrc and if you have the line:

source /usr/local/rsi/idl_6.3/bin/idl_setup

Make sure you change it to:

source /usr/local/itt/idl/bin/idl_setup

(Joel supplied the above July 29, 2007. note that rsi->itt and idl_6.3->idl (assuming idl dir is linked to idl64 and future ones) )
———————————————————————————————

supermongo (sm) plotting software

this nice simple plot program is at /usr/share/astro/sm

if you put /usr/share/astro in your path, all you have to do is type sm

list device tells you what graphics devices are set up.  i recommend x11 or postscript, for screen or paper, respectively.

pgplot compile and link in fortran or c

there are a variety of scripts to do it in /usr/share/astro

note they have names like pglink.f77 and contain lines bringing in pgplot and x11 libraries:

g77 -fno-backslash -o $1 $1.f   -L/usr/share/astro/pgplot -lpgplot -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11 -lGL  -xlist

pgplot plotting routines need user to place a directory in path

In your .cshrc, you must add /usr/share/astro to your path if you want to be able to see
plots on screen with /xwin or /xserv windows, because pgplot has to be able to find the pgxwin server in that directory at execution time. Joel linked the pgxwin server from its home in /uasr/share/astro/pgplot into /usr/share/astro to make it more findable.
eg; in Joel’s .cshrc, one finds
set path = ( . $path /usr/share/astro /usr/share/astro/idlshare/gbtidl/)

uncompress

Joel installed uncompress onto Mirzam.

He got the rpm for “ncompress” at

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/2406147/com/ncompress-4.2.4-31.i386.rpm.html

redhat desktop modification: eg thunderbird internet email

OUT OF DATE as of 2008-11-01.

when thunderbird died, from the redhat applications internet menu, Josh showed Joel how to fix it.

As root on /usr/share/applications, fix mozilla-thunderbird.desktop

In this particular case, I had to change  to

Exec=/usr/bin/thunderbird

Icon=thunderbird.png