19990913: McIDAS-X 7.60 support on RedHat 6.0

>From: Michael Keables <address@hidden>
>Organization: DU
>Keywords: 199908262233.QAA03752 McIDAS RedHat 6.0 Linux

Mike,

>You may look at a clean installation of RedHat 6.0 on
>nimbus.natnet.du.edu.  Login as mcidas, ...

Thanks.  I just today got McIDAS-X 7.60 to build on our RedHat 6.0 system
here at Unidata, so this is a good time to check the newly cut distribution
on one of your Dells.

>Will leave it on for the week, but then will need to wipe the disk and
>replace with v5.2.

Given my success, you don't have to wipe the new machines if you don't
want to.  There is no harm in loading in RedHat 5.2, but you don't need
to as far as McIDAS goes now.  I'm sorry that I wasn't able to promise
this success earlier, but I really couldn't predict how long it would
take to fix all of the problems that could be run into.

If you want to stay with RedHat 6.0, then there is some configuration
that will have to be done.  This relates to the use of the 'f2c' stuff
that is needed for the McIDAS (and GEMPAK) builds on 6.0:

<login as 'root' (If I had had root privilege, I would have done the
following for you>

cd /usr/local/bin
ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
  <user>
  <pass>
  cd unix/760/fortran/RedHat6.0
  binary
  get f2c
  lcd /usr/local/include
  get f2c.h
  lcd ;usr/local/lib
  get libf2c.a
  quit
chmod +x f2c

I got McIDAS-X 7.60 to build on nimbus by putting the f2c stuff in the
directory /home/mcidas/util.  I then had to hack a couple of anciallary
McIDAS 'make' files (mccomp and mcfc in the /home/mcidas/mcidas7.6/src
directory) to get the distribution to build.  After 'root' does the
installation steps above, you can wipe out the /home/mcidas/util
directory and its contents from nimbus.

Your machine appears to be pretty fast.  The full McIDAS-X, -XCD build
took only about 20 minutes!

I tested out the build by doing the following (I made no changes to shell
configuration files):

<login as mcidas>

cd /home/mcidas
<ftp the distribution and associated files>
chmod +x mcinstall
setenv McINST_ROOT /home/mcidas
./mcinstall
cd mcidas7.6/src
make all
make install.all
setenv PATH /home/mcidas/bin:$PATH
setenv MCDATA /home/mcidas/workdata
setenv MCPATH ${MCDATA}:/home/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/help
setenv MCGUI  /home/mcidas/bin
<set the DISPLAY back to my machine at Unidata>
rehash
mcidas config

<in McIDAS, I did>

<open the GUI command mode by pressing the left mouse button over the
keyboard icon>

DF 9010 1 EU=TOPO
EG B
DATALOC ADD RTIMAGES ADDE.UNIDATA.UCAR.EDU
IMGDISP RTIMAGES/GE-IR LATLON=27:30 77:30 EU=IMAGE REFRESH='EG;MAP H'
EG
EG I
DATALOC DEL RTIMAGES

Everything seemed to work nicely.

If you decide to keep nimbus at RedHat 6.0 (and now there is no reason
not to), you need to finish off the installation:

<as root>
<create an account named 'mcadde' that:
  o has the same HOME directory as 'mcidas'
  o does not have login privilege (shell should be set to /bin/false)
  o is in the same group as 'mcidas' and 'ldm'
cd /home/mcidas
sh mcinet7.6.sh install mcadde

<as 'mcidas'>
cd /home/mcidas
<configure the 'mcidas' account for:
 o running McIDAS (edit .cshrc and define PATH, MCDATA, etc. according to
   the instructions on the Unidata McIDAS-X web pages:
   http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx)
 o configure XCD as per the XCD web pages

<as the user 'ldm'>
 o load the LDM
 o configure the LDM to run McIDAS-XCD and McIDAS ROUTE PostProcess
   BATCH files
 o get the ldm-mcidas decoders for RedHat 6.0 (I need to create these
   tomorrow!!)
 o decide on where to store data from the LDM and from
   XCD decoders
 o crank up the LDM

Please let me know what you think of the installation on nimbus, and
if you need any help finishing off the installation.

Talk to you later...

Tom

>From address@hidden  Wed Sep 15 11:08:41 1999

Excellent!! I'll make the necessary changes on nimbus.