20010123: Unidata McIDAS-X 7.7 on FreeBSD (cont.)

>From: "John C. Nordlie" <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of North Dakota
>Keywords: 200101102305.f0AN5Do04431 McIDAS-X 7.7

John,

>Before I get too deep in the installation, is there anything I
>need to look out for when building for FreeBSD?

No.  I built Unidata McIDAS-X Version 7.7x on a FreeBSD system at
Plymouth State College a week and a half ago, and ran into no problems
unique to FreeBSD.  What I did run into, however, was the need to
install f2c, libf2c, and f2c.h.  I mention this since the tendency for
sites is to assume that the GNU g77 compiler can be used for the
Fortran component; it can't.  The other thing that you may have to deal
with is configuring enough shared memory on FreeBSD.

I would suggest reviewing the Notes and Warnings section of the online
installation documentation for McIDAS before diving into the build/install:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/770/mcx/warnings_mcx.html

>I've been grabbing
>linux binaries and running them in compatibility mode for other
>stuff (which works fine), but I didn't see any for McIDAS-X 7.7.

Given the size of McIDAS, I do not make a binary distribution available.
This may change in the furture as we investigate providing simple to
install distributions on CD ROM.

Please don't hesitate to ask for help if you run into anything unusual
during the installation.  My perspective is that an installation done
"by the numbers" the first time will make successive installations and
updates quite painless.

Tom Yoksas