20050512: McIDAS X and Linux

>From:  "Mike Patnoe" <address@hidden>
>Organization:  Boeing
>Keywords:  200505122121.j4CLLQP3003696 McIDAS platforms

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the tardy reply, but I just returned from travel...

>Are there any MUG users running McIDAS-X on Linux with a version of Linux
>OTHER than Red Hat?

Yes.  There are several Unidata university sites using a Linux distribution
other than RH.  For reference, the list of Linux distributions currently
in use in the Unidata community include:

RedHat 7.x, 8.0, 9.0, WS3
Fedora Core 1, 2, 3
Mandrake 10
Debian 3.1
Slackware 9
SuSE 9.0
Knoppix ?

I am interested if anyone has tried running under Gentoo.

McIDAS also works well under FreeBSD 4.x.

>If so, is it running smoothly?

Yes, but there have been indications of some problems running under
Debian.  I am not sure, however, if the problems are a result of "user
error" or are OS related.  In general, once McIDAS-X/-XCD gets built,
it runs well.

>Did you have any issues installing it?

Yes.  There has been a persistent problem building McIDAS-X under
Slackware 9, and SuSE 9.  The problem that has been reported relates to
the failure by 'make' to add all modules to libsdi.a.  The problem is
very weird since there is no problem building libmcidas.a or libxcd.a
on the same platforms!?  The 'solution' has been for users to either
add the modules "by hand" (i.e., ar r libmcidas.a <all libsdi modules>)
or to delete the library and make it using 'make libsdi.a'.  I did have
one user let me know that an upgrade of 'make' on his SuSE 9 system
seemed to fix the problem in creating a fully populated libsdi.a

Also, I was forced to upgrade the HDF4 portion of the Unidata McIDAS-X
v2004x distribution to the latest available from NCSA in order to build
under 64 bit Fedora Core 3.  I believe that the same upgrade would be
necessary under FreeBSD 5.3, but I have not verified this.

>We are switching over from our SGI servers to Linux
>and would prefer not to run Red Hat Enterprise.

We are running Fedora Core 3 (2.6.11 kernel) here at the Unidata
Program Center and are quite enthusiastic about its performance
especially as an LDM platform.  McIDAS-X,-XCD build with no problems
under FC 1-3.

>thanks,

Please let us all know if you decide to try out Gentoo.

>* Mike Patnoe, Meteorologist - Atmospheric Physics/Flight Test Eng
>* The Boeing Company         phone: 206-655-6689 fax: 206-662-0020
>* P.O. Box 3707, MS 14-KA    pager: 253-792-4287
>* Seattle, WA 98124-2207     email: address@hidden

Cheers,

Tom
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* Tom Yoksas                                             UCAR Unidata Program *
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