20060106: McIDAS2005-X for XP Installation Problems

>From: "Michael Keables" <address@hidden>
>Organization: DU
>Keywords: 200601062239.k06MdJ7s001776 McIDAS-X on Windows XP

Hi Mike,

Happy New Year to you also!

Sorry to have take so long to reply...

re:
>I'm trying to install mcidas2005a-x for xp in our windows pc lab. Right
>now students are running individual vnc server sessions on cyclone and
>with 15 students hitting the server at the same time, it is brining
>cyclone to a slow crawl...

I can well imagine!

>Here's what I've done so far:
> 
>1. downloaded and installed Windows SFU without incident.
>2. created the mcidas account and set the SFU environment (ln, chown, chmod)
>3. run mcidas2005a.sh install without error.
>4. I don't plan on having the lab pcs serve files, so I didn't install mcadde.
>5. created a user account as in 2 above.

Sounds good.

>I then launch an SFU Korn shell and try to run mcidas, but get the following:
> 
>Running McIDAS configuration GUI ...
> 
>$ Application initialization failed: this isn't at Tk application couldn't con
> nect to display "localhost:0.0"
>Error in startup script: can't read "tk_version": no such variable while execu
> ting
>"if { $tk_version >= 8.1 } \
>  {
>    ::tk::unsupported::ExposePrivateCommand tk*
>  }"
>  (file "/dev/fs/C/home/mcidas/bin/config.gui" line 3483)

What X Windows package are you running?  X Windows is needed for the
displays, and it sounds like one is not available.

>I also tried to run mcidas under a cygwin x session and get the the
>following:
> 
>Running McIDAS configuration GUI ...
> 
>$ Application initialization failed: Can't find a usuable init.tcl in the foll
> owing directories:
> 
>...
> 
>This probably means the Tcl wasn't installed properly.

Or that the location being searched doesn't have the init.tcl file.

>I looked in the directories listed in the error message where the
>tcl directories are supposed to be but they are not there, so it appears
>that Tcl isn't installed as it should be.
> 
>Suggestions?

Before I try to sort this out (I think it is related to the X Window
package you are trying to use), can I ask about the Windows machines
you want to run McIDAS on?  How fast are they and how much memory do
they have?

The reason I ask is you may want to try using the IDV (Integrated Data
Viewer) on your Windows boxes _if_ they are fast enough and have
sufficient memory.  A "standard" (by today's measure with 512 MB of
RAM), reasonably new (with a CPU that is faster than about 1.2 GHz)
Windows PC is typically sufficient to run the IDV as long as one is not
trying to do too much visualization of 3D model data.

The IDV installs easily under Windows, especially Windows XP.  It is
ADDE-enabled, so you can access the data being decoded by McIDAS-XCD on
cyclone as long as the ADDE remote interface is configured on cyclone.
I am unable to access it from my machine at Unidata at the moment, but
this is probably due to a firewall blocking my access.  Assuming
that your Windows machines are on the same subnet as cyclone, they
should be able to access the data through the ADDE remote interface
on cyclone.

>Thanks.

Please let me know if you are willing to give the IDV a test.

Cheers,

Tom
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