[McIDAS #PJS-787763]: Mcidas build/run less than 512M?

Hi Bill,

re:
> I'm trying to utilize some obsolete laptops my department has so
> students have some Mcidas machines to take storm chasing in June--a
> Gateway 450 something is the current problem.  It is only capable of
> handling 512Mb RAM.  I got Fedora 10 and Mcidas built, but Mcidas hangs
> on the initiation widget--back and forth back and forth, no text or
> graphics window.

Was there no error/warning messages in the Xterm/terminal window from
which you launched McIDAS?

> If I try 'mcidas config' I get a segmentation fault
> (no other error message).

This is very strange.  'mcidas config' will run the Tcl/Tk GUI configurator
for McIDAS.  At this point, McIDAS itself is not be run at all, so the
amount of memory you have your system configured with should have no
effect.

> I've made the appropriate changes for IPCS

What changes?

> and just wonder, am I up against a memory limit, since the IPCS segments
> are 512M also?

No, I don't think so.  I run McIDAS inside a VMware player virtual machine
that is configured with 512 MB of memory on my Acer Aspire One netbook that
is running Windows XP as the host OS, and I have no problems in Fedora (8|10),
OpenSUSE 10.(2|3), or Ubuntu 7.4.  I would be very surprised, therefore,
if the small amount of RAM is the real cause of the problem on your laptop(s).

Questions:

- how many colors is the Display configured to use?
- are the machines configured with ample swap space?
- have you taken care to turn off all OS services that
  are not absolutely necessary?  (to save on memory use)

Swap may be a big issue given the small amount of RAM.  Without being
able to poke around on one of the machines, I don't have a good idea
of why 'mcidas config' would cause a segmentation violation.

Would it be possible for you to put one of the machines having the problem
on the net and give me the login info for 'mcidas'?  If yes, please send
the password ** by itself ** in an email to address@hidden.  In
a separate email, please send the fully qualified name or IP address of
the machine ** with no mention of the account or password **.

Cheers,

Tom
--
****************************************************************************
Unidata User Support                                    UCAR Unidata Program
(303) 497-8642                                                 P.O. Box 3000
address@hidden                                   Boulder, CO 80307
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unidata HomePage                       http://www.unidata.ucar.edu
****************************************************************************


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: PJS-787763
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed