[McIDAS #NVV-458972]: McIDAS installation problems

Hi George,

re:
> I am trying to install McIDAS.  I have been following the steps on the
> website
> (http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/users_guide/BuildingandInstallingMcIDAS-X.html),
> however I have come across the following problem:  When I run make all,
> the installation fails on g2clib.  This is because the Makefile in this
> direction has the following line:
> 
> CC=

This suggests that you did not setup the environment in the account
in which you are building 'mcidas' fully.

Question:

- did you follow the guideline to 'source' the environment file included
  with the Unidata McIDAS distribution?

  Here is the reference:

Unidata HomePage
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu

  Software
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software

    McIDAS
    http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas

      Documentation and Training
      http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/#documentation

        McIDAS user's guide
        http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/users_guide/toc.html

Chapter 1 - Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/users_guide/InstallingandConfiguringMcIDAS-X.html

  Installing McIDAS-X on Unix or Mac OS X Workstations
  
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/users_guide/InstallingMcIDAS-XonUnixorMacOSXWorkstations.html

    Preparing the mcidas Account
    
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/users_guide/PreparingthemcidasAccount.html

In particular, if one follows the guidelines in step 4. on the last page, 
environment
variables like CC should be defined for all packages included in the Unidata
McIDAS distribution.

re:
> I noticed that changing this line to set the variable to 'gcc' causes it
> to run smoothly, however the Makefile does not exist until you run make
> all on the src directory.

Right, but if CC (and other needed environment variables) are defined before
starting the build, things should proceed smoothly.  If they do not, then
I would suspect that you are attempting to build on a platform/OS that
has not been tested.

Questions:

- what OS are you trying to build on?

- what is output when you run 'env' from the command prompt in the
  account in which you are trying to build McIDAS?

- can you provide the shell-specific definition file (e.g., .cshrc
  for the C-Shell, .bash_profile/.bashrc for BASH, etc.) from the
  account in which you are trying the build?

re:
> I unsuccessfully tried to find where this
> makefile gets copied from to try to edit it before running.
> 
> The installation appears to run OK when I run 'make all' again after
> making this change, but the GUI crashes when I try to open it.  The
> following error message is displayed:
> 
> Error in startup script: invalid command name "fileToList"
> while executing
> "fileToList $mcrcfile"
> (procedure "readMcidasrc" line 139)
> invoked from within
> "readMcidasrc "$home/.mcidasrc""
> ("0" arm line 2)
> invoked from within
> "switch $nargs {
> 0 {
> readMcidasrc "$home/.mcidasrc"
> startMcidas $optn
> }
> 1 {
> if { !([string match "confi..."
> (file "/home/mcidas/mcidas2009/src/mcidas" line 678)

This typically happens when the build and/or installation was not totally 
successful.
After getting the environment setup (as indicated in the Configuring the McIDAS 
Account
page referenced above), I would do a clean rebuild/install of McIDAS:

<as 'mcidas'>
-- fix/setup the shell-specific environment file to 'source' the
   appropriate environment file
-- make sure that the appropriate environment file has, in fact, been
   'sourced'

cd ~mcidas/mcidas2009/src
make clobber
make all

re: 
> I did a search and found other people mention this problem.  The
> suggestions say to try reinstalling the program, which did not work for
> me.

re:
> Could this g2clib problem be causing problems with the
> installation?  Any suggestions are very appreciated.

I am almost 100% sure that the build will proceed smoothly after sourcing
the appropriate environment file is setup (my comment is based on a number
of folks running into problems like the one you have reported and their
situation clearing up after fully setting up the environment before doing
a build).

If you continue to have problems, would it be possible to allow me to
login as 'mcidas' to see what may be happening?  If yes, please either
call me with the login information (x8642) or send me the password for
the user 'mcidas' to my Unidata email address (address@hidden)
_without_ any reference to the account or machine for which the account
is valid.  Then, provide me the name of your machine in a separate email
with no reference to the account or password.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: NVV-458972
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed