Installing McIDAS-X on Windows 7 Workstations

If you are installing McIDAS-X on a workstation running the Windows XP operating system, go to Installing McIDAS-X on Windows XP Workstations. If you're installing McIDAS-X on a workstation running the HP-UX, AIX, Linux, Solaris or Mac OS X operating system, go to Installing McIDAS-X on Unix or Mac OS X Workstations.

This section contains background information about and the procedure for installing McIDAS-X on PC workstations running Microsoft Windows 7 with Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA). Hereafter, the terms McIDAS-X for Win7 and McIDAS-X for Win7 2011.1 refer specifically to this package. The McIDAS-X command suite, which is identical in all three packages (Unix, Windows 7 and Windows XP), is referred to as McIDAS-X or McIDAS-X 2011.1.

Because the Win7 package is distributed as both binary and source code, and the Unix package is distributed as source code only, which must be compiled (built) on-site, the installation files and procedures for these packages are different.

The table below lists the software versions compatible with McIDAS-X for Win7 2011.1. McIDAS-X for Win7 2011.1 was tested on these versions only. The McIDAS Users' Group is extremely limited in its ability to support sites running McIDAS-X for Win7 2011.1 with other software versions.

Operating System	Fortran compiler	C compiler	X server
Microsoft^® Windows^® 7 Enterprise with Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) and SUA Community Complete Toolset	g77 : 3.3	gcc : 3.3	see below

System Configuration Notes:

Because McIDAS-X for Win7 is distributed as a binary package, the Fortran and C compilers are needed only if you do local development on the workstation. The compilers are packaged with the SUA software.

We do not have a specific X server that we recommend for Windows 7. The two that are used most at SSEC are Xming (packaged with SUA Community Complete Toolset) and X-Win32. Neither work flawlessly, as we have encountered problems with both, typically with cutting and pasting or when using cursor-based commands like CUR, PC or CM. If you encounter these types of problems with your X server, you may find that setting or unsetting the -noXCursor flag in your $HOME/.mcidasrc file improves performance.

Unlike Unix, Windows 7 does not have a single rooted file system. Rather than mounting a drive on any arbitrary mount point in a file system, the drive must be mounted on a drive letter (e.g., C: or D:). Because SUA uses the Windows 7 file system, the pathnames to files may look different than they do in Unix. There are two types of pathnames on a Windows 7 system running SUA: Win32 and POSIX. The Win32 format (e.g., c:\Windows\SUA\bin) is the standard format used in Windows and DOS environments. It is used in all Windows 7 Win32 applications. The POSIX format (e.g., /dev/fs/C/Windows/SUA/bin) is the standard format used in Unix environments. It is used with SUA applications, including McIDAS-X.

The installation instructions appear below. The system administrator or person who installs McIDAS-X for XP will use these installation instructions, which consist of six tasks:

If you have questions about the installation, call the McIDAS Help Desk at (608) 262-2455, or send email to McIDAS User Services .

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