Preparing the mcidas Account (Single-User Configuration)

Note: This section contains the instructions for preparing the mcidas account when installing McIDAS-X on Win10 in the single-user configuration. For the multi-user configuration instructions (or information about the two configuration options), return to the Configuration Options and Instructions and follow those instructions.

Each account in Windows 10 runs a separate instance of Ubuntu^®. The single-user configuration requires two accounts in Ubuntu: the main user account (e.g., mcuser) and the mcidas account. The main user account is the account that is automatically logged in when an Ubuntu shell is started from Windows 10, and is the account used to run McIDAS-X. The mcidas account is created by the main user, and it is the account that is used to build and install the McIDAS-X software.

Complete the instructions in the two sections below, in order, to create and configure those accounts.

Install Ubuntu and create and configure the main user account

Complete the steps below to acquire and install Ubuntu and create the main user account. Then you will update the Linux package repositories and install the packages required to build McIDAS-X.

Set the default WSL version for your account to WSL 2 and then install Ubuntu by completing steps 5-6 in the Manual Installation Steps at Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux Installation Guide for Windows 10. The bullets below provide additional guidance.

When asked to "Install your Linux distribution of choice," acquire Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store. If there are multiple matches to choose from, select the one without a version number in order to get the current version. Then complete the instructions to install Ubuntu.

After the Ubuntu install is complete, you will be prompted to create a user account. The account, which will have sudo privileges, is the main user account and should NOT be named root or mcidas or mcadde. Instead, choose a name suitable for a McIDAS-X user; we suggest either your Windows login or mcuser.

In an Ubuntu shell while logged in as the user you created in the previous step (e.g., mcuser), run the three sudo commands below (the last is all one line) to update the Linux package repositories and to install the packages required to build McIDAS-X.

Type:  sudo apt update
Type:  sudo apt upgrade
Type:  sudo apt install bison build-essential cmake csh flex gfortran libncurses5 libncurses5-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxpm-dev libxt-dev

Create and configure the mcidas account

Complete the steps below to create and configure the mcidas account in Ubuntu.

Open an Ubuntu shell and run command whoami to verify that you are logged in as the main user account (created in the section above).

Run the four sudo commands below to create the mcidas account and its home directory.

Type:  sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -U mcidas
Type:  sudo passwd -d mcidas                           (password expiry information changed is a normal response)
Type:  sudo mkdir -p /home/mcidas
Type:  sudo chown mcidas:mcidas /home/mcidas

Preparing the mcidas Account (Single-User Configuration)

Install Ubuntu and create and configure the main user account

Create and configure the mcidas account