'Absolute Beginner's' Guide to A.P.Pradeepkumar Dept. of Geomatics, Computer Science and Mathematics FHT-Stuttgart Schellingstr. 24, Stuttgart 70174, Germany Email: [email protected], [email protected] February 2003 Contents 1. Setting up a Linux system for GRASS 1.1 System requirements 1.2 Basic software 1.3 Configuration of the GRASS system 1.4 Hard disk partitioning in Linux 1.5 BIOS updating Flashing the BIOS 1.6 The complete steps to have GRASS running on Linux Checking file systems Partitions NTFS and Linux ext2 or ext3 Master Boot Record and Lilo Mounting Windows partition in Linux LTOOLS 2. Setting up a Windows/Cygwin system for GRASS 2.1. The Cygwin environment in Windows for GRASS Step1. Download and install Cygwin tools Step 2. The precompiled X Window (XFree86, X11R6.4) System Step 3. Download latest binary distribution of Windows GRASS Step 4. Download the sunrpc libraries Step 5. Download the precompiled x tcl/tk 8.x libraries and executables Step 6. Actual GRASS installation Step 7. Starting GRASS 5.0.0 Shell prompt Graphical Problems with starting X Window server Switching between the Windows and XWindows monitor Ending the X Server session 'Absolute Beginner's' Guide to Linux/Cygwin GRASS Installation A.P.Pradeepkumar Dept. of Geomatics, Computer Science and Mathematics FHT-Stuttgart Schellingstr. 24, Stuttgart 70174, Germany Email: [email protected], [email protected] Anticipatory bail :-) This guide is not an expert's write up on Linux/Cygwin GRASS installation, but rather a new user's experience with setting up these systems. So there could be far more efficient methods of going about the job than outlined here! Acknowledgments to the many excellent tutorials written by GRASS users and developers, powered by the Free Software philosophy. 1. Setting up a Linux system for GRASS The basic assumption made in this guide is that there is no Linux, Cygwin or GRASS existing in your computer. So the guide deals with setting up Linux (RedHat 7.3 Valhalla 2.4.18-3), Cygwin and GRASS (5.0.0) on a fresh hard disk or on a computer with Windows already installed. 1.1 System requirements Ideally a computer destined to have a GRASS system should have at least: An operating systems like Linux/Intel, Linux/PowerPC, Solaris/SPARC, Solaris/i86, SGI IRIX, HP UX, Mac OS 4 (Darwin), .96 AIX, BSD-Unix variants, FreeBSD, CRAY Unicos, iPAQ/Linux handhelds and other 5=.4 compliant platforms (32/64bit), Windows NTFS/Cygnus. 200MHz speed processor %#&'#)369 RAM )*69 harddisk space for GRASS %**69 to 4GB for Linux (depending on the applications that are installed besides GRASS) Architectures like Intel x86, Motorola PPC, SGI MIPS, Sun SPARC, Alpha AXP, HP PA-RISC, CRAY. )**69 for data A good video card, ideally with !8 support Linux from Redhat, Debian or Slackware. For Debian, Mandrake Tcl/TK is installed but is not found by the executable because some links to dynamic libraries may not be set correctly. Mandrake users have to install grass with the --nodeps option because the link is not found by the package manager (refer http://motivation.ru/ cdrom/doc/grass.en.html for details.). Similar is the case with Suse (http://op.gfz-potsdam.de/GRASS-List/Archive/msg 07619. html). 1.2 Basic software Besides GRASS the following software need to be present (all these are automatically installed with Linux): C-compiler (cc, gcc, egcs etc.) (gcc: http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html) zlib compression library, which is pre-installed on most systems and is used for to internally compress GRASS raster files. (libz: http://www.gzip.org/zlib/) lexical analyzer generator (flex) (flex: http://www.gnu.org/software/flex/flex.html) parser generator (yacc, bison) (bison: http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/bison.html) libncurses 4.x/5.x (pre-installed on most systems) (http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses. html, ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/) dgm/gdbm (dbm.h): GNU dbm is a set of database routines that use extendible hashing and works similar to the standard 5=.4 dbm routines. (http://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm/gdbm.html) 4%% window system for graphical output, development libraries (X development libraries, usually an integral part of the Linux distributions) (http://www.xfree.org) 1.3 Configuration of the GRASS system The Linux/Windows system that was setup for GRASS/Cygwin GRASS in the Fachhochschule Stuttgart, had the following hardware installed for running GRASS (5.0.0 Aug #**#( as well as other software: CPU: x86 $)* MHz Intel Pentium II, )%# kb cache Memory: #)369 Network Card: 3Com Etherlink PCI, 100MB/s Harddisk capacity: 40GB Monitor: True color (32 bit, 1024x768, refresh rate: 70Hz, ELSA ECOMO %@B monitor) 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive SCSI CDROM TEAC CD-532S Fast/Ultra SE Video Card: 3$69 ="% GE Force4 64$$* Sound card: Creative SB AWE 3$ 1.4 Hard disk partitioning in Linux An outline of how to install Linux and GRASS, set up a dual-booting computer so that the system can have both Linux and Windows as OSs, access Windows files from Linux and vice-versa is presented here (these are my experience, better ways must exist). Invariably the computer you are going to install GRASS and Linux onto will have Windows as its operating system. So it would be a good idea to collect all the relevant information regarding hardware, network addresses and settings while Windows is intact. From the hardware browser in Windows all relevant information can be obtained. One of the more important information to be collected is the horizontal and vertical frequency of the monitor, Linux sometimes does not properly identify the monitor and its properties. Also you can run the freeware BGInfo in Windows (http://www. sysinternals. com/ ntw2k/freeware/ bginfo.shtml) to collect information on .2 address, netmask address, network address, hostname, gateway address, primary and secondary DNS etc (Fig. 1). These are needed to set up the internet connection. Fig. ( BGInfo provides information on most aspects of the computer and the network (Note: This screenshot is not of the computer in which Linux is installed.) 1.5 BIOS updating In case the hard disk of the computer that is being used for installing Linux and GRASS is not upto the expectations, it can be replaced with a new hard disk. But often the problem of incompatibilty between the BIOS and the new hard disk arises. This is mostly because older hard disks are SCSI while the newer ones with more capacity are .8A ones. Thus the older, existing motherboard and the BIOS will support only SCSI hard disks. Even if the new .8A hard disk is supported, most probably the full capacity of the harddisk will not be recognised by the BIOS. In case the hard disk of the computer that is being used for installing Linux and GRASS is not upto the expectations, it can be replaced with a new hard disk. But often the problem of incompatibilty between the BIOS and the new hard disk arises. This is mostly because older hard disks are SCSI while the newer ones with more capacity are .8A ones. Thus the older, existing motherboard and the BIOS will support only SCSI hard disks. Even if the new .8A hard disk is supported, most probably the full capacity of the harddisk will not be recognised by the BIOS. In the computer . was using, the original hard disk was .8A 4.3GB, with a four year old BIOS (ASUS P2B-S ACPI BIOS Revision 1.006 dated July 16, 1999). The new hard disk was of 40GB capacity, but the existing BIOS could only recognise it as a 8.2GB harddisk. To make the BIOS read the full 40GB, the process of upgrading the BIOS had to be done. Flashing the BIOS. 'Flashing' may have meanings that are not quite close to computing, but when it comes to BIOSs it means thrusting an upgrade over the existing software in the BIOS. Flash ROM is usually used for system BIOS, which initiates hardware devices and sets up necessary parameters for the OS. Unlike EPROM which can be erased by only uv light, flash ROM can be electrically erased and hence its contents can be modified, thus allowing the updating of the BIOS (ASUS #**#F Mueller and Soper, 2002). For my purpose, . downloaded the newest upgrade of the ASUS P2B-S ACPI BIOS '%%'%@@@ Revision 1.006 (it is quite important to know the exact version and dates, these can be found by physically opening the computer and examining the BIOS, so that the relevant upgrade can be downloaded). The software is downloaded to a bootable DOS floppy (only DOS6.2, Win95 or @&( which does not contain CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT (just rename the two if the floppy has them: . dont know why these two should not be on the floppy). Also from the website of the BIOS vendor (mine was http://www.asus.com.tw/inside/Techref) download to the same floppy the program that will allow you to put the upgrade into the BIOS. This software is called a 'flashing' program, and the process is called 'flashing the BIOS'. Boot from the floppy, run the flashing program (called AFLASH.EXE) from the DOS prompt, and the BIOS will be updated (takes about ) minutes) and is now ready to accept the new, high capacity .8A hard disk. Now the process of partitioning of the disk and setting up the OSs can be begun. 1.6 The complete steps to have GRASS running on Linux Checking file systems First determine the current operating system, and the file system on the computer ' e.g., Windows @& FAT partitions Windows NT NTFS Windows #*** Professional NTFS or FAT etc.