Shape
Software - Installing Linux Versions
Shape Software programs are not open-source, so installing them starting from compilation is not possible. This can lead to some compatibility problems with shared libraries, but perhaps not more so than other Linux installations.
The example
used is "ATOMS64", but you may be installing a different version. First,
move the ATOMS64.tar.gz installation file to a suitable directory and unpack
it.
From a
terminal window type
tar xzvf atoms64.tar.gz
Capitalization
of the filename may vary - you must type the exact name. Now you will have a subdirectory
ATOMS64. Change to this directory.
Now try to
run the executable or program file wxAtoms in the terminal window:
./wxAtoms
It this
runs with no error messages, you have succeeded. You can also try to run wxAtoms from the desktop by
double-clicking on the file name or icon, but if it fails to start there will
be no error messages - you must run from a terminal window to see the error
messages.
This
version is linked with versions of the shared libraries which are known to be
compatible, that is it will try to find shared library links of the type
"libXYZ.so.3" where 3 is the specific major library version.
If the
program does not start, or if you have serious error messages, you can see all
of the shared libraries which the program is trying to find with the command
ldd wxAtoms
If there
are messages indicating that some library or libraries cannot be found, there
are two options. First (preferred)
you can install the requested library version(s) on your system. The first option may be to use a software
package installer, which can go by several different name. You can search
for the library name, omitting the .so and additional extensions - for example
"libpng12". If your software installier does not find the package, there are many sources for such
packages or libraries, especially the GNU site (www.gnu.org) - hopefully a search on the wwweb will find the library.
If your system is very old, you may need to update libsdtc++ or possibly libc.
If these libraries are missing or out of date you will get messages saying that
versions of "GLIBCXX" or "GLIBC" are not present.
Second, you can make a dummy link - if the program can't find
"libXYZ.so.3", make a link to libXYZ.so.2, the library which is
actually on your system, and call it "libXYZ.so.3". This is not guaranteed to work because
even if the program starts there may be incompatibilities between the shared
libraries and/or the compiled program code.
Shape Software programs are 32-bit. If you have a 64-bit Linux system, you may need to install the ia32-libs package to be able to run 32-bit programs.
REQUIREMENTS
Linux
versions all use the GTK environment (Intel x86 processor).
ATOMS and SHAPE now have the
Mesa OpenGL libraries statically linked, so it is not necessary to have
these libraries in your system.
The
wxWindows library is statically linked, so this is not required to be present
on your system.
Shape
Software
521 Hidden Valley Road
Kingsport, TN 37663 USA
Phone (423) 239-4771
Fax (423) 239-6360
or (423) 239-3003
Email:
support@shapesoftware.com
dowty2000@csi.com
3/22/04