[ REQ 5022]: question about installing Geomview

[daemon]

Hi,

    on a request by some users, I just installed
Geomview on the servers I manage. Those are
SGI 4D/380 and 4D/480 and Challenge, which
in turn serve 4D/*, Indigo and Indy stations,
with many graphic configurations.

    In general, I do prefer to compile things
on my owm machines. I also wanted to have
everything compiled with "-O", so I did recompile.
It went very smoothly. In fact, it's the smoothest
compilation/installation I ever saw for a program
of this complexity ( and I saw quite a few... ).

    When I start the pre-compiled program ( on a server,
displaying on an INDIGO ), everything works as
foreseen. When I start my just compiled version, it's
X-geomview that starts. I did not compiled the X
version of the program.. it's still tarred and
compressed.

    What I suspect is the following... Please, correct
me if I am mistaking :

a) X-geomview is anyway builtin the main Geomview
   program, as a fallback if GL is not available;
   so I did not have to download the X version
   ( that I intended to build afterwards ). If
   I'm not in error, what is the point of the
   X version ?

   If I'm full of ..., please explain to me why
   "geomview" says it is X-geomview when I
   start my home-compiled version.

b) "geomview" ( my home-compiled one ) will not do
   GL because it was linked using the server's
   "gl_s" lib, which is non-graphic by instal-
   lation. It's not the first time I have this
   problem : I had it with the software "sm",
   also. GL libraries are different, according
   to the graphic hardware ( in the case of a server,
   it's "no graphics" ). With SM, for instance,
   I ended up compiling three different versions
   - and I could have done more - :

   - "no graphics" ( that is "no GL graphics" )
   - "GR1 graphics" for my base 4D/20, 4D/25...
   - "LG1 graphics" for my base Indigi

   In fact, the only thing that was different here is the linking
   phase which was using a different "gl" library ( not the shared
   one you use, here ).

   If I'm right, I should then understand that your precompiled
   "geomview" was built using the "gl_s" lib of an INDIGO, which
   is why it works fine ( as my station IS an INDIGO ). But it
   would not work correctly ( or would start as X-geomview ) on
   another graphic architecture or on a server... ?

   However right or wrong I may be, do you have an idea of what
   is happening to my home-compiled version, and how can I build
   it so that it works fine, on whatever CPU ( and graphics config )
   as long as it can display in GL ( ie display on a SGI ).

Thank you for your time.

Andre Earl Paquet ( root at ERE.UMontreal.CA )