[Update REQ 5022]: question about installing Geomview

["Ed Chi" <chi>]

Dear root at ere.umontreal.ca,

>     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.

Are you absolutely certain that you got the right file from our ftp server?

The file you should have is

ftp.geom.umn.edu:/pub/software/geomview/geomview-1.4.3-src.tar.Z

It seems like you got geomview-1.4.3-src.x11-beta.tar.Z

> 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 ?

The X-geomview is still under beta development.  The point of the X 
version of geomview is for people on Sun and other X11 machines to be 
able to run geomview without Iris GL.  People who do have GL should not, 
at this point, use X-geomview.  Instead, they should use the GL version.  
It is not a fallback as described in your paragraph above.

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

It seems to be because you got the wrong source tree.  Please double
check, and let us know. 

>    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 ).

Our precompiled version runs on our Indigo, Indigo 2, 4D series machines.

>    But it
>    would not work correctly ( or would start as X-geomview ) on
>    another graphic architecture or on a server... ?

I don't quite understand you here.  Are you saying that the precompiled 
version did not work on your machines?  I had thought that it was the 
binary that you compiled didn't work.

>    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 ).

Please make sure you got the correct source. Please let us know.  And
thank you for getting geomview.  I hope we can help you. 

--Ed

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