McIDAS User's Guide
Version 2017.2

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Preparing a User Account on Windows 7

The McIDAS-X software is installed in the mcidas account. However, you can not run McIDAS-X as user mcidas. Individual user accounts must be created and configured for running McIDAS-X. The four tasks below must be completed for each user account.

The system administrator must complete the first task. The system administrator or user can complete the second, third and fourth tasks.

Making and Configuring the User Account

1. Log on to the workstation as Administrator. (Note that you cannot complete the instructions below as another user with escalated privileges; you must be logged on as Administrator.)

2. Create the user account if it doesn't already exist.

3. Set the Local Path for the user to their home directory, e.g., C:\Users\johndoe. To do so, right-click on My Computer then click Manage to bring up the Computer Management window. Then browse to the user by expanding Local Users and Groups > Users > user, where user is the user's account name, to bring up their user Properties window. Click its Profile tab, select the radio button next to Local path and enter the user's home directory, e.g., C:\Users\johndoe, in its text field and click OK.

If this workstation is a member of a domain controlled by an Active Directory server, the network administrator will need to configure the home directory for the user account on the server to match the one used here.

4. Create a link to /dev/fs/C/Users, set ownership of the user's home directory and give everyone Read access. To do so, start an SUA Korn Shell and run the four commands below in order, replacing user with the user's account name.

Type:  ln  -s  /dev/fs/C/Users   /home

Type: cd  /home

Type: chown  user  user

Type: chmod  755  user

5. Verify that the tilde character (~) is being resolved correctly when used with all user account names. To do so, run the equivalent of the command below in the SUA Korn Shell for each of the user accounts (replacing johndoe with the user account names, e.g., johnd, janef, mclocal).

Type:  echo  ~johndoe

If /home/johndoe is returned then the tilde character is being resolved correctly and you can complete all subsequent instructions in this installation section as they appear.  If an error, empty string, or ~mcidas is returned then the tilde character is not being resolved correctly so you will need to specify the full pathname in its place (e.g., /home/johndoe in place of ~johndoe in the subsequent commands and examples in this installation section.

Setting the SUA Environment

1. Log on to the user account and start an SUA Korn Shell.

2. Verify that the files mcidas.profile and mcidas.mcenv are present in the ~mcidas directory, as specified in Obtaining McIDAS-X for Win7.

Type:  ls  -l  ~mcidas/mcidas.profile  ~mcidas/mcidas.mcenv

The mcidas.profile file may be used in step 6 below as a template for creating a .profile in user accounts that don't have a pre-existing .profile. The mcidas.profile file is a modified version of the profile.usr file supplied by SUA in the /dev/fs/C/Windows/SUA/etc directory. The PATH was modified to include the required McIDAS directories and a line was added to source the .mcenv file.

The mcidas.mcenv file contains the environment variables used by McIDAS-X for Win7. It is copied to .mcenv in step 7 below and is sourced (run) by .profile each time the user logs on. Its contents may be modified by the user to their individual preferences in step 8 below.

3. Change to the SUA home directory of the user account.

Type:  cd  $HOME

4. Copy the mcidas.profile and mcidas.mcenv files to the current directory.

Type:  cp  ~mcidas/mcidas.profile  .

Type:  cp  ~mcidas/mcidas.mcenv  .

5. Modify or create the .profile file as follows. If the file does not exist, go to step 6 to create it. If it already exists, add the following two lines (substitute the equivalent if using C shell) to the PATH environment variable section.

PATH=$HOME/mcidas/bin:~mclocal/mcidas/bin:~mcidas/bin:$PATH
export PATH

Also, add the following line anywhere in the file; then, go to step 7.

.  $HOME/.mcenv

6. Create the .profile file by copying the mcidas.profile file to .profile.

Type:  cp  mcidas.profile  .profile

7. Copy the mcidas.mcenv file to .mcenv.

Type:  cp  mcidas.mcenv  .mcenv

8. Carefully read the .profile and .mcenv files and, if necessary, modify their settings and contents to your preferences.

Setting the Windows 7 Environment

Complete the task below to make the Windows 7 environment compatible for running McIDAS-X for Win7.

Creating a McIDAS-X Shortcut -- As noted in Starting McIDAS-X, you can start McIDAS-X from a Unix prompt (in an SUA Korn Shell). You can also create a shortcut on the Windows 7 desktop that lets you start and run McIDAS-X via the Configuration GUI. Complete the steps below to create the shortcut.

1. Right click on the Windows 7 desktop. Then select New, and click Shortcut to bring up the Create Shortcut window.

2. In the Type the location of the item: field, insert the following command (paying careful attention to forward and backward slashes).

%WINDIR%\posix.exe /u /c /bin/ksh -l -c "mcidas -config"

3. Click Next, then type a name for the shortcut, e.g., McIDAS, then click Finish.

4. A shortcut will appear on the desktop. This shortcut can then be copied anywhere. For example, if you want McIDAS-X to start automatically at login, copy the shortcut icon to your Startup folder. Note that you must have an X server running before you start McIDAS-X. Continue with the following section to set the X server properties.

Setting the X Server Properties

You must have an X server running in order to display the McIDAS-X for Win7 windows. We do not recommend a specific X server for use with McIDAS-X for Win7. So we cannot identify the exact X server configuration changes you will need to perform to make it compatible with McIDAS-X for Win7. However, many X servers require the changes described below.

Emulating a Three-Button Mouse --McIDAS-X for Win7 is designed for systems with a three-button mouse, as several commands require you to press the middle of the three buttons. If you have a two-button mouse, you must configure your X server to emulate a three-button mouse. Use the mouse section of your X server's configuration program to do so.

Mapping the Keyboard --Modification of the X server's keyboard mapping is sometimes required to enable certain keys used by McIDAS-X (for example, Alt A, Ctrl F11). Use the keyboard section of your X server's configuration program to select the proper keyboard mapping for your X server.

This concludes the instructions for installing McIDAS-X for Win7 and configuring user accounts. Continue with Configuring McIDAS-X Sessions with .mcidasrc, which provides information about tailoring McIDAS-X sessions to your preferences.


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