McIDAS-V Start-up FAQ

Check here for common errors reported by users during the installation of McIDAS-V and at run-time.

 

Installation Errors

Error #1 -
A user reported ---
The first time I ran the script, it told me I needed
to upgrade my JDK. So I installed jdk1.6.0_03 and
Java3D 1.3.1. Then McV installed without any problem.

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Error #2 - On Mac OS X only --
You have no write premissions for this directory. Please choose another one.

Solution -
Browse for a writable directory (e.g. /Users/mcuser/McIDAS-V)

Under "Select Additional Tasks", uncheck "Create Launcher and Configuration shortcuts in Applications folder"

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Error #3 - On Mac OS X only --
At Extracting files... McIDAS-V Configuration.app/Contents/Info.plist
  /Applications/McIDAS-V Configuration.app/Contents/Info.plist 
  Could not create this file.  Shall I try again?

Solution -
Click "Cancel" and restart the installer. Follow instructions under Error #2 above.

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Run-time Errors

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Error #1 -
  Could not create a graphics configuration.
  Please contact McIDAS-V user support or see the FAQ

Solution -
  Replace Java3D 1.5.1 with 1.3.1

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Error #2 -

  JAVA 3D ERROR: GLX extension is not supported
  GLX version 1.3 or higher is required.

This error messages echoes to the terminal window. I also get an error popup window stating "Could not create a graphics configuration. Please contact Unidata users support or see the FAQ." At this point the McIDAS-V startup scroll bar just keeps doing it's thing until I press "ok" in the error popup window at which point the startup exits back to the terminal window.

Solution -

GLX is an extension that must be supported by the graphics card.  This error is most likely occurring because the graphics drivers for RHEL are not properly configured.

Assuming that the latest graphics drivers are installed, they must be configured in the window system configuration file... since RHEL uses Xorg, look in the file

    /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and see if there are any references to "GLX" or "glx" (and possibly "dri").  If there are, try uncommenting them and rebooting.

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Error #3 -

  I have the viewing and data windows and a user's guide up.  But so far I can't talk to any of the listed data servers.  The errors are just 'connection refused' and 'no public datasets found' on every server I've tried.  

Solution -

If you have a firewall and are trying to get data from the remote servers (image, radar, point, upper air and profiler data), error messages such as "Error opening connection ... Operation timed out" or "No Data Available" are normal.  For these servers to send data, your firewall software must allow connections on ports 112 (ADDE) and 8080 (THREDDS Data Server).

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