McIDAS-X User's Guide
Version 2025.1

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Preparing the Workstation (Single-User Configuration)

Note: This section contains the instructions for preparing the workstation when installing McIDAS-X on Windows in the single-user configuration. For the multi-user configuration instructions or information about the two configuration options, return to the Configuration Options and Instructions and follow those instructions.

Complete the instructions below to update and install WSL 2, Ubuntu, and the Linux packages required to build McIDAS-X.

  1. Open a PowerShell window under your regular Windows user (not as Administrator), and check the currently installed version of Ubuntu.

    Type:  wsl --list

    • This command only works if WSL is already installed. If you receive an error that "the file cannot be accessed by the system", you must open another PowerShell window as Administrator and install WSL by typing:   wsl  --install    After the Ubuntu install is complete, you will be prompted to create a user account.  This will only be used by the Administrator to install WSL and will not be used in the McIDAS installation process.  More information can be found at Microsoft's documentation on How to install Linux on Windows with WSL.
  2. In the PowerShell window opened under your regular Windows user (not as Administrator), install the version of Ubuntu currently supported to run McIDAS.

    Type:  wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

    • If this is the first installation of Ubuntu, after the Ubuntu install is complete, you will be prompted to create a user account. The account, which will have sudo privileges, is the main user account and should NOT be named root or mcidas or mcadde. Instead, choose a name suitable for a McIDAS-X user; we suggest either your Windows login or mcuser.

    • The PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt Window may convert to an Ubuntu window. This window can be used for the next steps.
  3. In an Ubuntu shell while logged in as the user you created in the previous step (e.g., mcuser), run the three sudo commands below (the last is all one line) to update the Linux package repositories and to install the packages required to build McIDAS-X.

    4. Type:  sudo apt update
    Type:  sudo apt upgrade
    Type:  sudo apt install autoconf automake bison build-essential cmake csh flex gfortran g++ libncurses5 libncurses5-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxpm-dev libxt-dev texinfo xfonts-base

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