Linux Install README

Ferret v5.81

The notes below on libraries still apply, however if you find you cannot run the linux executables, we are also making a statically-linked executable available. This will run on a variety of linux platforms which are now available. The only downside of the static version of Ferret is that it doesn't allow access to the external function capabilities.

Ferret v5.53

As of v5.53 of Ferret, our Linux builds are now being down with gcc/g77 v2.96. As such, the external functions distributed with the Ferret binary are also built w/ the same version of gcc/g77. In addition, the termcap library dependency has been replaced with the more widely available curses library.

Ferret v5.41

We have had reports that Ferret v5.41, which was built using RedHat Linux 7.1, will not run under RedHat Linux 7.3. The reason that this happens is that the dependent shared-object libraries differ between the two operating systems. The way to get Ferret v5.41 to run on a RH 7.3 system is to down load the shared-object library tar file. This tar file contains the necessary RH 7.1 shared object libraries that are needed to run Ferret on RH 7.3. The strategy is to take the libraries contained in the shared object library tar file, and copy them into a directory, such as /usr/local/ferret/libs. Then, the /usr/local/ferret/libs library path should be pointed to when starting up the Ferret executable. The recommended way to do this is the following:

- rename the ferret executable in /usr/local/ferret/bin from ferret to, for example, ferret_executable.
- create a script called "ferret" which contains (for sh)

> #!/bin/sh
> exec /usr/local/ferret/libs/ld-linux.so.2 --library-path /usr/local/ferret/libs /usr/local/ferret/bin/ferret_executable $*

Then, when Ferret users run the "ferret" command, they will be executing this script, which will also accept Ferret arguments.

NOTE: This may not proven effective on all RH 7.3 systems, but we have had reports that this has worked on some. If this does not work on your RH 7.3 system, please let us know.

Ferret v5.40

There are several Issues which have come up in regards to Ferret v5.40 under Linux. This document will try to address these issues and, if available, provide solutions for them.

- One problem is that when starting Ferret v5.40, the error message:

>     /usr/local/ferret/bin/ferret: error while loading shared
>     libraries: libXm.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

> is displayed. The reason this error message occurs is that the shared object Motif libraries are not installed on the system. The solution is to download and install the motif libraries. These are available free of charge at: http://www.openmotif.org/

> When the next version of Ferret is released, this will no longer be a problem, as the motif libraries will be statically linked.

Non-Redhat users:

> We've had reports of Ferret both working and not working with the various flavors of Linux other than RedHat. Ferret v5.40 was developed under RedHat 7.1 and so retains whatever quirks may be associated with that operating system. If you are running a Linux version other than RedHat, and you find that Ferret will not run, there are two options:

> 1. Build Ferret from source code which is freely available; please see the link from the main Downloads page for the source code.
> 2. Run a statically-linked version of Ferret

> > - The disadvantage of this second option is that it's not possible to use the external function capabilities if Ferret is linked statically.

> Please contact us at oar.pmel.contact_ferret@noaa.gov for more information on either of the above two Non-Redhat options.

SuSE Users:

> If you having trouble running Ferret under SuSE, and are gettting the

>     ./ferret: error while loading shared libraries:
>     libtermcap.so.2: cannot load shared object file: No such file or directory

> error message, please read this message from the ferret_users email archive which discusses getting Ferret to work on a SuSE 7.2 machine.