CTF MEG System Software Installation

These instructions apply only to those with access to the NIH-only portions of the network, that is, only local users.

0. This software was developed under RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 (WS), but will work on other distributions. See RedHat8Install, RedHat9, or Fedora8 for instructions on installing additional libraries for those systems.

1. Download the CD image. The best version is ctf-5.2.1.iso.bz2.

2. Uncompress.

$ bunzip2 ctf-5.2.1.iso.bz2

3. Loopback mount. As an alternative to this step, you can burn the ISO image to a real CD-ROM, and mount that, but this is faster. A loopback mount is just a way of "mounting" a file.

First, become root:

$ su

Next, create a mountpoint (an empty directory), and mount the image there:

# mkdir /tmp/mnt
# mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 ctf-5.2.1.iso /tmp/mnt

4. Install the software.

# cd /tmp/mnt
# ./CTF.install

At this point, the install script will ask you several questions. Answer "y" to all the yes/no questions. One question will be:

Please enter path of the source directory
for the install? [ </mnt/cdrom> ]

Here, you should answer the directory used for the loopback mount, i.e., "/tmp/mnt".

The default install location is "/opt/ctf".

The next question refers to the electronics system. We have the "CTF_MEG2005" system using the desktop Electronic Control Console, however you probably want to specify "skip" here, since this option is only really useful on the acquisition computer (that is, the one in the lab).

If Acroread is installed, you'll be asked to accept the license. Type "accept".

5. Clean up.

# cd /
# umount /tmp/mnt
# exit

You can remove the .iso file, too. Be sure to unmount it first!

6. Set environment variables.

This depends on your login shell. If you are using bash (aka sh), which is typical, variables are set with '=' and must be exported. If you are using the "t" shell, use setenv. The examples here assume bash. The best way to set these variables is in the ".bash_profile" script. This is a script that is run every time you open a new command window. Edit that file in your home directory using your favorite text editor, e.g., gedit:

$ gedit ~/.bash_profile

(the "~" means your home directory), and add the following lines:

PATH=${PATH}:/opt/ctf/bin
export CTF_DIR=/opt/ctf

Replace /opt/ctf with whatever directory you used, if you changed the default.

Additional environment variable you can set are:

CTF_DATADIR

The default directory used by DataEditor.

CTF_MRIDIR

The default directory used by MRIViewer.

Generally, you won't need these much.

Read the files in /opt/ctf/doc.

If you have difficulties, contact the MEG Core Facility Staff.