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McIDAS-V Start-up FAQ
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Check here for common errors reported by users during the installation of 
McIDAS-V and at run-time.
 
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Installation Errors
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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 permissions 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
And this error message in the shell window:

    GLX version 1.3 or higher is required
    The reported version number may be incorrect.  There is a known
    ATI driver bug in glXQueryVersion that incorrectly reports the GLX
    version as 1.2 when it really is 1.3, so Java 3D will attempt to
    run anyway.


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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