Installation on Unix Systems

(The demo version is not currently available for unix systems.)

The file "install.ksh" in the toplevel directory of the CR-ROM is the installer script for all unix platforms. When you run this script in a shell window, you will be asked a series of questions about your installation. After this, the necessary files will be installed, and their ownsership and permissions set according to your instructions.

For questions that ask for a positive or negative response, "yes" or "no" (or any abbreviation thereof) are valid responses. All questions will check the user input, and repeat the same question until they have a value that satisfies their needs. For all questions, just entering <return> will select the [default] value. If you decide to stop the install, then you can enter <ctrl>-C and <return> at any time, and the install script will exit immediately.

Installation Directory

The Rayfront will be completely installed into one directory, which you can later move to another place without causing any problems.

  Please select the installation directory:
    [/usr/local/rayfront]:

The default location is /usr/local/rayfront. Of course, you need write permissions at the install location, which is checked by the installation script. If you install Rayfront as a normal user, just select a different place, probably below your home directory, and the installation will continue normally.

Platform Selection

Rayfront comes with executable files for four different platforms. You can select either one platform (the platform running the installation script is the default) or as many more as you like.

  Platforms currently selected for installation:

    X    Linux
    -    Irix
    -    Solaris
    -    Windows

  Enter first character of a platform to toggle, or <return> to continue.
     :

You need to select at least one platform. By entering the first character of one of the platforms, you can toggle its selection, and the list will be updated. Once you're satisfied, press <return> alone to continue.

Note that although you can install the executable files for Windows here, this install script will not be able to make any of the registry modifications that are helpful to run Rayfront on Windows. We therefore recommend to use the Windows installer "Setup.exe" in the main directory of the CD-ROM to install on Windows.

Group Permissions

If all Rayfront users belong to the same group, then they can share the materials, modifiers, and luminaire index databases that each user writes to the library. For this to work, they must belong to the group that owns the installation files, and the library directories must permit writing for group members.

  Should the group be allowed to write to the library?
  [No]: yes

If you select "Yes" here, then the file permissions of the library directory and its contents will be modified to enable writes by the group that owns the installation. If you install as a normal user, then this will be your own current group. If you install as root, then the questions below will determine the group in question.

Installing as Root

The following questions are only asked if you install Rayfront as root.

Installation Ownership
In that case, you can tell the install script which user should own the installation, and which user will be running the rayserver, so that this user gets permission to write to the server log directories. We will assume here that you have created a user "ray", who owns the installation and runs the Rayserver. This user, as the human users working with Rayfront is a primary member of the group "rayusers".

  If you want a different user to own the installed files,
  print 'then you can enter the user name of ID now [root]: ray

The user in question must of course exist on your system, which is checked by the script. You can specify a user by name, or as a numerical user ID.

  If you want a different group to own the installed files,
  then you can enter the group name of ID now [root]: rayusers

As before, the group must exist, and can be specified by name or by numerical group ID.

Rayserver Ownership
If you will be running a Rayserver, then it will need write access to certain directories of the installation so that it can maintain runtime information about processes. The user running the Rayserver should own those directories.

  Which user will run the Rayserver? [root]: ray

Final Roundup

That's it. Now the installer presents all the information it collected for review:

  Rayfront will be installed with the following parameters:

      Installation directory: /usr/local/rayfront
      Installation owner: ray
      Installation group: rayusers
      Rayserver owner:    ray
      Group members may write to the library

  If everything is ok, then we will proceed to install
  the requested parts of Rayfront.
  Is this what you want?
  [Yes]:

If you decide that you want to change any of the settings, just type "no" here, and the questionaire will run again, with the previous entered values as defaults. when you are satisfied by the settings, enter "yes", and the installation will begin.

File Installation

First the base installation will be copied, followed by the selected platform specific files. You will see a very long list of files run down your screen. In the end, the permissions and owner/group settings of the installed files will get adjusted if required. If there are any errors during the installation, then those will be presented in a list at the end, so that you can check the reasons and make the necessary adjustments before proceeding any further.

After this, you might want to see if you need to configure something, and then proceed to run the program.

Navigation:

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User Manual Overview

System Requirements

Installing on Windows Systems

Rayfront 1.0 User Manual