GRADS successfully installed on a 64-bit LINUX machine!

[Kevin M Levey]

WED 31OCT07: 1520PDT

Dear Grads community

I’ve come across many postings regarding installing GRADS 1.9b4 on a 64-bit
LINUX machine. I’ve noted that not too many people have had success, esp.
installing from the distributable source code obtained from COLA/IGES.

As lady luck would have it, we recently acquired a new 64-bit Linux server
running CentOS (Red Hat without the cost) and I had to install GRADS on this
machine. Firstly, I am NOT a system-administrator, but I was able to install
the 32-bit GRADS successfully on a 64-bit LINUX machine in under 4 hours
today. My lucky break came in the form a GRADS 1.9b4 RPM found on the
following site:

http://rpm.pbone.net/

think of RPMs as Unix self-installing bundles easily run from the command
line (as root user).

Do a search for GRADS on http://rpm.pbone.net/ and you will see many flavors
of UNIX listed there. FYI, you CAN install the latest FEDORA core versions
on CENTOS since they both essentially come from the original red Hat Linux.

Be forewarned, you need to be patient with this, as GRADS is a greedy little
pig and really needs a LOT of dependencies (other software to be installed).
Anyway, from not knowing how to install an RPM, 4 hours later I have a
perfectly working GRADS 1.9b4 version on our new 64-bit Linux server – and I
mean ALL the grads binaries, including GRADSDODS WORK!.

Here is a good starting place to help you install RPMS:

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch06_:_Insta
lling_Linux_Software

Essentially here is what I learned:

1] download the GRADS RPM AND ALL the GRADS dependencies listed on the
http://rpm.pbone.net/ site once you do a search for GRADS
2] install ALL the dependencies first BEFORE installing the GRADS RPM

If you have problems installing the RPMS and you more than likely will, look
through

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch06_:_Insta
lling_Linux_Software

and you may need to install or update more than one RPM at the SAME time.
After much back and forward, GOOGLE searching etc, GRADS finally needed one
further RPM not listed in the original list and that was the
 netcdf-3.6.2-5.fc7_92.x86_64.rpm RPM also found on http://rpm.pbone.net/

I strongly suggest asking your systems-administrator to install this for you
if you are not sure what to do since you will need to install as "root"
user.

I will not be able to help you specifically to install grads on your own
system as ALL systems are different - you may find many
libraries/dependencies/software already on your machine, or you may have to
install/upgrade them all. Like I said, I am not a system-administrator, but
a little patience, logical thinking, GOOGLE searching got the job done!

I merely wanted to share this information with you all so that you can know
that it is possible to get GRADS installed on a 64-bit LINUX system.

Good luck!

Regards

Kevin M Levey, MSc (University of Cape Town)
Director of Meteorological Operations
CustomWeather, Inc
San Francisco, CA, USA

http://www.1stweather.com
http://www.myforecast.com
http://www.customweather.com