[daip] AIPS installation

[Eric Greisen]

Sridharan Rengaswamy writes:
 >  I am a new user of AIPS; have just managed to install (source file
 > installation, not binary)

    The binary is likely to run faster and, depending on what compiler
you used, have no compiler issues (that we do not encounter from all
sides anyway).  What version of the compiler did you use?
(output of g77 --version)

 > TVDEVS.SH: Remote TV assigned for TVHOST CHANDRAMA  ***
 > START_AIPS: Checking if CHANDRAMA is reachable via ssh...
 > START_AIPS: Cannot start remote TV servers on CHANDRAMA, sorry!
 > START_AIPS: remote command gave this error:
 > ssh: connect to host CHANDRAMA port 22: Connection refused
 > START_AIPS: check your secure shell setup, in particular
 > START_AIPS: whether you have a passphrase enabled.  You may
 > START_AIPS: wish to try 'ssh -v CHANDRAMA pwd' to see
 > START_AIPS: what the problem is.

It appears that your machine is unable to do a loopback to itself
which is odd - perhaps our systems expert will have a suggestion.
However, if you say
            aips tv=local
you will get Unix sockets (pipes) rather than Inet ones and that
should be fine.

 > ?STARTPMON: [CHANDRAMA] Starting TPMON1 with output SUPPRESSED
 > ZVTPO3: tcp/aipsmt0 is not a service
 > ZVTPO3: check /etc/services or NIS map!

   We recommend that you change the /etc/services file to include at
least aipsmt0 - which is used for remote disk reading of pseudo-tape
files - and it will not hurt to have it there even if you never use
it.  Be sure to put in the TV, MSG, TEK services in any case.

 > 
 > 1. obviously,  my machine could not be accessed via ssh.  do I need to
 > register at NRAO site for this?

       No this is inside your machine and has nothing to do with aips
as your test bloew shows.
 > 
 > sridhar at dhandrama:~$ ssh -v chandrama pwd
 > OpenSSH_4.6p1 Debian-5ubuntu0.1, OpenSSL 0.9.8e 23 Feb 2007
 > debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
 > debug1: Applying options for *
 > debug1: Connecting to chandrama [127.0.1.1] port 22.
 > debug1: connect to address 127.0.1.1 port 22: Connection refused
 > ssh: connect to host chandrama port 22: Connection refused
 > 
 > 
 > Can't I use AIPS independently, in my machine, even when I am not connected
 > to internet

         There are a few functions which use internet access - VLANT
fetches the latest VLA antenna locations and certain procedures fetch
the latest ionosphere or polar wander data for calibration.  These
procs all make a real point in their help files about this service and
the consequent need to be on the internet.  Otherwise, we stand alone
well (use tv=local and read help aips for some of its options)

 > 
 > 2. problems with tape drives: I looked at /etc/services which contains lots
 > of  tcp  names; but I don't know
 > how to proceed further; Do we require tape drives? Can't one use data in
 > DVD/CD/external hard disks.
 > I mean, can't one disable tape drives option during installation?

Not really - but one can just not use it afterwards.  If the
TPDEVS.LIST file is empty then only the aipsmt0 is ever used.

 > 
 > How do i change printer/tape seeting; as my machine is not going to be
 > attached with
 > any tapes/printers, I plan to convert figures in .ps or .pdf format and copy
 > in external disks
 > (pen drives for example)  whenever I need printout.

A sensible plan.  One controls the printer devices with the file
$AIPS_ROOT/DA00/PRDEVS.LIST and these "devices" can include programs 
such as the following line from our PRDEVS.LIST

ghostview    PREVIEW  NONE     GNU Ghostview X-windows previewer


 > 
 > Can I edit .AIPSRC file to solve these problems? What has to be
done?

    easier to enter the real files - .AIPSRC is a mess when making
lists of things.

Eric Greisen