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MISCELLANEOUS TECHNICAL QUESTIONS FOR Open Inventor Open Source Release
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

  What platforms does it run on?
  ------------------------------

  Release 2.1.5-11 was built and has been tested with Red Hat Linux release 9
  on a variety of Intel Pentium-based systems.  It is also known to run with
  several other Linux distributions on IA32-based hardware.

  What are the dependencies for this release?
  -------------------------------------------

  The libraries and sample programs built for this release depend on the
  following DSO's.  For your convenience their corresponding package name from
  the system which built the images is included below.  Many of the packages
  are included in Red Hat Linux release 9:

    glibc-2.3.2-11.9:

      /lib/libm.so.6
      /lib/libc.so.6
      /lib/ld-linux.so.2
      /lib/libdl.so.2
      /lib/libpthread.so.0

    libgcc-3.2.2-5:

      /lib/libgcc_s.so.1

    libstdc++-3.2.2-5:

      /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5

    XFree86-libs-4.3.0-2:

      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXp.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6
      /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6

    openmotif-2.2.2-5:

      /usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so.3

    XFree86-Mesa-libGL-4.3.0-2:

      /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1

    freetype-2.1.3-6:

      /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6

    libjpeg-6b-26:

      /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62

  The help cards accessible from the Open Inventor viewers, editors, and demos
  are in PDF format.  To view these files, you will need the Adobe Acrobat
  Reader, available at http://www.adobe.com.

  Where can I get OpenGL?
  -----------------------

  OpenGL is now available from many sources.  Certain vendors (such as SGI)
  pre-bundle accelerated OpenGL drivers with their systems; some (NVIDIA, et.
  al.) have accelerated drivers available on their web sites; and other vendors
  (3dfx, Matrox, ATI, etc.) use drivers created by the DRI Project or the
  Utah-GLX Project.  Which implementation of OpenGL to choose is ultimately
  dependent upon the type of graphics card you have.

  Open Inventor 2.1.5 is compatible with any implementation of OpenGL that
  conforms to the OpenGL ABI for Linux, such as:

    SGI 230, 330, and 550 workstations with VPro graphics are shipped with
    specially-tuned OpenGL DSO's.

    NVIDIA-specific drivers compliant with the OpenGL ABI for Linux can be
    found on the NVIDIA web site.

    DRI Architecture Drivers.  The DRI architecture uses Mesa and provides
    hardware acceleration for a number of popular chipsets.  The DRI
    implementation is included in XFree86 4.0.

    OpenGL Sample Implementation is the driver framework used by almost all
    commercial 3D hardware vendors to develop OpenGL drivers for their
    systems.  Source code is available from the SGI Open Source web site.

    Mesa is a 3D graphics library with an API which is very similar to that of
    OpenGL.  Mesa 3.2 includes OpenGL ABI for Linux compliant DSO's.  See
    'Where can I get Mesa?' below.

  More links to various vendors' OpenGL implementations are available from
  these sites (subject to change):

    http://www.mesa3d.org
    http://www.linux3d.org
    http://linux3d.netpedia.net

  If you are unable to find accelerated OpenGL drivers for your card, or have
  problems using the vendor-provided accelerated drivers, we recommend using
  Mesa 3.2 or the OpenGL sample implementation.

  Where can I get Mesa?
  ---------------------

  Mesa is a 3D graphics library with an API which is very similar to that of
  OpenGL.  For general information about Mesa please refer to the Mesa web
  site, http://www.mesa3d.org.

  Special Note: Official Mesa releases prior to version 3.2 were not compliant
  with the OpenGL ABI for Linux.  If you are using Mesa you must upgrade to
  Mesa 3.2, or you may encounter dependency problems when installing via rpm.

  Where can I get Motif or OpenMotif?
  -----------------------------------

  Systems running the IRIX operating system typically have Motif 1.2 and 2.1
  installed as part of the motif_eoe product.

  For general information about OpenMotif, please refer to its web site at
  http://www.openmotif.org.  Links to pre-compiled binaries can be found there
  and at http://www.rpmfind.net.

  How do I install this release?
  ------------------------------

  1. Check to see that you have the software listed above as dependencies
     already installed on your system.

  2. Download all three Open Inventor rpm files from the FTP site to a
     temporary location on your system, e.g. /usr/tmp.

  3. Log in as root, change directory to the temporary location, then enter:

       rpm -Uvh sgi-OpenInventor*.rpm

  What do these rpms install?
  ---------------------------

  sgi-OpenInventor-clients installs the execution-only environment, which
  contains the Open Inventor run-time libraries under /usr/lib: libInventor.so
  and libInventorXt.so.

  sgi-OpenInventor-data installs a number of example model files under
  /usr/share/data/models.

  sgi-OpenInventor-devel installs the full Open Inventor development
  environment.  It includes header files in /usr/include/Inventor and manual
  pages in /usr/man/man3.

  What should I do to run it?
  ---------------------------

  Open Inventor is an Application Programming Interface that you would
  typically utilize in your own program.  There are also some sample programs
  in the distribution.  After installing the software, open a shell window and
  enter the following:

    ivview /usr/share/data/models/SgiLogo.iv

    or

    ivview /usr/share/data/models/buildings/windmill.iv


Last updated: $Date: 2005/01/14 22:58:15 $