README.COMPILE

This document contains information on how to install MissionLab version 7.0. It is identical to the information included in the MissionLab Manual ([MissionLab home]/doc/mlab_manual.pdf).

The following explains the procedure for how to install MissionLab on your machine:

1. Ensure you have an appropriate operating system. We have successfully compiled and tested MissionLab with the following operating systems.
   • Red Hat Linux 9.0
   • Fedora Core 3, 4, and 5
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS

   Note 1: The default installation of a RedHat Linux system may not include all of the packages necessary to compile MissionLab. Upon installing Linux, we recommend you to select all the packages labeled under Development Tools, X Window System, X Software Development, and Legacy Software Support.

   Note 2: If you installed Fedora Core 5 straight from the installation disks, MissionLab may not compile due to the problem in the kernel (2.6.15). In this case, we recommend you to update your kernel to at least 2.6.17 and other software packages by running yum. If you are new to Linux and not familiar with how to update the kernel, we recommend you to use Fedora Core 4 instead.

   Note 3: The most common problem for compiling MissionLab is due to the fact the GNU compiler (gcc/g++) is too new. The newest GNU compiler that MissionLab is known to compile with is gcc 4.1 (Fedora Core 5). Please be aware that any compiler whose version is higher than 4.1 may fail to compile MissionLab.

   Note 4: We noticed that LessTif version of Motif (API for X Window GUI) tends to produce various warnings during the operation of MissionLab, and it even fails to show some of the widgets if executed from Fedora Core 5. Hence, we recommend you to use Open Motif version of Motif.

   Note 5: MissionLab requires a 3-button mouse to operate. If you do not have a 3-button mouse, make sure that emulation of 3-button is enabled.

2. Make sure you have an enough disk space to install MissionLab (300 MB minimum; 400 MB recommended).

3. Obtain the latest MissionLab distribution (if you haven't yet). You can download the latest distribution of MissionLab (MissionLab-7.0.tar.gz) from our web page:
   

   http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ai/robot-lab/research/MissionLab/
   

   Note: Supporting Software is included with the MissionLab distribution. You are not required to take any special steps regarding this software, but we list it here to credit the developers and point out copyright restrictions:

   • IPT - IPT is an interprocess communication system developed at Carnegie Mellon University. Also see the file README.IPT. This release of the MissionLab was developed with version 8.4 of IPT. If you wish, you can obtain the package from: ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/user/jayg (download ipt-8-4.tar.gz and IPTManual.ps.gz). Due to copyright restrictions, IPT MAY NOT BE USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.

   • CThreads - CThreads is a lightweight process threads package from Georgia Tech which operates under Linux, SunOS and many other OSs. If you wish, you can download the package from: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/systems/projects/Cthreads

   • CMDLi - Developed by Mobile Intelligence Corporation, CMDLi is a communication package that coordinates heterogeneous robotic software platforms. For example, a mission involving robots launched from Georgia Tech's MissionLab (Linux), University of Pennsylvania's ROCI (Windows), and University of Southern California's Player/Stage (Linux) can be simultaneously coordinated via CMDLi. For more details on CMDLi, contact Mobile Intelligence Corporation directly (http://www.mobile-intelligence.com).

4. Unpack the MissionLab distribution. Uncompress and untar the distribution with the following command:
   

   tar -xvzf MissionLab-7.0.tar.gz
   

   You should see a directory named MissionLab-7.0. This directory will be referred to as the ``MissionLab home'' directory.

5. Compile: Compile MissionLab with the following commands:
   

   cd [your MissionLab home]/src
   ./configure
   make all
   

   Note: The configure script, which calls makedepend, may generate numerous warnings, but they can be safely ignored.

6. Set up your user environment. After compilation, modify your .tcshrc, etc. to setup your environment:
   • Add ``[your MissionLab home]/bin'' into your execution path.
   • Add ``.'' into your execution path.

At this point, the installation is completed, and you should be able to run the MissionLab system.