./README_sgi
*
* README for IBM Visualization Data Explorer for SGI.
*
* (C) COPYRIGHT International Business Machines Corp. 1991-1997
* All Rights Reserved.
* Licensed Materials - Property of IBM
*
* US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or
* disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
*
*
The information contained in this file consists of hints for using the
system, help with functions that may not be apparent, and last minute updates
to the existing documentation. It is advisable to review this file any time
Data Explorer updates are applied.
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CONTENTS
To go directly to an item, search for the item number beginning
at the left margin.
1. Hardware Rendering on SGI Platforms
A. Exceeding System/Process Memory
B. The default is GL; how to choose OpenGL
2. Adding a Module
A. Using the Module Builder
B. Bad File Magic Number error
C. Runtime-loadable modules
3. Gamma Correction
4. Changes for version 3.1.4
A. Using Shared Memory is now the default
B. Change in behavior of DXSHMEM
C. Fonts have changed
5. Using Large Amounts of Memory
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1. Hardware Rendering on SGI Platforms
A. Exceeding System/Process Memory
The most recent object displayed is stored in system memory. If this object
is very large it is possible to exceed the system/process memory limits.
If this occurs you will receive many errors of the following form:
ERR#2_gl_makeroom
The only known workaround is to reduce the size of the object(s).
B. The default is GL; how to choose OpenGL
By default, Data Explorer uses the GL library on the sgi architecture
rather than the OpenGL library (this is a change from Data Explorer
version 3.1.4). Generally, performance is better using GL than
using OpenGL, however, some features which are available using
OpenGL are not available with GL: multiple pixel width lines
and antialiasing of lines are available *individually* with GL, but
not at the same time (see the Display manual page in the User Reference
for more information). Remote hardware rendering is available using
OpenGL, but not using GL. You can override the default
library (gl) by specifying the -hwrender command line option as
opengl, rather than gl. Alternatively, you can use the DXHWMOD
environment variable, which should be set to DXhwddOGL.o instead of DXhwdd.o.
2. Adding a Module
A. Using the Module Builder
When using the module builder to build a full dxexec, at link time the
following warning message may appear:
/usr/bin/ld:
Warning: sscanf: multiply defined
previous (used) definition from '/usr/lib/libmpc.a':
new (ignored) definition from '/usr/lib/libmpc.a'
This message should be ignored.
B. Bad File Magic Number error
If IRIX 5 is not installed on the system, the linker will give
the error message "Object file format error, bad file magic number".
C. Runtime-loadable modules
You need to use -mdf flag on dx to load runtime modules from the
command line if you are using more than 1 processor. That is,
you cannot use the "Load Module Description" option of the File menu
to load them after Data Explorer has started.
You may notice warnings when you compile runtime-loadable modules.
These are simply warnings about subroutines which are referenced
by the runtime-loadable module. They will be found in the running
dxexec. These warnings do *not* mean that your subroutine will not
work.
3. Gamma Correction
When the Data Explorer executive is running on the sgi archecture,
8-bit windows are assumed to already be gamma-corrected, so
DXGAMMA is by default set to 1. Otherwise, DXGAMMA is by default
set to 2. You can override the default gamma correction by
setting DXGAMMA, DXGAMMA_8BIT, DXGAMMA_12BIT, or DXGAMMA_24BIT.
If set, DXGAMMA_NBIT overrides the value set by DXGAMMA.
4. Changes for version 3.1.4
A. Using Shared Memory is now the default
Data Explorer now uses shared memory by default on sgi machines.
B. Change in behavior of DXSHMEM
In versions of Data Explorer prior to 3.1.4, DXSHMEM, if set to
anything, would force shared memory to be used. In version 3.1.4,
DXSHMEM must be set to anything other than -1 for shared memory to be
used; if set to -1, then the data segment will be extended, for
architectures for which this is permissible.
C. Fonts have changed
Data Explorer 3.1.2 and all previous versions used different fonts
when displaying on sgi machines than when displaying on any other machine.
In 3.1.4, the fonts are uniform across platforms. The correct fonts are
a little bit larger than the old sgi fonts. This is a potential
problem for control panels since the some text strings may not fit the
space allotted. (This actually fixes a problem where your panels
looked fine when displaying on an sgi but looked bad when displaying
on any other machine.) Users can revert to the pre-3.1.4 fonts by
adding the following to the file DX in $HOME or in a directory in
the XAPPLRESDIR environment variable:
DX*fontList:-adobe-helvetica*bold-r*14*=bold,\
-adobe-helvetica*bold-r*12*=small_bold,\
-adobe-helvetica*bold-r*18*=big_bold,\
-adobe-helvetica*bold-r*24*=huge_bold,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-r*14*=normal,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-r*12*=small_normal,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-r*18*=big_normal,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-r*24*=huge_normal,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-o*12*=small_oblique,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-o*18*=big_oblique,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-o*24*=huge_oblique,\
-adobe-helvetica*medium-o*14*=oblique
NOTE: line breaks and line continuation characters are here just for
readability. The user must enter this as 1 continuous line with no
line continuation characters, carriage returns, or spaces.
Only those users who would be satisfied with the restriction of never
running a net on some machine other than an sgi should consider doing this.
5. Using Large Amounts of Memory
If you have problems starting up DX with more than 512 Mbytes of
memory, use the "systune" command to check and set kernel tuneable
parameters to allow a user process to allocate more space. You may
also have to adjust the "limits" or "ulimits" settings to allow large
amounts of memory to be used.
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IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
IBM Visualization Data Explorer is a trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation.
IRIX and Silicon Graphics are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc.