MIDAS software download and installation

Installation of the MIDAS base distribution for Linux64

The latest MIDAS release was issued on Jan 22 2014

The MIDAS binary distribution for Linux prefers that you are running version 2.6.x of the Linux kernel (or later). This release was built using Scientific Linux 6.4 (a rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise).
It is probable that it will work with other Linux distributions based on the 2.6 kernel but this cannot be guaranteed. Also situations have been seen where incremental upgrades of a Linux distribution can cause problems due to changes in embedded system libraries. In these cases please contact us for advice.

As from July 1 2009 release MIDAS uses TclTk version 8.5.7

The base distribution files have a name of the form MIDAS_base_xxxxxx.tar.gz where xxxxxx is the date of the distribution in the form ddmmyy.
The current distribution id is 220114.
The files in the base distribution are all platform independant. If you are installing multiple versions of the software for different hardware or software platforms you only require to download the base distribution files once.

If the file ends .gz then it has been compressed with the gzip utility. You can download a copy of the gunzip utility (in plain binary) in case you do not already have it. (P.S. If you have a Linux system which does not seem to have gunzip then there could be something seriously wrong with your system.)

NOTE - If you already are running the MIDAS package then it is STRONGLY recommended that you DO NOT install a new release over your existing installation. The installation procedure has been designed to encourage a parallel installation. Only when you are happy with the new release should you delete your old release. You should switch to running from the new installation and DELETE all the old installation. DO NOT just copy the new release into the old directory structure. In this way you will remove all obsolete files. In some cases the presence of obsolete versions of files in the directories may cause incorrect functioning of the software.

Download the base distribution file with ID 220114  6.5 Mbytes

Having fetched this file you should uncompress using gunzip and then run tar to unpack. A directory MIDAS_base_xxxxxx will be created in your current directory.

Make the directory MIDAS_base_xxxxxx your current directory.

The next step is to download the program distribution specific to Linux. If you are installing the software on a central server you can install as many program distributions as you wish. The directory and file names which will be created are all unique. Choose the version appropiate to your Linux installation.

Download the 64 bit program distribution file with ID 220114  2.2 Mbytes (for kernel 2.6 or later)

Uncompress the file MIDAS_bin_Linux64_xxxxxx.tar.gz using gunzip and run tar to unpack.
You will create the directories bin_Linux64 and lib_Linux64 within the current directory.

Uncompress the file MIDAS_bin_Linux_xxxxxx.tar.gz using gunzip and run tar to unpack.
You will create the directories bin_Linux and lib_Linux within the current directory.

The software is now fairly insensitive as to where it is installed and as far as possible it is not essential that any system environment variables are modified. This enables installation by persons who many not have superuser access to their machine.

However for UNIX installations it is still recommended that you reference the package as /MIDAS and that the bin_Linux64 directory is in your binary search path. You can either create a symbolic link or automount point /MIDAS which points to the MIDAS_base_xxxxxx directory. Both of these require that you have superuser access.

If you cannot do this (or prefer not to) then you should as a minimum set the environment variable MIDASBASE to the path of the MIDAS_base_xxxxxx directory. The default value assigned by the software to the environment variable MIDASBASE if it does not already exist is /MIDAS.
$MIDASBASE will be used in the instructions following to refer to the base of the software installation.

The MIDAS package requires that the directory $MIDASBASE/experiments is writeable. If you have installed the MIDAS package in a read only disc partition then $MIDASBASE/experiments could be a link to a directory in a writeable partition. All users of the MIDAS package will require write access to the directory and its contents. The directory name $MIDASBASE/experiments may be replaced by the environment variable MIDASEXPBASE. If only the MIDAS base package is being used or sharing of experimental information between users is not required then MIDASEXPBASE could have the value ~/experiments - i.e. be local to the user.

If you are updating from a previous version of this software you can copy the directories $MIDASBASE/apparatus and $MIDASBASE/experiments from your existing release. If this is a new installation then $MIDASBASE/Samples contains simple versions to get you started. Copy the directories apparatus, experiments, log and sas (the last 2 are empty) to get you going.

If you are updating from a previous version of this software delete the file ~/.eg-defaults.tcl. (Or rename if you wish to preserve).

Now execute the command MIDAS64-session (if you added $MIDASBASE/bin_Linux64 to your binary search path) or execute the command $MIDASBASE/bin_Linux64/MIDAS64-session (if you did not). This sets the necessary environment variables for a pure 64 bit session. MIDAS-session will enable a mixed 64bit and 32bit (where needed) session.

Download the Samples file with ID 070504  3.5 Mbytes

Ensure that the directory MIDAS_base_xxxxxx is your current directory and then uncompress using gunzip and run tar to unpack. You will create a directory Samples within the current directory. The Samples directory includes a directory $MIDASBASE/Samples/spectra which contains some sample 1d and 2d histograms. In the Base Frame select the button "Spectrum Viewer". When the window (Spectrum Directory Browser) starts your home directory is scanned for directories (and spectra). If you wish to view the sample histograms type $MIDASBASE/Samples/spectra (actually you must yourself substitute $MIDASBASE by the appropiate path) into the Directory entry window and press return. The directory browser will show you that there are 3 directories available. Double click on 1 of these. Now double-click on any one of the files shown in the list with an "s" at the extreme left hand edge of the list (these are all valid spectra files) and you will get a new window containing the spectrum display.

You can now browse the supplied spectra and any others you may have.

Full documentation in html format is available for TclTk.

Download the manual file with ID 070504  2.7 Mbytes

Ensure that the directory MIDAS_base_xxxxxx is your current directory and then uncompress using gunzip and run tar to unpack. You will create a directory manual within the current directory.

You can now browse the supplied spectra and any others you may have.

If you only wish to view and analyse spectra then you can finish now. If you intend to use other MIDAS application packages then some further installation is needed. It is not essential to install the MIDAS Spectrum Server unless you intend to install one of the application packages.

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