Solaris Installation

[BryantWagner]

Has anyone tried to install on Solaris 11 x86 64?

[ptc-876037]

I have WF5 now running on Solaris 11 express, and prior to that on Opensolaris. Before you install WF5 you need to install the Motif runtime libraries. If your serious I'll get more detailed info on the installation. I even have it running with "compiz" in Gnome.

[BryantWagner]

Outstanding! Yes I would like more info. We run a hodgepodge of analysis software on a bigger hodgepodge of OS. Pro/e dropped support for linux after WF3 and windows doesn't support our processing clusters very well. I am trying to standardize the OS a bit.

so...

I have dual, dual core 64 bit xeon with quadro pro graphics and 4 gigs ram.

solaris 11x no frills install with motif, csh etc(dual booted with windows)

MED-100X64-CD-370_M060.tar was extracted locally and rwx permissions given to user

When I run setup, a "UI Decorations" window pops up and never goes away. bash returns "Starting PTC.Setup, please wait ..." then exits

this is the logfile

<InitMainVars>
<PsGetVar> Failed for: PTC_CDHOME
DONE <InitMainVars>

when I try to run ptcsetup I get the UI Decorations window and it never exits

logfile

<InitMainVars>
PS_DIRECTORY ** Not Set **
argv[0] is '/home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc/sun_solaris_x64/obj/ptcsetup'
Try to figure it out now
Path1 NOW: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc/sun_solaris_x64/obj/ptcsetup
Now look for: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc/text/compiled_resource/ps_default_resources.dll
Found /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc/text/compiled_resource/ps_default_resources.dll
Resource file exists at: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc/text/compiled_resource/ps_default_resources.dll
So, set PS_DIRECTORY to: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc
PTC_CDHOME ** Not Set **
Now look for: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/ptc_inst/cdmaster.ptc
So, set PTC_CDHOME to: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060
<PsGetVar> Failed for: PTC_CDHOME
DPS_DIRECTORY ** Not Set **
So, set DPS_DIRECTORY to: /home/user/Downloads/MED-100X64-CD-370_M060/dsrc
PRO_MACHINE_TYPE ** Not Set **
So, set PRO_MACHINE_TYPE to: sun_solaris_x64
DONE <InitMainVars>

Thanks!

[ptc-876037 · Accepted solution]

"When I run setup, a "UI Decorations" window pops up and never goes away."

This is your main problem. It's caused by Compiz. If you shut Compiz off, the "UI Decorations" will go away and the "Setup" menu will appear and work.

To manually turn Compiz off follow:

<Main Menu>

<System>

<Preferences>

<Appearance>

Under the "Visual Effects" Tab select "None" to turn Compiz off.

To turn it on just follow the same menus as above then select either "Normal", "Extra" or "Custom" to your desired effects. Please note, with out Compiz running, Pro-E will behave as it did with Solaris 10, where the windows bounce around if you use more then one workspace. Compiz settles it down.

When I start Pro-E WF5, I use a script:

#!/bin/sh
cd /Disk1/Data/Pro-E_Files
LC_ALL=C
LANG=C
GDM_LANG=C
export LC_ALL LANG GDM_LANG
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11/lib/NVIDIA:/usr/X11/lib/NVIDIA/amd64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/Disk1/Binaries/Pro-Engineer/WF5/bin/proe1 &
##############################################
##########Required Below to Open WF5 with Compiz##########
##############################################
sleep 5
metacity --replace &
sleep 1
gtk-window-decorator --replace &
sleep 1
compiz --replace gconf &

In the past I've had problems with the Language not set to "C", so that's in my script. It may not be required now, but it doesn't harm. Also, in the past Opensolaris had some problem with accessing some Nvidia libraries, so I added that also, again it may not be required now, but it doesn't harm.

The Pro-E start command (proe1) obviousely points to my hard disk location, adjust yours accordingly.

OK, now the first "sleep 5" command. For me a 5 second delay was good, I use a solid state disk as my hard drive. Pro-E for me takes 4 seconds to launch. Prior to my Solid State Hard Drive it took me 40 seconds to launch Pro-E. You may need to adjust this to 45 seconds.

The next 2 sleeps are just making sure the prior commands complete properly.

The one strange thing is, once you start Pro-E (stopping Compiz and restarting Compiz) you don't need to stop and start Compiz any more until you reboot your computer if you close Pro-E.

Now trying to get everything working smooth, I could never figure out what it is with Compiz that causes the trouble, even the Linux people had this phenomenon. But if you can get KDE as a desktop running properly, Plasma (Compiz equivalent) works without any startup trouble. I've upgraded to KDE 4.6 beta and it's not running correctly yet.

[BryantWagner]

Excellent, thank you! I now remember the compiz thing being a problem, it installed like a charm. I played with the script. This system does require the language commands, but so far not the nvidia library reference and the timings are good. I tried 3 seconds for the first sleep and it didnt quite make it so it's back to 5. In the past I have always turned compiz off. Thanks for the script commands to turn it off and back on. After reading your last 2 paragraphs i created two scripts, one for straight after boot and one general use. Maybe a startup script that would start pro and shut it off before it loads compiz?

It took me forever to find the answer to this. No one seems to know anything about this stuff.

[ptc-876037]

I have both scripts created also. I tried to get this done during the booting process by installing a small script into the /etc/rc2.d directory. Basically I tried to start a small program with the same problem, "setup" or "ptcsetup". What needs to be done is to start and stop ptcsetup, prior to the login (in rc2.d) or in a ".profile" which happens just at login, I just never completed that task. If you manage to get it working let me know.

I've been running Pro-E and Solaris now for about 15 years. I'm going to be bummed when Creo 1.0 comes out. No Solaris. I see mixed feelings from people. All the Windows people say great, now PTC will finally get the UI correct. I don't see that as the saving grace. Other people have been hounding for MacOSX, which if Free BSD Unix. Go figure.

I'm now working for a company that uses "Autodesk" Inventor on Windows 7. I completely miss my 6 different workspaces. I deplore Windows, at least 1 - 2 times a week Inventor locks up on me, not sure if it's Windows or Inventor or both, it just happens. Solaris is a superior OS. Not to mention, Inventor is no wheres near the functionality as Pro-E is, and Inventor is much slower.

Well glad to here I could help people out getting Pro-E running on Solaris 11 Express.

[BryantWagner]

i am so with you there. the old stigma of unix/linux makes users cringe if you suggest they try a new version. i started on proe back when it only ran on unix mains and SGI boxes. it think will take a few large companies to commit to a system other than windows which will be a shame since linux and solaris are very close to being able to replace windows. looks like we will be in a quagmire of windows. even ANSYS is anticipating dropping solaris x64 support after 13.

we are running xp pro 64 with wf 3 and intralink not sure why we havent upgraded but we are soon. i am running ansys 13 and now wf5 (thanks to you) on the solaris system. i am trying to get some of the other ansys and ricardo users to switch to solaris.

now who do we contact to ask about keeping solaris support?