2.8. EMBASSY Installation: Platform-specific Concerns

2.8.1. Linux RPM Distributions

These distributions include Fedora Core, SuSE, Mandriva & RedHat.

2.8.1.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.1.2. Ncurses prerequisites

You need to make sure that the following libraries and development files have been installed from your distribution DVD/CDs:

ncurses
ncurses-devel

You can check whether they're there using the rpm -q PackageName command as above. Use the rpm -i PackageName.rpm command to install them if necessary (alternatively use yum install PackageName or a graphical package manager if available).

2.8.2. Linux Debian Distributions

These distributions include Debian itself and derivatives such as Ubuntu.

2.8.2.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.2.2. Ncurses prerequisites

You need to make sure that the following libraries and development files have been installed from your distribution DVD/CDs.

libncursesw5
libncursesw5-dev

You can check whether they're there using the dpkg --list command. Use the dpkg -i filename.deb command to install them if necessary (alternatively use a graphical package manager).

2.8.3. MacOSX

These instructions refer to the 10.6 & 10.5 versions of MacOSX although similar principles apply to 10.4 & 10.3.

Caution

The EMBOSS developers can only realistically support the package on a virgin MacOSX installation.

2.8.3.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.3.2. Ncurses prerequisites

This package comes with MacOSX so no installation is necessary.

2.8.4. IRIX

2.8.4.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.4.2. Ncurses prerequisites

The EMBOSS configuration has been tailored to accept the Ncurses package available from http://www.freeware.sgi.com (as long as the cc compiler is being used and the configuration command contains a suitable -with-sgiabi switch. This is, at the time of writing:

-with-sgiabi=ncurses-5.3

It can be installed using inst and will be loaded into the /usr/freeware directory tree and so would be selected from the EMBASSY configuration using:

-with-curses=/usr/freeware

As you can see, it is rather out of date. It may therefore be advisable to compile it yourself by following the instructions (Section 1.11, “Ncurses Support: Installing from Source Code”). If you are using the gcc compiler then you should most certainly compile Ncurses support yourself.

2.8.5. Tru64

2.8.5.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.5.2. Ncurses prerequisites

We recommend that you compile Ncurses yourself by following the instructions (Section 1.11, “Ncurses Support: Installing from Source Code”). You can then specify its location in the EMBASSY configuration using (e.g.):

--with-curses=/usr/local

2.8.6. Solaris

These instructions refer to Solaris 10, although they should apply equally well to other versions of this operating system.

2.8.6.1. General Prerequisites

See the platform specific notes (Section 1.7, “EMBOSS Installation: Platform-specific Concerns”) for installing the main EMBOSS package.

2.8.6.2. Ncurses prerequisites

Some Ncurses packages are provided on companion CDs and on the sunfreeware site. Both of these are problematic: it's therefore strongly recommend that you install Ncurses from source code using the instructions (Section 1.11, “Ncurses Support: Installing from Source Code”).