Client installation guide
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Install for GNU/Linux Install for windows |
The client software makes heavy demands on the graphics capabilities of the machine it is running on. For this reason a workstation with high graphics performance is suggested. Such requirements are very similar to those presented by any of the currently popular 3D games (Quake etc.). Any machine that works well with such games will very likely work well with the Network Intelligence client. Running the client on an inferior machine will likely result in disappointment.
Install for GNU/Linux
Download the .tgz archive into an empty directory. Extract the files with the following command
gtar xvfz ni-client-x.y.z.tgz |
Install the software by running the installation script as follows. You will need to be root when you run the installation script. Files will be placed in /opt/ni and /opt/ni/bin directories.
./install.client |
Installation is very fast and the script will return with Done. when the installation is complete.
The only other other thing to consider at this point is your version of Mesa. Network Intelligence relies heavily on OpenGL calls and hence running a reliable version of Mesa is very important. A number of different versions of Mesa have been tried with Network Intelligence, with varying results. Mesa 3.4.1 works well. Mesa 3.2 (which ships with RH6.2 as standard) for example will appear fine, but you will not be able to select any objects on the 3D window! In summary:
| Version | Comment |
| 3.2 | Avoid - can't select any objects |
| 3.4.1 | OK - no fog for text, but otherwise OK |
| 3.4.2 | OK - no fog for text, but otherwise OK |
| 4.0 | Maybe - fog works for text, but objects appear white with (some?) S3 video cards |
| 4.0.2 | Maybe - works fine, but is VERY slow! |
| 5.0 | OK - fog works for text, some objects blink white sometimes, otherwise fine |
On a Red Hat GNU/Linux system you can check what version of Mesa is installed with the following command.
rpm -q Mesa |
On other systems you can look at the /usr/lib/libGL* files and hopefully gleam some information from there. Look at /usr/lib/libGL.so and /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 in particular and see where they are pointing (they're usually a symbolic link). The following are common versions.
| Filename | Version |
| libGL.so.1.2.030401 | 3.4.1 |
| libGL.so.1.3.402 | 4.0.2 |
| libGL.so.1.4.500 | 5.0 |
If you find you are running an unsuitable version, you can obtain a working version from the official Mesa website. If you have experiences (good or bad) with other versions we would appreciate your feedback. Complete compilation instructions for Mesa are included in the archive, however in most cases only three lines are required to install it. Before doing so, make sure you remove any old versions of Mesa that are still on your machine. For Red Hat systems the old version can be removed with:
rpm -e --nodeps Mesa |
Mesa is compiled and installed with the following commands:
./configure --prefix=/usr make make install (this line must be entered as root) |
Install for windows
After downloading the archive, use WinZip to extract the contents to an empty directory. There are only two files in the archive. The client executable, called vis.exe and a DLL, called pthreadVCE.dll. Move the DLL to your windows directory. The DLL doesn't have to be placed in your windows directory per se, but it must be in a directory that is in your path. Double-click on the vis.exe icon to start the app.
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