VMD-L Mailing List

From: Gustavo Scheiffer (ghscheiffer_at_gmail.com)
Date: Fri Dec 18 2020 - 11:09:24 CST

Hello,
I suppose there isn't really a problem with access privileges, since I
tried running VMD from an elevated prompt as well. I'm starting to suspect
maybe VMD is requesting some Windows service that I disabled in the past
(any guesses?). Anyway, I find it quite weird, never had this kind of
problem before with any software. Also, I discovered that the same exact
message pops-up when I click the installer of the newer 64-bit version.
In summary: The other versions I can install, but not execute. The 64-bit I
can't even install. The same message appears on both cases.

Regarding the Ctrl+V suggestion, there wasn't any effect.

Best,
Gustavo Scheiffer

On Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 17:16 Stefan Boresch <stefan_at_mdy.univie.ac.at> wrote:

> [I fully understand that you are not even getting that far.]
>
> However, your earlier message with access issues reminded me of one
> difference I noticed on Windows (compared to Linux, my normal
> 'habitat'). Specifically, when vmd is started via the icon (mouse
> clicking) or through file association (open *.pdb with vmd), your
> working directory is the install directory, and, e.g., (some) output
> files (e.g. for rendering) default to that directory, to which you
> (unless you are running as admin) have no write access. (This might be
> the case on Linux, too, but there I start vmd practically always via
> the command line in the directory I plan to work in ..)
>
> While I work around this by starting vmd on Windows also from the
> command line, this is 'fun' to explain to students who see the command
> line
> for the first time.
>
> Finally, I have seen vmd hang on Windows on occasion for quite some time
> (John provided an explanation a few weeks back here). When you get so far
> that vmd
> does something in the powershell window, have you tried just hitting
> 'Enter'
> and/or Ctrl-C? In most cases, vmd then starts up relatively quickly.
>
> Best,
> Stefan
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 04:03:45PM -0300, Gustavo Scheiffer wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Yes, I always confirm the administrator privileges pop-up. The
> installation
> > itself seems to finish without any problems and there's plenty of disk
> > space. I tried executing VMD via Powershell to investigate further and
> > verified that the program seems to quit (maybe crashing?) right after
> > opening.
> >
> > Output from Powershell:
> >
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe
> > PS C:\VMD> .\vmd.exe (yes, I needed to execute vmd 8 times to get the
> > output below)
> > Info) VMD for WIN32, version 1.9.3 (November 30, 2016)
> > Info) http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> > Info) Email questions and bug reports to vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > Info) Please include this reference in published work using VMD:
> > Info) Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., `VMD - Visual
> > Info) Molecular Dynamics', J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.
> > Info) -------------------------------------------------------------
> > Info) Multithreading available, 4 CPUs detected.
> > Info) Free system memory: 1075MB (26%)
> > PS C:\VMD> -- (VMD just stopped here?)
> >
> > Worth noting that the warning message mentioned in the previous email
> only
> > appears sometimes (sometimes the VMD window just popup for less than a
> > second). Is there some conflict happening? For the record, I'm using an
> > Intel HD Graphics 4600 (drivers up to date).
> >
> > Em ter., 15 de dez. de 2020 às 03:46, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu>
> > escreveu:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > > When you try installing VMD, do you have administrator priveleges?
> > > Are you out of disk space?
> > >
> > > Best,
> > > John Stone
> > > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > >
> > > On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 04:01:30AM -0300, Gustavo Scheiffer wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > > I just can't manage to make VMD work on my PC (Windows 10). I
> tried
> > > many
> > > > different versions, always resulting in the same problem. When I
> > > click
> > > > on the VMD.exe, Windows exhibits a warning message "Windows
> cannot
> > > > access the specified device, path, or file. You may notÂ
> have the
> > > > appropriate permissions to access the item". I was really hoping
> to
> > > use
> > > > VMD to learn NAMD.
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > Gustavo Scheiffer
> > >
> > > --
> > > NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> > > Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> > > University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> > > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Phone: 217-244-3349
> > > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> > >
>