VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 31 2020 - 12:01:56 CST

Gustavo,
  I noticed that two people have mentioned having trouble when trying
to run VMD from a Windows Power Shell prompt. What if you run VMD from
a normal "cmd.exe" window instead?

Best regards,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Fri, Dec 18, 2020 at 02:09:24PM -0300, Gustavo Scheiffer wrote:
> 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.Â
> 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 <[1]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 commandÂ
> 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) [2]http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> > Info) Email questions and bug reports to [3]vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > Info) Please include this reference in published work using VMD:
> > Info)Â Â Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., `VMD - Visual
> > Info)Â Â 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 Ã s 03:46, John Stone
> <[4]johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu>
> > escreveu:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >Â Â When you try installing VMD, do you have administrator
> priveleges?
> > > Are you out of disk space?
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >Â Â John Stone
> > >Â Â [5]vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > >
> > > On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 04:01:30AM -0300, Gustavo Scheiffer wrote:
> > > >Â Â Hello,
> > > >Â Â I just can't manage to make VMD work on my PC (Windows 10). I
> tried
> > > many
> > > >Â Â different versions, alwaysÃ* resulting in the sameÃ* problem.
> When I
> > > click
> > > >Â Â on the VMD.exe, Windows exhibitsÃ* a warning message "Windows
> cannot
> > > >Â Â accessÃ* theÃ* specified device,Ã* path, orÃ* file.Ã* You may
> notÃ* have the
> > > >Â Â appropriate permissions to access the item". I was really
> hoping to
> > > use
> > > >Â Â VMD to learn NAMD.
> > > >Â Â Best regards,
> > > >Â Â 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
> > > [6]http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/Â Â Â Â Â Â Phone:
> 217-244-3349
> > > [7]http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> > >Â
>
> References
>
> Visible links
> 1. mailto:stefan_at_mdy.univie.ac.at
> 2. http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> 3. mailto:vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> 4. mailto:johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> 5. mailto:vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> 6. http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/
> 7. http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/ 

-- 
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/