From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu)
Date: Thu May 24 2007 - 16:13:53 CDT

On Thu, 24 May 2007, Francesco Pietra wrote:

FP> What follows is to inquiry if the computer will be
FP> able to install VMD 1.8.6

you can install VMD even on a machine without
graphics, albeit then you can only use
the textmode interface, e.g. for data analysis.
we are doing this on our cluster (usually on
the frontend machine).

FP> I would like to install VMD 1.8.6 on Linux Debian i386
FP> (32bit Athlon) where various OpenGL-graphics programs
FP> (MM packages and interfaces to QM codes) run
FP> perfectly. Though, I do not use GLX acceleration.
FP> Below about the module used:

actually, you _are_ using glx, but in 'sofware rendering mode'.

FP> francesco_at_deb32:~$ awk '/Section
FP> "(Module|Device|ServerFlags|Extensions)"/,/EndSection/'
FP> /etc/X11/xorg.conf
FP> Section "Module"
FP> Load "i2c"
FP> Load "bitmap"
FP> Load "ddc"
FP> Load "dri"
FP> Load "extmod"
FP> Load "freetype"
FP> Load "glx"
FP> Load "int10"
FP> Load "vbe"

FP> while I did not install nvidia packages:
FP>
FP> francesco_at_deb32:~$ dpkg -l '*nvidia*' | awk
FP> '/^ii/{print $2}'
FP> No packages found matching *nvidia*.
FP> francesco_at_deb32:~$

those will actually accelerate GL output a lot.
OTOH, your graphics chip (geforce2 MX) is a
rather old low end graphics chip. it might be worth
upgrading to a more current low end model.

FP> Will that support be enough for VMD? If to try, it is
FP> not clear to me which binary version of VMD 1.8.6 will
FP> be most appropriate. I am not allowed to install any

there is only one alternative: LINUX OpenGL
the other two are for x86_64 (opteron/em64t)
and itanium (ia64), they will not execute on
your 32-bit x86 machine.

FP> graphics on the amd64 parallel opteron machine, where
FP> QM codes run (and NAMD should be installed): there is
FP> just no X system.

there is not need to install VMD there unless for
analysis scripts when you want to process large
amounts of data and your local machine/disk is
not sufficient. otherwise see above... ;-)

cheers,
  axel.

FP>
FP> Thanks
FP>
FP> francesco pietra
FP>
FP>
FP>
FP>
FP>
FP>
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FP> http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/
FP>

-- 
=======================================================================
Axel Kohlmeyer   akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu   http://www.cmm.upenn.edu
   Center for Molecular Modeling   --   University of Pennsylvania
Department of Chemistry, 231 S.34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323
tel: 1-215-898-1582,  fax: 1-215-573-6233,  office-tel: 1-215-898-5425
=======================================================================
If you make something idiot-proof, the universe creates a better idiot.