Next: 3. Quick start tutorial Up: Fitsblink 2.2 user manual Previous: 1. Introduction
Subsections

- 2.1 Hardware and software requirements
- 2.2 Getting executables
- 2.3 Compiling
- 2.4 Installation
- 2.5 Known bugs

# 2. Installation

## 2.1 Hardware and software requirements

The `fitsblink` program will in principle run on a PC 486, 8 MB of RAM, 1024x768 pixel graphics card and 15'' color monitor. It will be rather slow, however, and the amount of images loaded at one time will be limited. The recommended minimal configuration is Pentium 200 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 1280x1024 video card and 17'' monitor or better.

Other platforms: any equivalently powerful Unix workstations should be good enough. However, it is up to you to obtain appropriate libraries and compile the program. `Fitsblink` uses `cfitsio 2.025` and `xforms 0.88` libraries. In principle the version 1.42 of `cfitsio` should work, too. Please do not attempt to use any earlier version of the `xforms` library because the program will most probably not work with it.

`Fitsblink` is also reported to work under the OS/2 + XFREE86 operating system thanks to Duncan Munro from Canada.

Version 2.11 of `fitsblink` was successfully compiled on SUNOS 4.3 but some modifications of the `makefile` and commenting out some `#include` statements were necessary. Unfortunately, binaries are not available on `fitsblink` home page.

To do astrometry, you also need CD-ROMs with GSC 1.1 star catalog and/or USNO SA 1.0 catalog. In principle you can also have exact copies of these catalogs on hard disk, if you wish to avoid mounting and unmounting of CD-ROM drives and your hard disk is big enough.

## 2.2 Getting executables

You can get the compiled program for the Linux system on
http://kronos.ijs.si/~jure/fitsblink/fitsblink.html.

## 2.3 Compiling

Sources of `fitsblink` are available at
http://kronos.ijs.si/~jure/fitsblink/fitsblink.html. You can find the latest version of the `cfitsio` library at
ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/software/fitsio/c/ and the `xforms 0.88` library at
http://bragg.phys.uwm.edu/xforms. If you really want to compile `fitsblink` by yourself, make sure that you install these libraries properly. Then edit the `makefile` and enter proper paths for include files and libraries. You also need to change `C` compiler switches if you don't use `GNU C`. Then type make and hope for the best. If you succeed in compiling `fitsblink` for some other platform and you wish to share the binary code with other people, you are welcome to send it to me and I will add it to the `fitsblink` home page.

## 2.4 Installation

When you get a working binary, you can install it to a directory which is listed in your path, for example `/usr/local/bin`. When you run `fitsblink` for the first time, it will complain about not finding a parameter file. Just proceed with the program and choose the Settings item in the Astrometry menu. Write in your default settings and press the Save button. A file which contains your settings is named `.fitsblinkrc` and is written to your home directory. For those less familiar with Unix, files starting with a dot are ``hidden'', i.e. normally not shown by the `ls` command.

The user manual (this one) serves also as the help file. It is a good idea to put it to some known place, such as `/usr/local/lib/fitsblink`.

You can install the `fitsblink` program (default location `/usr/local/bin`) and user manual (default location `/usr/local/lib/fitsblink` by typing `make install`. You must be root for this.

## 2.5 Known bugs

- After erasing images from the memory sometimes a segmentaion fault appears. This bug appears relatively infrequently and is difficult to reproduce. The author would be grateful on any documented example how to reproduce this or any other bug reliably.
- You can't use USNO catalog on big-endian computers.

Next: 3. Quick start tutorial Up: Fitsblink 2.2 user manual Previous: 1. Introduction