Installing RPS on Linux
Installing RPS on Linux
Introduction
This document describes how to install RenderMan Pro Server on a Linux workstation.
Licensing Information
Before installing, a basic understanding of Pixar license types, and how to retrieve a license is helpful.
Installing with RPM
RenderMan Pro Server for Linux is distributed via rpm packages:
- RenderManProServer-version-linuxflavor.rpm - The RenderMan Pro Server rendering toolkit.
Users may also need to install the PixarLicenseServer, provided as a separate rpm:
- PixarLicense-version-linuxflavor.rpm - The Pixar license server; it only needs to be installed on the machine designated as your license server.
The flavor string includes the common distribution, e.g. FC5, the gcc/icc versions, and the microprocessor instruction set, e.g. i686. Putting them all together provides, for example, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5-compatible package named RenderManProServer-19.0-linuxFC12_gcc44icc121.x86_64.rpm.
Each .rpm file is independent of each other, and may be installed separately. As mentioned, the License Server package needs only be installed on the one machine that is designated as your license server.
Command Line Installation
Linux software is generally installed from a terminal/shell window via the command line, using the RPM executable. For Linux operating systems that do not support the RPM package manager, please see their documentation on how to convert and install an RPM file.
Installing to the default location
To install the software to the default location, first change to the directory where the .rpm files are located, and from a root shell type:
> rpm -i RenderManProServer-version-linuxflavor.rpm
For example:
> rpm -i RenderManProServer-19.0-linuxFC12_gcc44icc121.x86_64.rpm
Installing to a location other than /opt
To install the packages to a different location, the /opt prefix of the default path can be replaced. For example, to install to /usr/local/, from a root shell type:
> rpm -i --prefix /usr/local RenderManProServer-version-linuxflavor.rpm
Querying installed packages
To verify which packages are installed, from any shell type:
> rpm -q package*
For example, if you type:
> rpm -q RenderManProServer*
the full names of installed RenderMan Pro Server packages will be printed to the screen.
Alternatively, you can "grep", like so:
rpm -qa | grep RenderManProServer
These tricks are handy when you plan to uninstall a package and don't remember exactly which packages are installed.
Early Exit out of LicenseApp
As mentioned in the licensing documentation, a licensing application will automatically run near the end of the install process.
If you have a previous stub redirector license file, you can also safely quit LicenseApp to allow the installation to complete. Then copy the stub pixar.license file to the root (/opt/pixar/pixar.license) location.
Preventing the LicenseApp application from running
If you are installing on multiple platforms you may not want to continually dismiss the LicenseApp application. You can prevent the application from launching with a command line option. From a root shell type:
> rpm -i --nopost RenderManProServer-version-linuxflavor.rpm
GUI-based Installation
Although RPM packages are typically installed via command line, some Linux distributions have GUI-based package managers, like gnomerpm. Some distributions will also allow for double-clicking the RPM file in a directory browser, which will invoke RPM with default arguments.
Uninstalling
To uninstall the rpm packages, from a root shell type:
> rpm -e RenderManProServer-version
For example:
> rpm -e RenderManProServer-19.0_linuxFC12_gcc44121.x86_64
Notice that the .rpm portion of the rpm file name has been truncated. The above command should erase the entire contents of the installation directories.
Setting Up the User's Environment
Environment Variables
There are several environment variables that users should set. These can be added to your .cshrc (or other startup) file:
- RMANTREE - establishes the location of your PRMan distribution.
- RMANFB - establishes your framebuffer display program.
- path - establishes the searchpath for the execution of programs, this probably already exists, so it is just a matter of adding $RMANTREE/bin to your path.
- RDIR - speficies a directory where additional configuration files can be found, e.g. a site-specific rendermn.ini file.
- PIXAR_LICENSE_FILE - can be used by systems administrators to define a location other than the default for the software license. This will normally point to a pixar.license file on a centrally mounted network drive.
RenderMan Studio users should consult the RenderMan Studio documentation for more information about RMS-specific environment variables.
Help
If you require further assistance, please check out the RenderMan Support Forum. Note that registration is required.