CentOS 8 Advanced Install

Before starting, follow the steps in Generic SeaRay Installation.

Warning

Installing video drivers on Linux can sometimes cause you to lose your display. Recovery is often difficult. If you cannot afford for this to happen you should take steps to backup your system.

Support for NVIDIA Graphics

  1. Prepare for EPEL:

    • For CentOS, type sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools
    • For RHEL, type ARCH=$( /bin/arch ) followed by sudo subscription-manager repos --enable "codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-${ARCH}-rpms"

  2. Go to EPEL and install. As of this writing there is a link, epel-release-latest-8, that runs a graphical installer.

  3. Go to RPM Fusion and install the nonfree repository for RHEL 8 or compatible (there is no charge, nonfree refers to license restrictions). The link runs a graphical installer.

  4. Type sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia

    • This automatic kernel module recompiles automatically when a new Linux kernel is installed (e.g. during a system update). After restarting you must allow extra time for the kernel module to compile. There could be a long delay before the login screen appears.

  5. Restart the system, allow extra time for this restart.

  6. sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda

  7. sudo dnf install ocl-icd-devel

  8. Activate the conda environment (if not already active)

  9. conda install -c conda-forge ocl-icd-system

Support for AMD Graphics

  1. Download the driver for your GPU from the AMD website.

  2. Follow the instructions from AMD to install the driver with OpenCL.

    • As of this writing, the link is here. You must specify a command line option --opencl=pal or --opencl=legacy depending on your GPU. You must also use the amdgpu-pro-install variant of the install script.

  3. Activate the conda environment (if not already active)

  4. conda install -c conda-forge ocl-icd-system

TeX for premium plot labels

If you want the nicest looking plot labels you have to install a TeX distribution.

  1. sudo dnf install texlive

  2. sudo dnf install dvipng

  3. You may need anyfontsize.sty

    • Search for anyfontsize.sty on the internet and download it
    • Create the directory texmf/tex/latex/local in your home directory
    • Copy anyfontsize.sty into the new directory

  4. Uncomment the line mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True near the top of ray_plotter.py.

Advanced 3D Plotting

The SeaRay plotter supports matplotlib and/or mayavi for 3d plotting. The 3D capabilities of matplotlib are at present nonideal (e.g., depth is not properly rendered in all cases). If you want robust 3D plots you should install mayavi.

In some cases mayavi and matplotlib step on each other. If this happens you may need separate environments for each. The plotter is written to sense which library is available and react accordingly.

  1. Activate your environment.
  2. conda install -c conda-forge mayavi

Interactive Notebooks

  1. If your environment is not already activated, activate it as above.

  2. conda install jupyter ipympl

  3. Create a directory ~/.jupyter/custom/ and copy raysroot/extras/custom.css to the new directory.

  4. If there are problems with Jupyter notebooks any or all of the following may be tried:

    • conda install widgetsnbextension=n, where n is some older version.
    • conda install ipywidgets
    • jupyter nbextension install --py --sys-prefix widgetsnbextension
    • jupyter nbextension enable --py --sys-prefix widgetsnbextension