www.neuron.yale.edu

I just tried to install Neuron on my new intel mac. I followed the directions, and then realized I didn't have X11 installed yet when the gui didn't show up when I tried to run the demo. I had to install X11 from the disk, and had to reinstall the whole system with the custom X11 optional installation (it wouldn' t let me install X11 by itself- wierd). Then I repeated the configure...make...make install steps for interviews and neuron just because it felt like the right thing to do (I have no idea what I'm doing, thanks for your patience). When I tried to run the demo again, the gui still didn't show up. I noticed the message,

"Warning: no DISPLAY environment variable.
--No graphics will be displayed."

EDIT: This problem occurs only when running Neuron from Terminal. There was no problem when using XTerm inside X11. Anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

We found the X11 installer sans entire system reinstall on the installer disk:
Mac OS X Install Disc 1/System/Installation/Packages/X11User.pkg
Here's the SDK:
Mac OS X Install Disc 1/XCode Tools/Packages/X11SDK.pkg

These Installers are not on Apple's website. We will be posting them on our server for your enjoyment.

I generally do NOT use X11 for the mac but the built-in carbon library. There is a dmg for that machine at
http://www.neuron.yale.edu/ftp/neuron/versions/alpha/
or you can look at the nrn/mkalpha.sh
file for the configuration options to use
if you wish to build from the sources.

Using X11 on OSX is still useful when doing remote work, say into a cluster. I recently tried to start running simulations on a new fast(er) desktop remotely from my laptop. Got the dreaded DISPLAY variable not set.

In this case, the solution was to check /etc/sshd_config. It had all the X11 options commented out, which leaves them in an X11 no-forwarding state.

Change these to allow forwarding (and hup sshd) and now the variables and XAuthority get set properly.

hines wrote:I generally do NOT use X11 for the mac but the built-in carbon library. There is a dmg for that machine at
http://www.neuron.yale.edu/ftp/neuron/versions/alpha/
or you can look at the nrn/mkalpha.sh
file for the configuration options to use
if you wish to build from the sources.

I like building the application from sources, but would like to be able to use the carbon version. Could you detail the steps or modifications to the standard UNIX install to do this?

Thanks a lot.

The default shell in the terminal is bash. Therefore, to change the environment variable such that XWindows will display properly, use the following command:

export DISPLAY=localhost:0

You should now be able to run NEURON from the terminal, which is infinitely better than the X11 terminal.