Slicer3:Solaris

Slicer 3.6.1 running on Solaris. Image courtesy Stefan Teleman.

The compilation of Slicer3 on Solaris (Getbuildtest on Solaris)

At present (as of March 2011) the build of Slicer3 is only supported on Opensolaris and OpenIndiana (or on SXCE, but that is discontinued and slowly becomes obsolote).

On Solaris 10 the build will likely fail, as Slicer3's build process involves the building of Python 2.6, and that needs a newer version of libcrypto (>0.9.7) that is not included with the OS. According to Oracle there won't be a newer version either, but they going to patch the current release (see the link below). This is good for security, but bad for missing symbols.

Oracle's Solaris Studio is used to compile Slicer3 on Solaris. Studio 12.1, 12.2 and Studio Express (10/06) have some bugs that make the compilation harder. The bugs were reported and have been fixed (see below). Hopefully later Studio releases will contain this fix, or - if you have an Oracle support contract - you can download them as a patch.

Building with gcc is not supported on Solaris.

The build system uses the Apache Standard C++ Library on Solaris, which is available for SXCE and Opensolaris out of the box (package names: SUNWlibstdcxx4 and library/c++/stdcxx). This library is available for Solaris 10 as a contributed download; you can find it in the Links section.

There have been reports that running Slicer3 under Solaris 10 is possible with a recent Xorg, Python and Apache Standard C++ Library versions.

Should you still use SXCE, the needed packages are:

SUNWgmake SUNWcvs SUNWsvn SUNWTcl SUNWxwplt SUNWxorg-mesa SUNWxorg, SUNWlibstdcxx4.

In case there are missing packages, you can install them from the install CD/DVD:

Put it in the drive, or mount the iso via lofi, browse to the Solaris_11/Product directory, and

pkgadd -d . SUNWgmake SUNWcvs SUNWsvn SUNWTcl SUNWxwplt SUNWxorg-mesa SUNWxorg SUNWlibstdcxx4

cvs or svn may complain for a newer versions. In this case it is recommended that you download and install the CBE tools from opensolaris.org (link below).

On OpenSolaris or OpenIndiana you can use the IPS system to add missing packages. The names for the needed packages can be found in the "Links" section below.

If you need, you can install newer versions of the above tools either from blastwave, or from sunfreeware too. In both cases check your paths! Put /opt/csw/bin in case of blastwave, and /usr/local/bin in case of sunfreeware in your profile.

You can check your 3D acceleration by running: /usr/X11/demo/glxgears.

Best results can be achieved with nVidia cards, as there do not exist drivers with 3D acceleration for Ati cards on Solaris. Intel's chipsets should be fine too.

Download of the binary version

As of March, 2011 the current stable version of Slicer is 3.6.3 You can download a 64 bit binary for Opensolaris/OpenIndiana x86_64 from the Snapshots section of the slicer download page or from here:

www.orl.szote.u-szeged.hu/~attila/Slicer3-3.6.3-2011-03-09-solaris8.tar.gz

Installation of the Apache Standard C++ Library might be necessary to run the software. You might have to install SUNWlibstdcxx4 OR library/c++/stdcxx or ask your sysadmin to do that for you.

OR

you can download a Virtualbox appliance with a preinstalled (although earlier) version of Slicer. After the extraction of the files from the archive, you can import them into Virtualbox and test Slicer. Virtualbox provides both 2D and 3D acceleration for guests. You can download the above, 3.6.3 version of Slicer3 into this VM, so you can run the latest version of Slicer in it too.

http://www.orl.szote.u-szeged.hu/~attila/Virtualbox-Slicer/slicer-osol.b134.tar.bz2

Beware, this is a big download, around 2.5 GB in size!

The username inside the VM is: slicer

and the password is: slicc3r2k

You cannot logon as root, but should you need to switch user (su) later, the password is the same for that account too.

LINKS

A blog entry on Solaris 10 and libcrypto/libssl: http://blogs.sun.com/janp/entry/on_openssl_versions_in_solaris

A link to the mail about Solaris and gcc: http://www.vtk.org/pipermail/vtkusers/2009-August/102167.html

Download link to Oracle Solaris Studio: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/downloads/index.html

Oracle Solaris Studio bug that has been fixed: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6942966

Renamed packages for Opensolaris: http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+indiana/Renamed+Packages+in+Build+133

Packages containing newer versions of cvs/svn should you need them: http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/cbe/ or http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/cbe/test/

Apache Standard C++ Library for Solaris 10 x86 (non-official download): http://s247136804.onlinehome.us/stdcxx/4.2.1/packages/SOLARIS10/i386/20090917/SUNWlibstdcxx4.i386.tar.bz2