[xcrysden] Installation of XCrySDen under Mac OSX snow leopard

[David M. Wood]

Jian-Xin Zhu wrote:

> "These days I tried to install the XCrySDen on the Mac Intel with OSX  Snow Leopard.  I downloaded xc-1.5.21-src-all.tar.gz from http://www.xcrysden.org/Download.html .
> I have already installed Tcl, Tk, and Mesa through fink.
> The OpenGL for "include" stuff is in /System/Library/Frameworks/ OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Headers
> However, when I execute the command make all
> Many errors (as copied/pasted below) came out when the C-code was   compiled."

You don't need version 1.5.21-src-all IF you decide to use already-installed Tcl, Tk, Mesa.  On the other hand, I've found getting the correct headers, library versions, etc, properly linked to was fairly difficult since there are several installations of X-related stuff on my machine.

So I decided to use, as you did, xc-1.5.21-src-all .  The following works for me, PROVIDED I use the Apple-distributed X11 server [version XQuartz 2.3.5 (xorg-server 1.4.2-apple53) in /Applications/Utilities/X11.app] rather than, for example XQuartz 2.5.2, which produces another X11 server entitled XQquartz.app in the same directory.  The only problem I'm having is that the xcrysden display flickers rapidly.

So: here's the process, using XCrySDen-1.5.21-src-all

1. My make.sys is the same as system/Make.macosx-x11-tone-elettra Make.sys except for the use of gfortran (installed via Fink) rather than g77 (no longer in fink?)

FC = gfortran

2. make all

3. Make sure to run xcConfigure, or that something like

# this is for XCRYSDEN 1.5.21; added by XCRYSDEN installation on
# Sat Jul 24 17:34:57 MDT 2010
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
XCRYSDEN_TOPDIR=/usr/local/src/XCrySDen-1.5.21-src-all
XCRYSDEN_SCRATCH=/Users/dmwood/xcrys_tmp
export XCRYSDEN_TOPDIR XCRYSDEN_SCRATCH
PATH="$XCRYSDEN_TOPDIR:$PATH:$XCRYSDEN_TOPDIR/scripts:$XCRYSDEN_TOPDIR/util"

is at the bottom of your .bashrc (or equivalent) file and that you've run source ~/.bash_profile (which also sources .bashrc)

4. Launch the Apple (not XQuartz) X11.app and add an entry for xcrysden via Application->Customize

Name: xcd
Command: /usr/local/src/XCrySDen-1.5.21-src-all/xcrysden

5. Close the Application menu editor,

6. Select  from the Apple X11 app:  Applications->xcd

For me, this pops open the usual XCrySDen window.  As noted above, it APPEARS to work normally, except that the contents of the display window flickers annoyingly at about 10 Hz--enough that anyone with epilepsy should be careful!

WARNING/FYI: attempts to launch XCrySDen via xcrysden in a terminal window (or, presumably, via the XQuartz server) for me yield

Executing: /usr/local/src/XCrySDen-1.5.21-src-all/bin/ftnunit
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
 Major opcode of failed request:  147 (GLX)
 Minor opcode of failed request:  5 (X_GLXMakeCurrent)
 Serial number of failed request:  566
 Current serial number in output stream:  566

There is actually nothing the matter with ftnunit; the issue appears to be use of XQuartz libraries.

Hope this helps.  I'd LOVE to hear how to get rid of the nasty flickering!

David M. Wood
dmwood at Mines.EDU