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VNL runs on most Windows and Linux systems. There are however some specific requirements to keep in mind. If VNL fails to run on your system, it is quite likely that a similar problem has already been reported - and solved. The solution can then be found on the Forum. If not, post your problem there, with as many details as you possible can, including the exact software version (and distribution for Linux) and any error messages that appear.
Hardware requirementsThe operations performed in Virtual NanoLab involve rather complex 3D graphics which demand a lot of both the computer processor and memory, and not least the graphics card. Although there is no specific minimum requirement, other than those that generally apply to running applications on each specific platform, it is highly recommended to equip the computer with a large amount of memory, with 512 MB as an absolute minimum, and 1 GB as a reasonable number.The same goes for the processor. VNL runs on pretty much all modern Intel and AMD processors, both 32- and 64-bit (although VNL is a pure 32-bit application). In addition, the requirements for running calculations with ATK apply generally. Viewing large molecules and complex geometries puts hard strain on the graphics components of your system. It is therefore necessary to have a good graphics card with 3D hardware acceleration. Make sure to obtain the latest drivers from the card manufacturer as well. VNL, and particularly the NanoScope compoment, relies on OpenGL and requires heavy and quick 3D manipulations to visualize the molecular and electronic structures. The essential requirements for running VNL are: - Intel/AMD processors with SSE (or SSE2, depends on ATK) instruction set
- AGP or PCIe graphics card
- Properly installed OpenGL driver
To efficiently run VNL, a hardware accelerated OpenGL driver is required. Software emulated OpenGL usually works, but the performance is poor. A few facts about the graphics card: - A dedicated card is usually better than motherboard-integrated card, since the former has dedicated GPU (graphics processing unit) to release CPU from heavy 3D graphics manipulations, as such the performance is significantly improved.
- The size of VRAM is not the most important, although the bigger the VRAM, the better, since more texture objects can be stored in VRAM and be accessed faster. If the VRAM is insufficient, main RAM will be used instead.
- To effectively push the graphics performance to the card's design limit, the vendor-specific driver, which usually contains the hardware-accelerated OpenGL driver, are preferable than the generic driver shipped with OS. This means, for instance on Linux, MesaGL is bad, one has to install ATI or Nvidia proprietary drivers.
A practical recommendation for smoothly running VNL is: - ATI or Nvidia (almost all other graphics card vendors have died already) graphics card with 128 MB VRAM and hardware-accelerated 3D. (Note: 8MB cards usually do not support 3D, 16MB and better ones do.)
- Vendor-specific driver with hardware-accelerated OpenGL support (e.g. drivers downloaded from ATI or Nvidia website).
It is generally hard to provide bullet-proof system requirements for the graphics in VNL, because even a very old 3D graphics card with properly configured OpenGL driver can run VNL. It's a matter of performance, but it's difficult to know whether the performance of a certain card is good or not. Generally, if VNL doesn't run, most likely it is caused by the driver, not by the hardware.
Linux software requirements Distribution support
VNL has been extensively tested and is officially supported on - Novell Linux Desktop 9 SP3 x86*
- Novell Linux Desktop 9 SP3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 2 x86
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 2 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x86
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x86_64
- CentOS 4.0 x86_64*
- CentOS 5.1 x86_64
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 x86
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 x86_64
* Provided you have a 32-bit graphics driver. However, VNL runs on other distributions as well without problems, although sometimes it might be required to install a few missing libraries. DetailsRunning ATK on Linux generally requires: - Linux kernel 2.4.8
- XFree86 4.3/X.Org Server 6.8
- GLibC 2.2.5
- FreeType 2
- libg2c
- libstdc++.so.5 or libstdc++.so.5
In addition, VNL has a rather complex dependence on shared libraries, and not all of these are pre-installed on all distributions. If VNL does not start up properly, it will print a log to the terminal, detailing which library components it failed to load. The log can also be found in the file ~/.vnl/vnl.log. The log messages can sometimes be a bit cryptic, but detailed solutions have been developed for each documented case for the supported platforms listed above. Therefore, if you experience any problems starting VNL, start by looking in the Forum section on "Installation Questions". If no solution can be found there, post a new question with all details, including the exact software version (and distribution for Linux) and the log output. The most common problems are
Windows software requirementsFor Windows, VNL has primarily been tested on Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 and SP3. It is however expected to run properly also on Windows 2000/2003, x64 edition and Vista.Windows
Running VNL requires that TCP/IP network is installed. Usually, this means that one has at least one Ethernet NIC which binds with the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)". It is not possible to run VNL via a remote network connection. |
