How to Download, Install, and Start the APT tools using Solaris

Note to STScI Users: APT has been installed on our Science and SOGS UNIX clusters. So you can just type: APT to start it up.

Supported Systems

The APT tools are highly graphical and interactive applications and therefore run best on a robust machine. APT is supported on Sun Solaris 8, 9, and 10. For small proposals in Phase I an Ultra 5 with 256 Megabytes RAM (memory) should generally be sufficient, but for Phase II work we highly recommend 512 Megabytes. Please see our memory discussion for more information.

Note: APT's upgrade to Java 5 has made it so Solaris 7 can no longer be supported. (Solaris 7 cannot be patched for Java 5.)

Additional System Configuration Issues:

• APT now uses Java 5 and to run properly, your system manager may need to install patches for the version of Solaris you are running.
• We tested on the CDE window manager. The TWM window manager is known to be a problem with Java applications so please do not try to use APT with TWM. There are some problems running Java applications on Open Windows also, but these seem to be more cosmetic and can be worked around.
• You will need Acroread 5.0 or higher installed on your machine. To check your version, start acroread and select "About Acrobat Reader" from the Help menu.
• You should have the web browser plugin Shockwave 5.0 or higher for viewing the training movies. (In Netscape you can check your version by clicking on "About Plugins" in the Help menu.)
• Depending on your institution's computer security measures (firewalls, blocked ports, etc.), you may initially have communication trouble with APT. If you have any concerns please see our firewall webpage.

How to find out about new releases

We maintain an internal distribution list for announcing new releases of APT. This may be helpful to people who install APT for others to use. Send an e-mail to majordomo@stsci.edu which contains the line:

subscribe apt-users

1. UnInstall the previous version

Here are instructions for getting rid of the old version:

• Remove APT by invoking the uninstaller (<installation dir>/UninstallerData/Uninstall).
• If some directories remain, it means that you and/or APT stored some files in the installation directory. You may want to double check that something you want (such as a proposal file from last year) is not in there.
• After you have retrieved anything you want to save, delete the entire directory tree where you installed it. (The unix command rm -rf [directory] makes this quick because it gets rid of all the subdirectories and does not ask you about overriding permissions.)

2. Quit out of other applications (optional)

This is not required, but for some older machines there may be trouble installing if the resources of the machine are being used by other applications.

3. Download and Install

Choose your operating system: APT contains Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 1.5.0_08-b03. So there is a different APT for each major platform. The installation page you enter next can choose the correct version for your machine for you (just click on the button below the words "Recommended installation for your platform"). Or just choose the Solaris platform from the "Available Installers" table and follow the instructions.

Get the most out of your machine's memory: During installation you will be given the option of stating how much memory your machine has.

• Choose the first option if:
• your machine has less than 512 MB of memory.
• you don't know how much memory you have (memory can be determined with the "top" unix command).
• you are doing a site installation and some of your users have less than 512 MB of memory.
• Choose the second option if your machine has between 512 MB and 1 GB of memory.
• Choose the third option if your machine has 1 GB or more of memory.

Proceed to the Installation...

(If you are in Europe you should use the mirrored download site in Germany).

4. Troubleshooting

If the installer tells you that "errors occurred" during installation, look at the installation log which is located in: <installation dir>/APT*_InstallLog.log

If you have a problem you can check if you have one of the common problems below. If you don't find your problem you can generate debug and sometimes that will reveal the problem (insufficient disk space for instance).

You can contact us for help at help@stsci.edu if you have problems with installation that you are unable to solve for yourself. Please send us the debug you generated (in line, not as an attachment). It would also be useful to tell us what version of Solaris you are using.

Known Installation Problems:

• java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

If you get this error when invoking APT:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: gov/nasa/gsfc/sea/targettuner/TargetTunerModule

it is due to installing APT on top of a previous installation without deleting the previous installation first.
• Patch level

Since APT uses Java 5 , your system manager may need to install patches for the version of Solaris you are running. If you experience serious problems with installation or bringing APT up for the first time, please check to see that the required patches are installed.

• Incorrect DISPLAY variable

The installer uses graphical pop up windows to ask you questions about the installation process. If you attempt to install APT remotely and do not have your DISPLAY variable set correctly, you will see in your stack trace:

java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment(GraphicsEnvironment.java:53)

On the other hand if you attempt to run APT remotely and do not have your DISPLAY variable set correctly, you will get a message like:

Unable to locate the application's 'main' class.
The class 'edu.stsci.hst.apt.controller.HstAptController'
must be public and have a 'public static void main(String[])' method. (LAX)

• Installing on a machine with no display

If you are a system manager attempting to install on a server that does not have a display, you will need use the following command to install without the interactive pop up windows:

 sh apt.bin -i silent -DUSER_INSTALL_DIR={path}/APT150

• Problem with Uninstaller link

Because of a bug, reinstalling APT on a system without first uninstalling may lead to a message at the end of the installation that "some errors occurred". If you check the log in the installation directory it will probably say that there was a problem creating the link for the Uninstaller. This is not a problem for running APT and can be ignored, but if you would prefer to have a valid Uninstaller link available you can redo the installion after first deleting the old Uninstaller link in your home directory.

5. Start

Once you have installed the APT you invoke it with a script. For instance to start the APT type ./APT in your home directory. (By default links are put in your home directory.)

Once the program is started you will be presented with the main APT screen.

6. Help

There is a a series of short training movies which will help get you started (there are also web pages with screen shots available on the same page). APT also has documentation available from the "Help" menu (the right most menu on the menu bar).

If you can't find what you need, please contact us at help@stsci.edu.