GRASS GIS - Frequently asked questions

This question doesn't affect current (from year 2000 ongoing) Linux systems!

Question:

I have some trouble in installing GRASS5.0 beta on my Linux machine, (I was previously running Grass4.2)

What I did is just:

downloading the distribution,

logging in as root,

running the installation script: sh grass5install.sh grass5beta5_linuxbin_tar.tar /usr/local/grass5.0b

running the start-up script: grass5.0beta

At this point, instead of starting Grass, I get the following error message:

  Unable to properly access /home/michele/.gislock5, Please notify to system personel.

Which could be the reason ? May you help me ?

Answer: GRASS 5.x Linux binaries are build on a "glibc2.1" system. Your Linux version is too old and based on "glibc2.0" or earlier.

Solution:

Upgrade your Linux system to a current version (recommended)

Compile the GRASS 5.x sources locally (luckily quite easy nowadays)

29. Feb. 2000 - Markus Neteler