Preparing the mcidas Account (Multi-User Configuration)

Note: This section contains the instructions for preparing the mcidas account when installing McIDAS-X on Win10 in the multi-user configuration. For the single-user configuration instructions (or information about the two configuration options), return to the Configuration Options and Instructions and follow those instructions.

Each account in Windows 10 runs a separate instance of Ubuntu. Using a shared mcidas account requires the System Administrator to create a mcidas account in Windows 10 and to set security permissions on a folder in its home directory to allow all Windows 10 McIDAS-X users to read and write to it.

Complete the instructions in the three sections below, in order, to repare the mcidas account in Windows 10 and Ubuntu so that users can run McIDAS-X in the multi-user configuration. If the mcidas account has already been created, proceed to the next section, Installing McIDAS-X on Win10 (or, if McIDAS-X is already installed, proceed to Preparing a User Account).

• Create the mcidas account in Windows 10
• Create a shared folder in the mcidas account in Windows 10
• Install Ubuntu and create and configure the mcidas account

Create the mcidas account in Windows 10

Have the Windows System Administrator create a mcidas account in Windows 10.

Create a shared folder in the mcidas account in Windows 10

Have the Windows System Administrator complete the steps below to create a shared folder in the mcidas account in Windows 10 where other users can read and write.

1. Create a folder in \Users\mcidas named Ubuntu.


2. Right-click the Ubuntu folder, select Properties, then click the Security tab.


3. Click the Edit... button to change permissions, then click the Add... button to assign permissions for other Windows 10 users.


4. Add individual users, or all Windows 10 users with [COMPUTER_NAME]\Users.


5. In the Permissions for Users section, give each user (or all Windows 10 users) full control by checking all of the boxes below the Allow heading.

Install Ubuntu and create and configure the mcidas account

Complete the steps below to acquire and install Ubuntu and create the mcidas account. Then you will update the Linux package repositories and install the packages required to build McIDAS-X.

1. Log in to the mcidas account in Windows 10.


2. Set the default WSL version for the mcidas account to WSL 2 and then install Ubuntu by completing steps 5-6 in the Manual Installation Steps at Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux Installation Guide for Windows 10. The bullets below provide additional guidance.


• When asked to "Install your Linux distribution of choice," acquire Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store. If there are multiple matches to choose from, select the one without a version number in order to get the current version. Then complete the instructions to install Ubuntu.


• After the Ubuntu install is complete, you will be prompted to create a user account. The account, which will have sudo privileges, should be named mcidas.


3. In an Ubuntu shell while logged in as the user you created in the previous step (i.e., mcidas), run the three sudo commands below (the last is all one line) to update the Linux package repositories and to install the packages required to build McIDAS-X.

Type:  sudo apt update
Type:  sudo apt upgrade
Type:  sudo apt install bison build-essential cmake csh flex gfortran libncurses5 libncurses5-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxpm-dev libxt-dev