Setting Up Red Hat 9 for ARToolKit
Installing ARToolKit and related libraries in Red Hat 9 Linux system took me more than 3 weeks’ time.
I have been setting up ARToolKit and related software libraries in Red Hat 9 Linux system for the past 4 weeks. A Dell PC was given to me, and I was to install a Solar System Demo on it. I had a hard time trying to install and upgrade the Linux system and install various libraries. Many open-source tools were used. Due to different versions of the tools used, and sometimes conflicts between some of them, I encountered many errors. However, along the way, I’m becoming more familiar with Linux, and I have got hands on AR applications also.
The steps I have taken are:
1. Installation and upgrade of RH9
The Solar System Demo was initially developed under Red Hat 7.1 system. However, the new Dell PCs have no PS/2 ports, and Red Hat 7.1 provides poor support for USB port, which means USB keyboard and mouse, could not be used at the same time. After spending some efforts trying to solve the problem, and discussing with Miss Liu, we decided to install Red Hat 9 on the new PCs, because Red Hat 9 provides better support for many new hardware, including USB ports, Dual-core CPU, etc, which are found in the new PCs.
RH9 installation was a smooth process, but upgrading new kernel brought me many troubles. The main issue here was to correctly configure the kernel, so that errors wouldn’t come out when “make bzImage”. The solution I found was to find a usable configure file instead of going through a lot of troubles configuring it myself, and deep into many configuration errors and even inconsistency in kernel codes!
After successful kernel compilation and installation, the system map and boot images have to be updated. Then it is the grub configuration.
2. Installation of ARToolKit4.068
I found out that the newer ARToolKit and some other applications require better graphical cards. One application showed the Intel 950 integrated graphics card comes along with Dell PC only provides 16-bit color depth while the application requires at least 24-bit. So newer nVidia graphics card was installed and nVidia driver also.
There are some errors in ARToolKit4.068 codes so I have to edit video1394.c Line 322 and calib_stereo.c Line 28, so ARToolKit can be compiled.
3. Install OpenVRML and sound card driver
ALSA sound card driver was downloaded and installed. After installation, /etc/modules.conf has to be modified. The additional lines can be found in INSTALL file in alsa folder.
OpenAL is needed for Solar System also. However, the openAL code I got was not well developed and could not be used. as a result, I have to remove all sound related portions of Solar application.
OpenVRML gave both Miss Liu and me many troubles. It sometimes cannot be compiled, and sometimes cannot find openGL libraries after installation. In my case, the only solution was to install a fresh new copy. To be noted, “make clean” needs to be run often, and after installation, “ldconfig” needs to be run. /etc/ld.so.conf may need modification depends on different systems.
4. Installation of AR application
Finally I got the step to install applications. All ARToolKit applications have similar structures. The Makefile needs to written for different systems.
Conclusion: having gone through many troubles, I’m now familiar with the GNU make and various Linux configurations.