Geomorph - Downloading and Installing

Downloading Geomorph
Geomorph for Fedora
Geomorph for FreeBSD
Installing Povray
Software requirements
Hardware requirements
Installing Geomorph from the source package
Installing Geomorph from the binary package
Installing the documentation

Downloading Geomorph

The current version is 0.63. A 64-bit binary packages is also provided.

From version 0.30, the documentation is packaged separately. This is a mirror of the web site, excluding the galleries and the screenshots, which are external links to the site. The archive contains the english and the french version. If you have a permanent Internet connection, you may set the "doc_dir" variable in the geomorphrc file to a link to the Geomorph web site, instead of downloading the documentation archive.

Geomorph for Fedora

Didier Fabert has packaged Geomorph for Fedora, beginning with version 0.60. It is available here.

Geomorph for FreeBSD

Dmitry Marakasov has ported Geomorph to FreeBSD, beginning with version 0.31. It is available here.


Installing POV-Ray

POV-Ray is not mandatory, but is a must if you want to see your height field in a scene other than the rough preview. Even if you aren't familiar with the tool, you can render the scenes provided with Geomorph.

Starting with version 3.7, POV-Ray is considered Free Software according to the FSF definition and as such is distributed with common Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora.

The name of the POV-Ray executable is written in the geomorphrc configuration file. The default name is povray. If POV-Ray does not start from Geomorph, you could check this parameter.


Software requirements

Geomorph 0.63 is based on the GTK+2 libraries (v. 2.4 and later) and uses OpenGL (MesaGL) for the 3D preview.

The Geomorph 0.63 binary has been compiled on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Compilation from source has been tested on the same Ubuntu distributions. Installing libgtkglext1-dev selects all the required libraries as dependencies. Library names may differ in other distributions. Check for packages like gtkglext-devel and gtk2-devel.

If you encounter problems when running Geomorph, I suggest that you start it in a X terminal, check the messages and inform me.


Hardware requirements

Running Geomorph should not be a problem on desktops or laptops (still) running in 2021.

Installing Geomorph from the source package

The steps are the same for the first installation or for upgrading.

If you are short on disk space, you may want to uninstall the older version before (see step 8, to be done in the directory where you uncompressed the old package).

1. Open a console and untar the archive:

tar zxf geomorph-0.6x.tar.gz

2. Change to the Geomorph directory:

cd geomorph-0.6x

3. Build the software:

./configure
make

4. Under Ubuntu, install the executable in root mode this way:

sudo make install

... then go to step 7.

Under some other distributions like Fedora, logon as "root":

su

5. Install the executable:

make install

6. Leave the root account:

exit

7. Install yourself as a user.

./install-user

This script creates a /home/.../geomorph directory, a configuration file in this directory and installs shortcuts on the Gnome and KDE desktops.

Notes for upgrading:  

1. If a ~/geomorph/scenes directory already contains the scenes provided with Geomorph, the older scenes are renamed as <something>_old.pov and the newer one are copied into the directory.

2. The geomorphrc file is not replaced. It would be upgraded with the new variables, if required, the next time you save the file from the provided dialog.

8. "make uninstall" as root would uninstall Geomorph.  However, the users won't be uninstalled. From version 0.30 and up, the documentation won't be erased either, because it's installed separately.

Installing Geomorph from the binary package

The steps are the same for the first installation or for upgrading.

If you are short on disk space, you may want uninstall the older version before (see step 7, to be done in the directory where you uncompressed the old package).

1. Open a console and untar the archive:

tar zxf geomorph-0.6x-bin.tgz

2. Change to the Geomorph directory:

cd geomorph-0.6x

3. Under Ubuntu, run the install script this way:

sudo ./install-bin

... then go to step 6.

With some other distributions as Fedora, first logon as "root":

su

4. Install the program:

./install-bin

5. Leave the root account:

exit

6. Install yourself as a user.

./install-user

See the comments for step 7 of the source install process, specially if you are upgrading.

7. "./uninstall" as root in the same directory would uninstall Geomorph, but without removing any of the users' directories and configuration files.

From version 0.30 and up, this does note delete the html documentation either, because it's installed separateley.

Installing the documentation

The documentation of version 0.30 and later is available separately, in an achive whose name is geomorph-doc-AAAA-MM.tgz.

1. Open a console and untar the archive:

tar zxf geomorph-doc-AAAA-MM.tgz

2. Change to the Geomorph documentation directory:

cd geomorph-doc

3. Logon as "root":

su

4. Execute the install script:

./install-doc

5. Leave the root account:

exit

Under Ubuntu, steps 3, 4 and 5 are replaced by:

sudo ./install-doc

The install script copies the files in /usr/local/share/geomorph/doc.

If an older version of the documentation exists in /usr/local/share/geomorph/doc, it is overwritten. The script won't overwrite the installed documentation with an older one. This directory contains a file named "VERSION" with the date of the version, and the script creates here a "stamp" file with the installation date.

6. If you want an access to these documents from the Geomorph menu, set the doc_dir variable in the geomorphrc file to/usr/local/share/geomorph/doc/index.html, the first time a documentation for Geomorph 0.30 or later is installed.

You can delete the documentation from your file manager or by typing this command, as root:
rm -rf /usr/local/share/geomorph/doc

Be careful when you type the directory name, because this command does not ask for confirmation before sending your files in the nothingness (-f is the "force" option).

Last revision February the 1st, 2021

Contact:    Patrice St-Gelais