Solution to running Demeter on an ORNL computer
After having run Athena and Artemis for years on my office computer in Oak Ridge they suddenly stopped working. The command prompt window and "credits window" appeared briefly and then shut down. I tried upgrading from v 9.21 to v 9.24. This didn't help. The problem appears to be similar to what was reported in October 2015 by Matt Noerpel on EPA computers. The problem is related to the restricted Administrator privileges imposed by ORNL IT. To install new software we temporarily obtain Administrator privileges. When we do this it changes our User Directory from our standard User Directory to Admin. Demeter's default is to install in the current User Directory which is now the Admin directory and apparently programs installed there won't run when Administrator privileges are gone. To solve the problem I changed the installation directory from Admin to my User Directory name in the long line "Install Demeter in ...". Note that I just substituted my User Directory name for Admin and didn't change any of the other directory specifications. Hope this helps. I suspect that as time goes by many other national labs and companies will institute similarly restrictive Admin privileges. Dave ********************** David R. Mullins Oak Ridge National Laboratory PO Box 2008, MS 6201 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6201 PH: 865-574-2796 FAX: 865-241-5152 E-MAIL: mullinsdr@ornl.govmailto:mullinsdr@ornl.gov WWW:http://www.ornl.gov/sci/csd/Research_areas/SCC_group.html
Hi Dave,
The main reasoning for changing the installation location to the Users
folder was so that installation doesn't require Admin permission to write
to, say, C:\Program Files. In the new scheme, everything is being written
to a folder that the unprivileged user has complete write access. You
should not need Admin permissions to write these files to your disk.
If your organization requires Admin permission to install anything at all,
why can't they also fix the location and permissions during the
installation process? That's sort of what you did by specifying the user
folder. But if you need elevated permission to "install software" (and,
wait, *do* you need elevated permission to write files to C:\Users\You?
Because you probably write executable files there all the time anyway, like
in a browser cache) why not have the installation process move or fix the
permissions so the unprivileged user account can access it? If they
aren't doing that (fixing permissions), it seems like it must cause
problems with other software too, no?
So I sympathize, and I know it's not your choice, but this seems like a
problem that we cannot solve. Of course, the right solution is to fix the
IT department. ;)
On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Mullins, David R.
After having run Athena and Artemis for years on my office computer in Oak Ridge they suddenly stopped working. The command prompt window and “credits window” appeared briefly and then shut down. I tried upgrading from v 9.21 to v 9.24. This didn’t help. The problem appears to be similar to what was reported in October 2015 by Matt Noerpel on EPA computers.
The problem is related to the restricted Administrator privileges imposed by ORNL IT. To install new software we temporarily obtain Administrator privileges. When we do this it changes our User Directory from our standard User Directory to Admin. Demeter’s default is to install in the current User Directory which is now the Admin directory and apparently programs installed there won’t run when Administrator privileges are gone.
To solve the problem I changed the installation directory from Admin to my User Directory name in the long line “Install Demeter in …”. Note that I just substituted my User Directory name for Admin and didn’t change any of the other directory specifications.
Hope this helps. I suspect that as time goes by many other national labs and companies will institute similarly restrictive Admin privileges.
Dave
**********************
David R. Mullins
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
PO Box 2008, MS 6201
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6201
PH: 865-574-2796
FAX: 865-241-5152
E-MAIL: mullinsdr@ornl.gov
WWW:http://www.ornl.gov/sci/csd/Research_areas/SCC_group.html
_______________________________________________ Ifeffit mailing list Ifeffit@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov http://millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/ifeffit Unsubscribe: http://millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/mailman/options/ifeffit
--Matt
Matt,
I rapidly get in over my head when I try to understand how my computer is organized.
To the best of my knowledge I need elevated privileges to even run the downloaded .exe file. By getting the Admin privileges to do this it automatically sets my default User folder to Admin.
I don’t know what they’ve instituted so that my previously installed Demeter aps wouldn’t run nor why software installed in the Admin folder won’t run from my reduced level of privileges. It doesn’t seem to be affecting any of my other programs.
Dave
From: ifeffit-bounces@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov [mailto:ifeffit-bounces@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Matt Newville
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 11:06 AM
To: XAFS Analysis using Ifeffit
Subject: Re: [Ifeffit] Solution to running Demeter on an ORNL computer
Hi Dave,
The main reasoning for changing the installation location to the Users folder was so that installation doesn't require Admin permission to write to, say, C:\Program Files. In the new scheme, everything is being written to a folder that the unprivileged user has complete write access. You should not need Admin permissions to write these files to your disk.
If your organization requires Admin permission to install anything at all, why can't they also fix the location and permissions during the installation process? That's sort of what you did by specifying the user folder. But if you need elevated permission to "install software" (and, wait, *do* you need elevated permission to write files to C:\Users\You? Because you probably write executable files there all the time anyway, like in a browser cache) why not have the installation process move or fix the permissions so the unprivileged user account can access it? If they aren't doing that (fixing permissions), it seems like it must cause problems with other software too, no?
So I sympathize, and I know it's not your choice, but this seems like a problem that we cannot solve. Of course, the right solution is to fix the IT department. ;)
On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Mullins, David R.
Hello Dave,
Writing to the list to update my situation
http://www.mail-archive.com/ifeffit%40millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/msg05272.htm...
with the EPA computers was on my list of things to do today. While we are
both likely dealing with security issues, I don't know if this is the same
problem we were having. We could not run Demeter even with admin
privileges. The only possible way it would run was in safe mode.
My solution was to follow Matt's instructions
http://www.mail-archive.com/ifeffit%40millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/msg05386.htm...
to install Anaconda Python and Larch (which I apparently didn't need admin
privileges for) and run Demeter with Larch as the backend instead of
Ifeffit. DAthena opens using Larch, but I am having issues with some
features. Mainly the LCF does not work quite right, but I'm not sure if
that is just a problem with the reference library I am using or due to the
issue on the Demeter to do list: "Use of stdev array in LCF is slightly
incorrect, needs to be sensitive to the space in which the merge was made."
Rebinning all the references in DAthena seems to help, but it still
doesn't work for fitting in k space.
DAthena also runs on the slow side compared to old Athena on my work
computer and DAthena on my personal computer which uses Ifeffit, but that
could just be these computers.
I am using the 0.9.23 pre3 release. Hephaestus and Artemis also both open
using Larch, though I haven't tried to use them.
Thanks,
Matt
On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Mullins, David R.
After having run Athena and Artemis for years on my office computer in Oak Ridge they suddenly stopped working. The command prompt window and “credits window” appeared briefly and then shut down. I tried upgrading from v 9.21 to v 9.24. This didn’t help. The problem appears to be similar to what was reported in October 2015 by Matt Noerpel on EPA computers.
The problem is related to the restricted Administrator privileges imposed by ORNL IT. To install new software we temporarily obtain Administrator privileges. When we do this it changes our User Directory from our standard User Directory to Admin. Demeter’s default is to install in the current User Directory which is now the Admin directory and apparently programs installed there won’t run when Administrator privileges are gone.
To solve the problem I changed the installation directory from Admin to my User Directory name in the long line “Install Demeter in …”. Note that I just substituted my User Directory name for Admin and didn’t change any of the other directory specifications.
Hope this helps. I suspect that as time goes by many other national labs and companies will institute similarly restrictive Admin privileges.
Dave
**********************
David R. Mullins
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
PO Box 2008, MS 6201
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6201
PH: 865-574-2796
FAX: 865-241-5152
E-MAIL: mullinsdr@ornl.gov
WWW:http://www.ornl.gov/sci/csd/Research_areas/SCC_group.html
_______________________________________________ Ifeffit mailing list Ifeffit@millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov http://millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/ifeffit Unsubscribe: http://millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/mailman/options/ifeffit
-- Graduate Research Associate The Ohio State University Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering noerpel.1@osu.edu (617) 777-9340
On 12/17/2015 11:34 AM, Matt Noerpel wrote:
Writing to the list to update my situation http://www.mail-archive.com/ifeffit%40millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/msg05272.htm... with the EPA computers was on my list of things to do today. While we are both likely dealing with security issues, I don't know if this is the same problem we were having. We could not run Demeter even with admin privileges. The only possible way it would run was in safe mode.
My solution was to follow Matt's instructions http://www.mail-archive.com/ifeffit%40millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/msg05386.htm... to install Anaconda Python and Larch (which I apparently didn't need admin privileges for) and run Demeter with Larch as the backend instead of Ifeffit. DAthena opens using Larch, but I am having issues with some features. Mainly the LCF does not work quite right, but I'm not sure if that is just a problem with the reference library I am using or due to the issue on the Demeter to do list: "Use of stdev array in LCF is slightly incorrect, needs to be sensitive to the space in which the merge was made." Rebinning all the references in DAthena seems to help, but it still doesn't work for fitting in k space.
I am thrilled that Athena + Larch works at all for anyone besides me. That by itself seems like a triumph! I will be happy to entertain bug reports about Athena-using-Larch and I have no doubt that there will be many. It is, at this stage, very loosely tested software.
DAthena also runs on the slow side compared to old Athena on my work computer and DAthena on my personal computer which uses Ifeffit, but that could just be these computers.
Athena on Windows always seems dog slow to me, even on a pretty beefy computer. In truth, it's been a long time since I last tested Athena-using-Larch on Windows. Next month, when I am back from my holiday, I'll try to find some time to look into it. Cheers, B
I am using the 0.9.23 pre3 release. Hephaestus and Artemis also both open using Larch, though I haven't tried to use them.
-- Bruce Ravel ------------------------------------ bravel@bnl.gov National Institute of Standards and Technology Synchrotron Science Group at NSLS-II Building 535A Upton NY, 11973 Homepage: http://bruceravel.github.io/home/ Software: https://github.com/bruceravel Demeter: http://bruceravel.github.io/demeter/
participants (4)
-
Bruce Ravel -
Matt Newville -
Matt Noerpel -
Mullins, David R.