1. Where can I download WRFSI GUI
2. Is it necessary to use the GUI to run WRFSI?
3. How do I run the GUI?
4. How can I test if Perl/Tk is available on my system?
5. How do I install Perl/Tk on my system?
6. What environment variable do I set to run Perl/Tk?
7. What is the difference between PERL5OPT and PERL5LIB?
8. What does error "Can't locate Tie/Watch.pm or Trace.pm" mean?
9. Can I run X-displays on FSL'S ijet?
10. Can Perl/Tk be installed on FSL's ijet, and jet.
11. What does error "couldn't find an appropriate visual" mean? (v1.3.1 only)
12. On a Linux system using Perl 5.8.0, the GUI crashes during the localization step. Why? (v1.3.2 only)
13. How do I create a custom map background file for use with the WRF SI GUI?
14. What's wrong when the WRF SI GUI does not show any map background vectors?
15. Should I use Perl/Tk804.027?
16. What can I do about the WRFSI GUI exiting on error: X_GetImage?
17. My GUI installation fails when building Perl/Tk on RedHat. Any suggestions?
18. What is the fix for gen_map_bkgnd.exe on the Compaq (Tru64 V5.0A alpha)?
19. How do I compile PerlTk on my 64-bit AMD system running linux Fedora Core 3?
20. On my 64-bit system, there is an error with the map background executable in v2.1 and lower?!
21. The NMM SI GUI v2.2 grid distance calculation was improved in Dec 2006, however...
22. How do I use the WRF SI GUI to create nests for NMM?

Where can I download WRFSI GUI?

WRFSI software release.

Is it necessary to use the GUI to run WRFSI?

No, but the GUI was developed to make running WRFSI easier and a more efficient method to manipulate the software and modify files.

How do I run the GUI?

Upon a successful installation of the GUI a script called INSTALLROOT/wrf_tools is created. Run this script to start the GUI.

Any error messages from the application will be written to /tmp/wrf_tools.log. Look there for further information.

How can I test if Perl/Tk is available on my system?

At the command line, run:
perl -e 'use Tk'

if this is successful the Perl Tk module library is available. Otherwise, there is a need to build this library. To determine which version of Perl/Tk is available and where it is located type:

perl -e 'use Tk; print "\to This is Perl/Tk, version $Tk::VERSION installed in library $Tk::library\n"'

How do I install Perl/Tk on my system?

It is recommended that your system administrator install Perl/Tk. But the wrfsi install script (SOURCE_ROOT/install_wrfsi.pl) can also build Perl/Tk.

The wrfsi install script prompts "Do you want to install the WRF SI GUI?".
If your response is 'Yes' AND Perl/Tk is not found, then the gui install script (SOURCE_ROOT/gui/install_gui.pl), will also run the PerlTk install script (SOURCE_ROOT/gui/install_perlTk.sh) to install Perl/Tk module library in SOURCE_ROOT/gui/.

What environment variable do I set to run Perl/Tk?

Typically none. If Perl/Tk has been installed and is available on your system there is no need to set any PERL env vars. Otherwise, the script called INSTALLROOT/wrf_tools should take care of setting the PERL5LIB env at runtime. For additional information,

If a system administrator built a site_perl Tk module (and it is not found by Perl) then set PERL5LIB to that location. For example:

setenv PERL5LIB /usr/opt/perl5/lib/site_perl
or
setenv PERL5LIB /usr/local/Tk800.025

Then, test for the success of Tk with the command: perl -e 'use Tk'


If a user builds Perl/Tk, set a PERL env to locate the Tk module. (Remember that INSTALLROOT/wrf_tools does this automatically.) For example:

setenv PERL5LIB -I$INSTALLROOT/gui/perlTk/lib (Tk800.025 or higher)
or
setenv PERL5OPT -Mblib=$INSTALLROOT/gui/perlTk/blib (Tk800.023)

Then, test it with: perl -e 'use Tk'.

(Which is similar to both the following:
perl -I/usr/local/Tk800.025/lib -e 'use Tk'
perl -e -Mblib=/usr/local/Tk800.023/blib 'use Tk')

What is the difference between PERL5LIB and PERL5OPT?

PERL5LIB

A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for Perl library files before looking in the standard library and the current directory. Any architecture-specific directories under the specified locations are automatically included if they exist. If PERL5LIB is not defined, PERLLIB is used.

When running taint checks (either because the program was running setuid or setgid, or the -T switch was used), neither variable is used. The program should instead say:

use lib "/my/directory";

PERL5OPT

Command-line options (switches). Switches in this variable are taken as if they were on every Perl command line. Only the -[DIMUdmw] switches are allowed. When running taint checks (because the program was running setuid or setgid, or the -T switch was used), this variable is ignored. If PERL5OPT begins with -T, tainting will be enabled, and any subsequent options ignored.

What does error "Can't locate Tie/Watch.pm or Trace.pm" mean?

This indicates that some Perl modules are not found. Either they are missing, or not in your Perl Library path (i.e. @INC). Trace.pm is in found in Perl/Tk 800.023 (or higher). Watch.pm is Perl Tie module that places watch points on Perl variables.

Can I run X-displays on FSL'S ijet?

Use -X for graphical applications. This should only be accessed from a workstation to avoid unnecessary network hops that would impact the display performance.
ssh -X ijet

The jet visualization server is jet-vis, it is a random connection to 1 of 4 hosts. To connect

ssh -X jet-vis

There shouldn't be a reason to directly connect to any other nodes in the cluster since they are accessed via the job queuing system.

Can Perl/Tk be installed on FSL's ijet, and jet.

Yes, hpcshelp.fsl@noaa.gov is providing visualization services on a host named jet-vis that can be used for this application. jet-vis mounts the same file systems as ijet (home and project directories) and has full installs of X, perl-Tk, idl, ncar graphics etc. ijet users can login to jet-vis from workstations with
ssh -X jet-vis

and X will be tunneled through ssh. After generating the config file with your application the user will need to submit the job from ijet.

The decision has been made to not support graphics on the clusters. If you need something else graphical related installed on jet-vis please let hpcshelp know at hpcshelp.fsl@noaa.gov.

What does error "couldn't find an appropriate visual" mean? (v1.3.1 only)

Your system does not have the visual 'TrueColor' and the GUI code requests this specifically. So, the solution is to edit a line of code to delete the request for 'truecolor' thus accepting your system's default X server color scheme.

Edit both SOURCE_ROOT/gui/guiTk/ui_system_tools.pl.in and INSTALLROOT/gui/guiTk/ui_system_tools.pl

Change the two lines (138,139) from

$splash = $mw->Toplevel(-title => "Loading...", -visual => 'truecolor');

To:

$splash = $mw->Toplevel(-title => "Loading...");

This removes any reference to visuals.

(Further, to find out which visuals you have available run 'xdpyinfo', a standard system utility to display information about your systems X server.

xdpyinfo | grep Color

The color scheme must be best, directcolor, grayscale, greyscale, pseudocolor, staticcolor, staticgray, staticgrey, truecolor, or default. I chose one that is not available to your system.)

On a Linux system using Perl 5.8.0 with Tk800.023, the GUI crashes during the localization step. Why? (v1.3.2 only)

It was assumed that this was a wide spread problem with Perl version 5.8.0 but it is not.

The fatal error with the WRF SI GUI during the domain localization step has been isolated to Linux OS systems using Perl version 5.8.0 in combination with Tk800.023. The problem can be corrected using Perl 5.8.0, or higher, and a newer version of Perl/Tk, Tk800.025, found at http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/NI-S

To build Perl/Tk800.025 using wrfsi scripts, do the following.

Cd to $SOURCE_ROOT/wrfsi/gui
Download Tk-800.025.tar.gz to the directory $SOURCE_ROOT/wrfsi/gui
Edit $SOURCE_ROOT/wrfsi/gui/install_perlTk.sh
Change every occurrence of Tk800.023 to Tk800.025
Run $SOURCE_ROOT/wrfsi/gui/install_perlTk.sh 1> perlTk_install.log 2>&1

How do I create a custom map background file for use with the WRF SI GUI?

The gui creates background maps by reading in vector lat/lon coordinates then drawing map vector lines. The binary cartographic data (.bcd) contains vector data lat/lon coordinates created from ARCINFO shape files. We currently get our shape files from: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata . The software to convert shape files to bcd files originates from the NWS AWIPS mapping routines. Download the WRF SI GUI map conversion software from: http://wrf-model.org/gui/map .

What's wrong when the WRF SI GUI does not show any map background vectors?

Unless your domain is located over a large body of water, this is a big-endian/little-endian issue. To correct this, please edit the makefile include file called INSTALLROOT/gui/src/makefile.inc.

The SI supports the two basic system architectures file formats. One, the big-endian is a result of the design of the risc CPU chip. The other, little-endian a result of the design of the Intel CPU chip.

Big-Endian representation of 1025 is 00000000 00000000 00000100 00000001
Little-Endian representation of 1025 is 00000001 00000100 00000000 00000000


To learn more about this see http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/big_endian.html.

The consequences of this is that the files included with the application are big-endian. If you have a big-endian CPU chip, the files are read correctly and display vector map lines. If you have a little-endian CPU chip the software BYTEFLAG=-DBYTE_SWAP allows the code to swap the ordering of the records of data in the map background file, thus letting you correctly read and display the vector map lines.

The SI uses scripts to evaluate each system environment to set, or not set, the BYTE_SWAP option. On your machine, the BYTE_SWAP flag probably has the opposite value that is needed.

Change value for BYTEFLAG.

Contents of INSTALLROOT/gui/src/makefile.inc:

# Include file used by the INSTALLROOT/gui/src/Makefile
#
# If env var MACHTYPE does not contain Intel i386, i686, or
# Alpha (little endian architecture) use -DBYTE_SWAP, otherwise
# its a big endian architecture so use null value for BYTEFLAG.
# BYTEFLAG = -DBYTE_SWAP
#
BYTEFLAG =


Then type:


make
make install

Should I use Perl/Tk804.027?

Yes. It is available at CPAN.org (Comp Perl Archive Net).

Note that the WRFSI GUI v2.0.1 uses about five lines of Tk800 syntax that Tk804 does not support. When the newest versions of Perl/Tk version Tk804.026 (and higher) are used with WRFSI GUI v2.0.1 (and lower) some of the following problems are introduced:

Cannot find file containing a one line entry of the directory path to data: /usr/local/WRFV2/wrfsi/templates/ARRAY(0x916b140)/dataroot.txt

When trying to create a domain over the SE US, etc, the domain that appears on the screen is not the same as the one requested. In addition, the hourglass continues to spin suggesting that there is a problem. Sometimes the map background is only partially drawn.

Tk::Error: wrong # coordinates: expected at least 4, got 2 at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi/$

There are three solutions:
1. Build WRFSI v2.0.3 beta. It has new syntax and includes Tk804.027.
2. Update the WRFSI GUI v2.0.1 syntax as instructed below because you probably have Tk804.027 installed.
3. Build perl Tk800.025 for use with WRFSI GUI v2.0.1.

Update WRFSI GUI v2.0.1 syntax:

a) Edit SOURCE_ROOT/gui/guiTk/ui_domain_srt.pl (or download ui_domain_srt.plx) and then copy this to INSTALLROOT/gui/guiTk/ui_domain_srt.pl

NEW
< @_=$domain_lb->info('selection');
< if($_[0] eq "") { return(1); } #If empty, timing prob.
< $domain_select=$_[0];

OLD
> if($domain_lb->info('selection') eq "") { return(1); } #If empty, timing prob.
> $domain_select=$domain_lb->info('selection');
> $domain_lb->anchorClear();

b) Edit SOURCE_ROOT/src/create_bcd_bkgnd_xy.c (or download) and recompile by typing 'make install'.

Change line 102:

if (npts<4) return;

What can I do about the WRFSI GUI exiting on error: X_GetImage?

When using the WRFS GUI to accomplish the task of defining a domain several system actions occur behind the scene as buttons are pressed. Specifically, when advancing to the Vertical Editor panel by pressing Next (or via the panel's tab), a screen captured picture is taken of the horizontal domain and written to a gif file (located in $TEMPLATES/"domain_name"/domain.gif). This happens just prior to presenting the Vertical Editor panel. However, if the application exits on this step with the following error message:
X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request: 73 (X_GetImage)
Serial number of failed request: 78557
Current serial number in output stream: 78557


The error messages indicate a failure to create a gif image of your domain. This happens on just a few systems. The problem has not been isolated to a specific platform OS at this time. This error also occurs when part of the map window is outside of the visible screen. Until we have another solution, please omit this step of capturing an image by editing the software as indicated.

Edit the file $INSTALLROOT/gui/guiTk/ui_vars.pl At just after entering
sub write_domain_image {
add the line:

return; # Skip the step of creating a gif image.

and, run the application, as compiling is not necessary.

My GUI installation fails when building Perl/Tk on RedHat. Any suggestions?

This is known as the "Red Hat UTF8 bug". Before you run the perl Makefile.PL, set your environment variable LANG=en_US, e.g.: export LANG=en_US. The default value for LANG is en_US.utf8, which breaks perl.

Make that change, and it'll work for you. Be sure to clean up the legacy files, by:


rm -rf wrfsi/gui/Tk800.025/ AND wrfsi/gui/perlTk/


and, run:


perl install_gui.pl --source_root=path --installroot=path

What is the fix for gen_map_bkgnd.exe on the Compaq (Tru64 V5.0A alpha)?

To fix INSTALLROOT/gui/bin/gen_map_bkgnd.exe

a) 'cd INSTALLROOT/gui/src'
b) edit location_lines.c
c) delete lines 78-81:

x=(x_min+x_max)/2;
y=(y_min+y_max)/2;
xy_to_ll(&x,&y, &half_lat,&half_lon, my_proj);

d) type 'make install'

How do I compile PerlTk on my 64-bit AMD system running linux Fedora Core 3?

We have 2 solutions for building PerlTk on your 64-bit Opteron system:


1. Build from source:


a. cd into the $SOURCE_ROOT/gui/src directory and remove the existing Tk DIRECTORY.
b. Unpack the original PerlTk tar file
c. cd into Tk-804.027
d. % perl Makefile.PL


e. edit the Makefile and change each instance of "/usr/X11R6/lib"
to "/usr/X11R6/lib64"


f. % make
g. % make test (optional - You will get errors but you should also see widgets pop up.)


h. % rm -fr $SOURCE_ROOT/gui/perlTk/blib
i. % cp -r blib $SOURCE_ROOT/gui/perlTk


2. Install the precompiled binaries from rpm for your system:


http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=perl-Tk&submit=Search+...&system=&arch=x86_64

On my 64-bit system, there is an error with the map background executable in v2.1 and lower?!

Error with map background executable command:
INSTALLROOT/gui/bin/gen_map_bkgnd.exe 3 39.5 -79 37.98 44.7 -63.7 30.0 -87.6 INSTALLROOT/gui/data/maps/US_States.bcd /tmp/vector_instructions.tk /tmp/setup.dat
Possible 'Exec format error'. Clear will be invoked!

The solution suggested below will be part of the v2.1.1 release of WRFSI. You need to edit the gui/src/Makefile, change libm.a to -lm. This lets the makefile find the math lib called libm.a. It was hardwired it for the 32-bit lib by default. To correct this:

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/gui/src
edit Makefile
change /usr/lib/libm.a to -lm (in 3 places)


make install
run wrf_tools.

The NMM SI GUI v2.2 grid distance calculation was improved in Dec 2006, however...

The NMM SI GUI v2.2 grid distance calculation from km to degrees was improved in Dec 2006, however, just recently (late Mar 2007) we empirically came up with a formulation for computing the km spacing from degrees upon reading back in an existing domain that generally seems good to within a few thousandths of a km for the sizes of domains that people might actually run. (Without this, there are up to .3 km difference each time a domain is loaded.)


In wrfsi_nmm/gui/guiTk/ui_vars.pl, line 800 was changed,
from:


#my $x=$nl_var{MOAD_DELTA_X}[0] / 0.006500;

to:

my $x= 111.2*($nl_var{MOAD_DELTA_X}[0]**2. + (.9838*$nl_var{MOAD_DELTA_Y}[0])**2.)**0.5;


If you want to change this one line, rather than downloading and rebuilding, that is a fine approach to take.

How do I use the WRF SI GUI to create nests for NMM?

The approach to use the GUI to define SI NMM nested domains for WRF v2.2. involves running the GUI two separate times, once for the parent and once again for a nest (because creating nests was not part of the NMM SI GUI design). If, for example the parent domain grid spacing size you entered was 15km you would complete running of the localization process. Then, you would copy the parent domain to a nest domain, edit it's grid spacing to 5km (because it has to be a 3:1 ratio) and you'd have to make xDim = (3*parent_xDim)-2 and yDim = (3*parent_yDim)-2. In our example, if xDim and yDim were 51 and 65, then the nest xDim and yDim would be 149 and 193. Then, you'd run the localization process for the nest domain.

Last updated: Mon 26 Mar 2007