Chapter 2. Installation

Table of Contents

Checking workstation
The operating system
Recommended hardware
Downloads
Installation under Windows XP
Instructions
Using programs
Installation under Linux/Solaris/Irix
Instructions
Environment variables
Using programs
Installation under MacOS 10.5 or higher
Instructions
Uninstalling programs

Checking workstation

Before installing BrainVISA on your workstation, you need to check a certain number of things:

  • Your operating system and the version

  • 1 Gb of free space

  • 1 Gb of RAM. However, it should be noted that this depends on the size of the images you work with. 512 Mb is the minimum recommended value, and you may run into problems when dealing with diffusion-weighted images or MRI. If you are planning to buy a computer, we advise you to get one with at least 2 or 4 Go Mb of RAM, or even more.

The operating system

BrainVISA has been developed as a cross-platform software, and thus can run on Linux, Windows and MacOS. For a more precise description of OS releases that have been tested, please refer to the web site: http://brainvisa.info/download.html

It is possible that your operating system and version are not mentioned in the above table. When you install a package, you may encounter a number of different problems. You can either update your system or compile the sources. To compile the sources, please refer to http://brainvisa.info/repository.html#use_brainvisa_sources.

Recommended hardware

The video card often comes up in questions about recommended hardware. Here are a few pointers:

  • If you work with linux, we have taken the habit to use Nvidia because they have had good and robust linux 3D drivers for a long time. However, this is just a recommendation. Other cards may be just as effective. If you do have a NVidia card, you are advised to download an external driver for Linux, from the manufacturer's web site ( http://www.nvidia.com).

  • If you encounter graphic display problems, please refer to http://brainvisa.info/forum.