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20030313: NLDN ldm-mcidas decoders and McIDAS-XCD setup at US F (cont.)



>From: "Happel, Shelly" <address@hidden>
>Organization: USF
>Keywords: 200301091811.h09IBGt26938 ldm-mcidas nldn2md

Hi Shelly,

>Greetings and many many thanks for the time you took in January to help me
>out.

No worries.

>I have had personal trials of a long time friend dying of pancreatic
>cancer and my dog needing to be put to sleep because of cancer. It's been a
>rough month for me and I am crawling back to you for some help.

Man!  That is sure a lot to go through!!

>Arlene is
>ready for the lightning data and I have been out of town and in training
>since I last wrote.

>I have read your email with a fine tooth comb and I *think* I am on the
>right track. One MDXX file has appeared - so I'm happy about that. However
>I've been watching the ldmd.log (see attached) file and it has an error in
>it about writing the file. Is this a real problem?

Given the errors:

Mar 13 18:37:35 metlab pqact[12912]: pbuf_flush (4) write: Broken pipe
Mar 13 18:37:35 metlab pqact[12912]: pipe_dbufput: 
-closenldn2md-vxllogs/ldm-mcidas.log-ddata/mcidas70NLDNDIALPROD=3DLD2003=
072173600DEV=3DCCN write error

This is an error that you do have to worry about.  What this is telling
us is that pqact is trying to send (write through stdout) a product to nldn2md, 
and the
product is not being read for some reason.  Exactly why this may be the
case are varied:

o nldn2md is not being fould
o nldn2md is not executable
o nldn2md is exiting before reading the entire product from pqact
o nldn2md is unable to write its output to a disk file

>I've looked online for
>similar errors and I am unable to find them.

The problem is real and must be found and fixed.

>Some questions:
>
>o      You mentioned that you changed file permissions on the ROUTE.SYS
>file and that it should reside in the /var/data/ldm/mcidas directory.

Yes.  I don't recall exactly which directory I talked about, but the
concept is that ROUTE.SYS and SYSKEY.TAB and SCHEMA must reside in the
directory in which the ldm-mcidas decoders create their output data
files.  if this is /var/data/ldm/mcidas on your system, then that is
where they have to reside.  Also, they must be readable and writable by
the user running your LDM.

>There was no such file there.

This is a problem.

>I did a locate ROUTE.SYS and found a bunch of them -
>but none with a date that seemed to correspond to January. So I copied
>ROUTE.SYS there.

We need to figure out what is going on on your system and understand
why the data files were not where they should be.  For instance, were
they scoured for some reason?

>The SCHEMA file that was in the /var/data/ldm/mcidas
>directory had 0 bytes.

Also, not good.

>So I copied one from the latest 2002b version of
>mcidas to the specified data directory. Shortly after, a MDXX file appeared
>(so far there is only one). Is this set up correctly?

Well, I can say that things appear to be on the right track.  Whether
or not all the Ts have been crossed is more than I am willing to say.

>o      I have the one MD file - how do I tell the ADDE server to use it?
>I'm guessing it's a command like dataloc.k ADD NLDN metlab.cas.usf.edu as
>the user mcidas. I want to make sure first though.

The process of teaching McIDAS how to access a dataset is:

o create a dataset:  this is the process of associating a dataset
  group and descriptor name wiht a set of files that will compose
  the dataset.  This is done using the DSSERVE command.

o telling your McIDAS session(s) where to look for the dataset.  This
  is done using the DATALOC command

The Unidata McIDAS release contains a template that is used to setup
all ADDE datasets that a site is likely to have.  The procedure
for using this template is described in the online documentation.

>o      Once I have the MD file - how do I view it in Mcidas? I looked
>through the gui and didn't find an option to display lightning data.

The Lightning data is part of the POINT data.  If you crank up the
Point Source Plots GUI (Display -> Observations -> Plot/Contour; or
click on the button that has the L and front on it), you will be able
to get to Lightning data plots/contours.  You select the type of POINT
data through the Data type to plot dropdown.

>Ok - I think that's a start to my questions. I'm sorry to continually drop
>these bombs on you - but I have 8 million things to do at once and some how
>I never can get through this mcidas stuff. I'm trying to talk the dept into
>sending me to the training again since now I really do have some experience
>with the lab - whereas before the lab wasn't even built.

It is always better to go through a training workshop when you are
actively trying to use a package.  Things presented will seem more
relevant than if you are attending to get an idea of how things work.

>Thanks in advance
>and I hope you are healthy and happy.

Thanks, I'm doing well.

Do you want me to jump onto metlab and take a look?

Tom