20030607: problems viewing the NIMAGE images from NOAAPORT (cont.)

>From: "Kevin Polston" <address@hidden>
>Organization: NOAA
>Keywords:  200306061559.h56FxDLd001670 LDM ldmd.conf

Kevin,

re: NIMAGE images have been blank

>Here are copies of my current pqact.conf file and my ldmd.conf file. 

OK.  I took a quick look at your ldmd.conf file, and see nothing
wrong with the NIMAGE request:

request NIMAGE "WEST-CONUS|EAST-CONUS|NHEM-MULTICOMP" atm.geo.nsf.gov 

As far as your decoding of the images, I can say that you should
be running the ldm-mcidas decoder for the PNG compressed NOAAPORT GINI
images, pngg2gini.

Your NIMAGE pqact.conf action:

#
# NOAAPORT GINI IMAGES
#
NIMAGE  ^sat/ch[0-9]/.*/(.*)/([12][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([01][0-9])([0-3][0-9]) 
([0-2][0-9])([0-5][0-9])/(.*)/(.*km)/
        PIPE    -close
        util/readpng -n -l logs/png.log 
/usr1/nawips/metdat/images/sat/\8/\9/\1/\1_\2\3\4\5_\6\7

Would need to be changed to:

NIMAGE  ^sat/ch[0-9]/.*/(.*)/([12][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([01][0-9])([0-3][0-9]) 
([0-2][0-9])([0-5][0-9])/(.*)/(.*km)/
        PIPE    -close
        util/pngg2gini -l logs/png.log
        /usr1/nawips/metdat/images/sat/\8/\9/\1/\1_\2\3\4\5_\6\7

Binary distributions for the ldm-mcidas decoders are available by anonymous
FTP from our FTP server:

machine: ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
user:    anonymous
pass:    address@hidden
directory: pub/binary/...            <- exact directory depends on what
                                        platform/OS your machine is
file:    ldm-mcidas-2002b.tar.Z

Install the new decoder as follows:

<login as 'ldm'>
cd ~ldm
ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
  <user> anonymous
  <pass> address@hidden
  cd pub/binary/...
  binary
  get ldm-mcidas-2002b.tar.Z
  quit

zcat ldm-mcidas-2002b.tar.Z | tar xvf -

cp ldm-mcidas-2002b/bin/pngg2gini ~ldm/util

<edit ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf and update your NIMAGE action to the one
I listed above>

>Also, I am running NAWIPS/GEMPAK just FYI. What is puzzling to me is
>that I have not changed anything with regards to my satellite entry in
>the pqact file but 2 days ago the images were all blank (or black). 

It could be that the old routine 'readpng' can not handle the images
that are in the stream now.  You need to upgrade.

>Hopefully this will help you solve my mystery.

>PS....I haven't upgraded to the new LDM yet. I haven't seen a binary
>file for it and I am not very sure of what to do if it is just the
>source code.

We are not keen on making binary distributions for LDM-6, at least not
yet.  I would encourage you to do the build from source and upgrade
as soon as you can as it will help you out in getting the data that
you want:

<login as 'ldm'>
cd ~ldm

ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
  <user> anonymous
  <pass> address@hidden
  cd pub/ldm
  binary
  get ldm-6.0.13.tar.Z
  quit

zcat ldm-6.0.13.tar.Z | tar xvf -

- make sure that the Unix environment variable LDMHOME is defined to
  be the HOME directory of your 'ldm' user.  For instance:

setenv LDMHOME $HOME

cd ldm-6.0.13/src
./configure
make
make install

sudo make install_setuids       <- either use sudo if you have it or become
                                   'root' and CD to the ~ldm/ldm-6.0.13/src
                                   directory and run 'make install_setuids'

-- if you had to become root in the last step, then logoff as root.  If
   you cold use sudo, you don't have to do this

Next, rectify the entries in your current ldmadmin script and the one
just created in the LDM-6 build.  Things to pay attention to are:

1) run 'uname -n' on your machine.  If the result is a fully qualified
   hostname, then you do not have to set $hostname in
   ~ldm/ldm-6.0.13/bin/ldmadmin.  If the 'uname -n' output is NOT
   a fully qualified hostname, then you DO have to set $hostname in
   ~ldm/ldm-6.0.13/bin/ldmadmin.  Set this to the fully qualified
   hostname of your machine

2) make sure that $pq_size is set to the same size in
   ~ldm/ldm-6.0.13/bin/ldmadmin as it is in the one you are currently
   using, ~ldm/bin/ldmadmin.

3) make sure that $numlogs is set to the same number of logs in
   ~ldm/ldm-6.0.13/bin/ldmadmin as it is in the one you are currentlyusing,
   ~ldm/bin/ldmadmin.

4) edit ~ldm/etc/ldmd.conf and add the line that reports real time
   statistics back to Unidata:

exec    "rtstats -h rtstats.unidata.ucar.edu'

   This should be the last 'exec' line in your ~ldm/etc/ldmd.conf file.

After making these changes, you can stop your LDM, change the runtime
link, and then restart your LDM:

cd ~ldm
ldmadmin stop
<wait for all LDM processess to exit before proceeding>
rm runtime
ln -s ldm-6.0.13 runtime
rehash
ldmadmin start

>I was going to wait for a friend to help me when he has a
>little time.

Assuming that the C compiler works on your system, the build should
take no more than 15 minutes.

>If there is a binary please point me to it. If the new LDM
>is more stable and "faster" I'm ready to install it.

The new LDM is _much_ more stable than LDM-5 and it can move a lot
more data in the same period of time as LDM-5.  This is why I
asked folks to upgrade as soon as they could.

Tom