IBM RS/6000 Specific Problems and Workarounds

Release 2.0

• Under AIX 3.2.5, there are two problems that prevent MidasPlus from displaying images on the RS/6000:
  1. So-called "RGBA visuals" are not supported in IBM's software-only implementation of OpenGL (SoftGraphics). So you need a 3D graphics card, such as the POWER GXT 1000 or the Freedom Series 6000. (A 3D graphics card is strongly recommended in any event due to their increased rendering performance and color resolution.)
  2. Even if you had a 3D graphics card, there was a bug in the X server that prevented MidasPlus from working properly. (This may be the AIX 4.1 bug described below, please let us know if that is true.)
  The fix for the second problem is to order APAR IX50797 from IBM. We are tracking down the APAR number for the first problem as it violates the OpenGL/X specification.
• The above bugs are not completedly fixed in AIX 4.1.1, you need to turn off anti-aliasing. Add a "devopt smooth off" command to /usr/local/midas/resource/midas/rc/dev-hostname, where hostname is replaced by the output of the AIX hostname command. This may be fixed in subsequent releases of AIX 4.1.
• The colors are wrong in the OpenGL output of conic. The workaround is to output in the tiff or PostScript formats and use a different viewer, such as xv. This is fixed in the next release.
• unset text doesn't. This will be fixed in the next release. The workaround is to close the command window with the mouse.