InterMapper for SuSE Linux

InterMapper for SuSE Linux is packaged as a RPM file, which contains the necessary programs and support files. To install InterMapper from the RPM file, you will use the rpm -ivh "location" command. To query if InterMapper is already installed, type rpm -q InterMapper. To remove InterMapper from your system after installing it, type rpm -e InterMapper.

Installing InterMapper Server

The following directions will install InterMapper from the RPM. InterMapper Server will be configured to run at startup:

$ su -
# cd <directory-containing-rpm>
# rpm -ivh "InterMapper-5.0.7-1sse.i386.8x.rpm"

When InterMapper Server begins running, it can run under any uid on your system. You may specify the user name to run as in the intermapperd.conf file, located at /usr/local/etc/intermapperd.conf The rpm's install script will automatically create a user named 'intermapper' if one does not already exist.

User "intermapper"

The InterMapper Server is now installed and running, and is configured to run automatically on startup. By default, it will save its files in the /var/local/InterMapper_Settings/ directory. To manually start the server, type:

$ su -
# /etc/init.d/intermapperd start

If the server started successfully, you will see the OK message:

Starting InterMapper Service done

To stop the server, use the similar "stop" command:

$ su -
# /etc/init.d/intermapperd stop

The first time you start the InterMapper Server, it will only accept "control" connections from the local machine. If you have a window system (ie X-Windows) and JVM already installed, you can launch InterMapper Console by typing:

$ /usr/local/bin/intermapper

The InterMapper Console is also available in the Gnome menu, under Applications > System Tools > InterMapper, or in the KDE menu, under K > System > More Programs > InterMapper.

InterMapper with Compiz, Beryl or Enlightenment

There is a bug when using Java with Compiz or certain other window managers that affects InterMapper, resulting in blank windows when starting either the InterMapper console or InterMapper RemoteAccess. This bug has been mitigated somewhat by Java 6 Update 1, but problems still remain. As a work-around, you can set the AWT_TOOLKIT environment variable to "MToolkit" prior to starting the InterMapper GUI. This tells Java to revert to an older rendering method, which will not integrate as well with modern desktop environments, but doesn't suffer from the same bug.
$ AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit /usr/local/bin/intermapper
If you wish to set this option for future sessions, add the following line to ~/.bashrc:
$ echo -e "\nexport AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit" >> ~/.bashrc
Any new terminal windows that you open will have this setting in them by default as soon as you have run this command, but applications started from the menu will not pick it up until after you log out and log back in again. This will work for all Java applications on your system (which were probably similarly broken), not just InterMapper.

Upgrading InterMapper Server

To upgrade your InterMapper installation to a newer version, you will "erase and re-install". Your InterMapper settings directory, which includes all of your maps, logs, and notification settings, is not removed when you un-install using "rpm -e". Although you will not lose any data during the re-installation, this might still be a good time to make a backup of the InterMapper settings folder.

$ su -
# cd <directory-containing-rpm>
# rpm -e "InterMapper"
# rpm -ivh "InterMapper-5.0.7-1sse.i386.8x.rpm"

After you re-install InterMapper, you should check your "/usr/local/etc/intermapperd.conf" file to make sure that the "User" and "SettingsFolder" directives are correct. Otherwise, InterMapper will not be able to locate your existing "InterMapper_Settings" directory.

As of version 4.6b3, you should not need to erase and reinstall any longer; simply upgrade to the new version:

$ su -
# cd <directory-containing-rpm>
# rpm -Uvh "InterMapper-5.0.7-1sse.i386.8x.rpm"

Configuring InterMapper Server Remotely

If you wish to use InterMapper RemoteAccess to control the InterMapper server from another computer, you must first set up the SuSE firewall to allow connections to InterMapper server. Before the server will accept connections from Remote, you must also launch the server with a command-line argument telling it where you will connect from.

To allow connections through the firewall, click on the Control Center in the main menu. Select "Yast2 Modules", then "Security & Users", and finally "Firewall". Click the Administrator button and enter the root password to get access to change the firewall settings. Select "Allowed Services", then click the "Advanced" button in the lower right corner of the screen. Enter 8181 under TCP ports, then click "Ok". Click "Next" to verify your changes, then "Accept" to change the firewall. Close the Control Center when you are finished.

To tell the server where you will be connecting from, type the following commands to kill the intermapperd process, then restart it manually using the -A option:

$ su -
# /etc/init.d/intermapperd stop
# /usr/local/bin/intermapperd -f /usr/local/etc/intermapperd.conf -A "remote:password@*.*.*.*"

The InterMapper server will now accept Administrator connections from any IP address (*.*.*.*) with the user ID "remote" and the password "password". You should immediately launch InterMapper Remote on another computer and login to this new InterMapper system to set up your InterMapper users and groups.

Removing InterMapper Server

To remove InterMapper Server, you will use the "rpm -e" command. The "rpm -e" command will not remove any files created by InterMapper, such as those stored in your "InterMapper_Settings" directory. To completely remove all remnants of the software, you must also locate and remove the "InterMapper_Settings" directory.

$ su -
# rpm -e "InterMapper"
# rm -rf <Path to InterMapper_Settings Directory>
# deluser intermapper