Installing PDL on Knoppix

These instructions apply to Knoppix 5.1.0, but they will most probably be useful for other Knoppix versions. For this installation to work your computer must have access to Internet.

On the bottom bar select K -> System -> Synaptic Package Manager Note: You should select the second Synaptic Package Manager that shows up on the list of System applications. This selection will start Synaptic Package Manager without the need to type in the root password.

The synaptic package manager application will open up. Close any message windows that popup by clicking on Close.

On the main window of synaptic click on Reload Wait a few minutes for the system to load the list of packages available. At the end an error message might come up telling you that that some public key is not available. Just ignore this message by clicking on Close.

After that, on the main synaptic window click on Search and search for

pdl

by writing that word in the Search entry and clicking on Search. On the search result listing on the right side of the window, click on the little box to the left of pdl, a selection menu will come up. Click on Mark for installation on that selection. On the popup window click on Mark

After that follow the same procedure by clicking again on Search and search for

pgplot

Click again on the boxes to the left of the search results of pgplot5 and then click on Mark for installation in both cases. Click again on Mark on the popup window in both cases.

Follow again the same procedure for the package libterm-readline-gnu-perl Search for it and mark it for installation.

Follow again the same procedure for the packages libterm-readline-gnu-perl, g77, libc6-dev, libx11-dev and netpbm. Search for them and mark them for installation, together with whatever comes up sugested for installation.

Click on Apply and then again on Apply on the popup window and wait a few minutes for the packages to be installed. Close the Changes applied window by clicking on Close

You can now close Synaptic. Click on File -> Quit

Open a terminal by selecting on the top bar Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

Now we have to install the perl module that gives some of the plotting capabilities of PDL, which is called PGPLOT. We must get into CPAN shell mode, by writing on the terminal (as root)

 perl -MCPAN -e shell

Type no when the question Are you ready for manual configuration? comes up.

Now type

 install ExtUtils::F77

and then

 install PGPLOT

Take the default proposal when asked Default Device for plot tests? by just hitting <ENTER>.

Get out of the CPAN shell window by typing

 exit

Open an terminal by selecting on the top bar K -> System -> Konsole Terminal Program

On the terminal write

 perldl

This will let you use the PDL command line. In there you can type demo to get a list of demos. Run any of them to get a feeling for PDL.

Et voila!!