I have been using POV-Ray for Windows for a while now, but I am slowly
changing over to using RedHat Linux 6.0.  I downloaded the program and
followed all of the instructions, but when I try to open it, all I get is a
list of what appear to be options (KNnn, stuff like that).  If I'm running
Xwindows, it also locks up the XServer.  Somebody please help!!!

Post a reply to this message

Ian Meinzen wrote:
> 
> I have been using POV-Ray for Windows for a while now, but I am slowly
> changing over to using RedHat Linux 6.0.  I downloaded the program and
> followed all of the instructions, but when I try to open it, all I get is a
> list of what appear to be options (KNnn, stuff like that).  If I'm running
> Xwindows, it also locks up the XServer.  Somebody please help!!!

POV-Ray for Unix (including Linux) has no GUI front-end.  The intent is
that it be used like any of a number of familiar Unix command-line
utilities: you type the name, assorted switches, and assorted
parameters.  Once you hit "Enter", it chugs along, with optional
preview.  Entering the name of the program without any parameters or
switches displays a summary of how to invoke it from the command line
(which goes on for a bit, so "povray | less" is more useful).  For more
gory detail, read the man page.

Running "s-povray" from within X changes you to a different virtual
terminal in order to use svga mode.  To get back to your X session, try
hitting Ctrl-Alt-F7.  If you're in X, there's little good reason to use
"s-povray", since the quality of the preview in X is generally vastly
superior to the preview in svga mode.

-- 
Mark Gordon
mtg### [at] povrayorg

Post a reply to this message