NEW USER. My aim is simply to transfer povray output to OpenOffice Impress
for building a lecture

Povray 3.6.1 in Debian etch 32bit

povray.conf
[File I/O Security]
none

[Shellout Security]
allowed


Trying to workout a pov file (colchicine.pov, where tmp is the directory
containing this pov file) created with my molecular modeling package, I got
errors:

francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 +Icolchicine.pov +Omonitor.tga
povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 2: the user setting 'none'
for [File I/O Security] is less restrictive than the system setting
'restricted' in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system setting.
povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 5: the user setting
'allowed' for [Shellout Security] is less restrictive than the system
'forbidden' setting in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system
setting.
povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: user permitted paths are
ignored.  Using system paths.
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$

I do not understand where the illegality resides. I understand it is trivial
matter, however I am unable to come out, while pressed for the lecture.

thanks a lot for help

francesco

Post a reply to this message

> francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 +Icolchicine.pov +Omonitor.tga
> povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 2: the user setting 'none'
> for [File I/O Security] is less restrictive than the system setting
> 'restricted' in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system setting.
> povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 5: the user setting
> 'allowed' for [Shellout Security] is less restrictive than the system
> 'forbidden' setting in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system
> setting.

	As explicitly said above, you are trying to use settings in your
~/.povray/3.6/povray.conf file that are less restrictive than those set in
the system-wide /etc/povray/3.6/povray.conf file that is created when
installing POV-Ray as root.  However, you cannot override security settings
that the root defines for the non-privileged users...

> povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: user permitted paths are
> ignored.  Using system paths.

	... hence POV-Ray decides to use the "safe" settings.

> Illegal instruction

	This, however, should not happen.  Most likely you are using a POV-Ray
binary compiled for a platform with specific optimizations that are not
available on your own platform.  I guess this is a problem with the Debian
release (I'll check out and file a bug report if necessary).
	Solution: download and install the official POV-Ray for Linux distribution
(alternatively, you may also install the official source distribution).

	- NC

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Calimet <pov### [at] freefr> wrote:
> > francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 +Icolchicine.pov +Omonitor.tga
> > povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 2: the user setting 'none'
> > for [File I/O Security] is less restrictive than the system setting
> > 'restricted' in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system setting.
> > povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: 5: the user setting
> > 'allowed' for [Shellout Security] is less restrictive than the system
> > 'forbidden' setting in '/etc//povray/3.6/povray.conf'.  Using system
> > setting.
>
>  As explicitly said above, you are trying to use settings in your
> ~/.povray/3.6/povray.conf file that are less restrictive than those set in
> the system-wide /etc/povray/3.6/povray.conf file that is created when
> installing POV-Ray as root.  However, you cannot override security settings
> that the root defines for the non-privileged users...
>
> > povray: /home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf: user permitted paths are
> > ignored.  Using system paths.
>
>  ... hence POV-Ray decides to use the "safe" settings.
>
> > Illegal instruction
>
>  This, however, should not happen.  Most likely you are using a POV-Ray
> binary compiled for a platform with specific optimizations that are not
> available on your own platform.  I guess this is a problem with the Debian
> release (I'll check out and file a bug report if necessary).
>  Solution: download and install the official POV-Ray for Linux distribution
> (alternatively, you may also install the official source distribution).
>
>  - NC

Hi Nic:
On the basis of your comment I have tried another way, modifying my
/home/francesco/.povray/3.6/povray.conf as follows:
[File I/O Security]
;none
;read-only
restricted

[Shellout Security]
;allowed
forbidden


[Permitted Paths]
;read = "/this/directory/contains space caracters"
read* = /usr/share/povray/include
read* = /usr/share/povray/scenes
read* = /etc/povray/
read* = %HOME%
read+write* = /tmp
read+write  = .




i.e. by taking the configuration at the Debian installation of POV-Ray,
which seems to be about perfect, as follows:
PERSISTENCE OF VISION RAY TRACER
;
;                           POV-Ray VERSION 3.6
;
;                         SAMPLE POVRAY.CONF FILE
;                      FOR I/O RESTRICTIONS SETTINGS
;
;
; The general form of the options is:
;
; [Section]
; setting
;
; Note: characters after a semi-colon are treated as a comment.
;
; This file is used primarily to define security settings, i.e. to
; restrict reading and writing of files and running of scripts beyond
; the security provided by the file system.  Regardless of the settings
; in this file, POV-Ray will not allow users to read files they would
; not ordinarily be allowed to read, write files they would not
; ordinarily be allowed to write, or execute files they would not
; ordinarily be allowed to execute, unless someone has made the binary
; setuid or setgid.
;
; POV-Ray will look in two places for this file: in a system-wide directory
; (typically /usr/local/etc/povray/3.6/povray.conf) and in the user's home
; directory (as ~/.povray/3.6/povray.conf).  POV-Ray will always use the
; most strict version of what is specified; user settings can only make
; security more strict.
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;


; [File I/O Security] determines whether POV-Ray will be allowed to perform
; read-write operations on files.  Specify one of the 3 following values:
; - "none" means that there are no restrictions other than those enforced
;   by the file system, i.e. normal UNIX file and directory permissions.
; - "read-only" means that files may be read without restriction.
; - "restricted" means that files access is subject to restrictions as
;   specified in the rest of this file.  See the other variables for
details.

[File I/O Security]
;none       ; all read and write operations on files are allowed.
;read-only  ; uses the "read+write" directories for writing (see below).
restricted  ; uses _only_ "read" and "read+write" directories for file I/O.


; [Shellout Security] determines whether POV-Ray will be allowed to call
; scripts (e.g. Post_Frame_Command) as specified in the documentation.
; Specify one of the 2 following values:
; - "allowed" means that shellout will work as specified in the
documentation.
; - "forbidden" means that shellout will be disabled.

[Shellout Security]
;allowed
forbidden


; [Permitted Paths] specifies a list of directories for which reading or
; reading + writting is permitted (in those directories and optionnally
; in their descendents).  Any entry of the directory list is specified on
; a single line.  These paths are only used when the file I/O security
; is enabled (i.e. "read-only" or "restricted").
;
; The list entries must be formatted as following:
;   read = directory      ; read-only directory
;   read* = directory        ; read-only directory including its descendents
;   read+write = directory   ; read/write directory
;   read+write* = directory  ; read/write directory including its
descendents
; where directory is a string (to be quoted or doubly-quoted if it contains
; space caracters; see the commented example below).  Any number of spaces
; can be placed before and after the equal sign.  Read-only and read/write
; entries can be specified in any order.
;
; Both relative and absolute paths are possible (which makes "."
particularly
; useful for defining the current working directory).  The POV-Ray install
; directory (e.g. /usr/local/share/povray-3.6 or /usr/share/povray-3.6)
; can be specified with "%INSTALLDIR%".  The install directory and its
; descendents are typically only writable by root; therefore you should not
; specify "%INSTALLDIR%" in read/write directory paths.  The user home
; directory can be specified with "%HOME%".
;
; Note that since user-level restrictions are at least as strict as system-
; level restrictions, any paths specified in the system-wide povray.conf
; will also need to be specified in the user povray.conf file.

[Permitted Paths]
;read = "/this/directory/contains space caracters"
read* = /usr/share/povray/include
read* = /usr/share/povray/scenes
read* = /etc/povray/
read* = %HOME%
read+write* = /tmp
read+write  = .


_________

However, there must be some other mistake from my side, because with neither
my colchicine.pov nor example.pov (the latter taken from internet) I got
povray working, as follows:
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 -H
/home/francesco/tmp/+Icolchicine.pov /home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga
Could not find file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'
Cannot open INI file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'.
Cannot process command-line due to a parse error.
This is not a valid command-line. Check the command-line for syntax errors,
correct them, and try again!
Valid command-line switches are explained in detail in the reference part of
the documentation.
To get a short list of command-line switches, use either the '-h', '-?',
'-help' or '--help' switch.
Failed to render file due to error(s)!
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 +Iexample.pov +Oexample.tga
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$

What else should I do? There must be errors in the command line. Sorry for
the long message but I am really pressed to solve the problem.

Thanks a lot
francesco

Post a reply to this message

> francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 -H
> /home/francesco/tmp/+Icolchicine.pov /home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga
> Could not find file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'
> Cannot open INI file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'.

	The error messages are pretty clear, though...
	If to follow your example, you should write:

povray +W320 +H240 +I/home/francesco/tmp/colchicine.pov
+O/home/francesco/tmp/colchicine.tga

	but this is *not* correct either.  Instead, you'd better go with:

# assuming you are still in your ~/tmp directory
povray colchicine.pov +w320 +h240 +ft

	where +ft means you want the output image in the (uncompressed) TGA format
(the filename extension means nothing to POV-Ray).  I'd recommend using the default
PNG output as it will give you a much smaller file and is compatible with many apps.
Just do not specify +ft at all in this case.

	- NC

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Calimet <pov### [at] freefr> wrote:
> > francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray +W320 +H240 -H
> > /home/francesco/tmp/+Icolchicine.pov /home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga
> > Could not find file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'
> > Cannot open INI file '/home/francesco/tmp/+Ocolchicine.tga'.
>
>  The error messages are pretty clear, though...
>  If to follow your example, you should write:
>
> povray +W320 +H240 +I/home/francesco/tmp/colchicine.pov
+O/home/francesco/tmp/colchicine.tga
>
>  but this is *not* correct either.  Instead, you'd better go with:
>
> # assuming you are still in your ~/tmp directory
> povray colchicine.pov +w320 +h240 +ft
>
>  where +ft means you want the output image in the (uncompressed) TGA format
> (the filename extension means nothing to POV-Ray).  I'd recommend using the default
> PNG output as it will give you a much smaller file and is compatible with many apps.
> Just do not specify +ft at all in this case.
>
>  - NC

Hi Nic:
Thank you for your express answer.

It didn't work:
francesco@debian:~$ cd tmp
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray colchicine.pov +w320 +h240
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray colchicine.pov +w320 +h240 +ft
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ ls
colchicine.pov  example.pov
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray example.pov +w320 +h240 +ft
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$ povray example.pov +w320 +h240
Illegal instruction
francesco@debian:~/tmp$

I wonder whether

[Permitted Paths]
;read = "/this/directory/contains space caracters"
read* = /usr/share/povray/include
read* = /usr/share/povray/scenes
read* = /etc/povray/
read* = %HOME%
read+write* = /tmp
read+write  = .

is correct, or
read+write* = %HOME%
is the choice. Or if I have any problem of environmental variables (echo
$PATH does not show anything related to povray, although really I was in
the directory containing the *.pov files)

Thanks again for your patience. Finally we will come out this trick.

francesco

Post a reply to this message

> Illegal instruction
> Illegal instruction
> Illegal instruction
> Illegal instruction

	You're kidding me, aren't you?  :-)

	Please download and install the *official* POV-Ray for Linux distribution
to replace the broken Debian package:

ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/Official/Linux/povlinux-3.6.1.tar.bz2

	Download the file above, unpack with 'tar xvjf povlinux-3.6.1.tar.bz2',
cd to the newly created directory, run the 'install' script and follow the
instructions.  You should then be done with a working povray binary.

> I wonder whether
> [...]
> is correct, or
> read+write* = %HOME%
> is the choice.

	That's up to you, but doing so will allow to write in any sub-directory
of your home dir.  In general, I'd recommend to run povray from the directory
where is your input .pov file and let it output the .png (or whatever) image
in the same, current directory (as suggested in my previous message).

     - NC

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Calimet <pov### [at] freefr> wrote:
> > Illegal instruction
> > Illegal instruction
> > Illegal instruction
> > Illegal instruction
>
>  You're kidding me, aren't you?  :-)]

WHY THAT? NOT AT ALL.
>
>  Please download and install the *official* POV-Ray for Linux distribution
> to replace the broken Debian package:
>
> ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/Official/Linux/povlinux-3.6.1.tar.bz2
>
>  Download the file above, unpack with 'tar xvjf povlinux-3.6.1.tar.bz2',
> cd to the newly created directory, run the 'install' script and follow the
> instructions.  You should then be done with a working povray binary.

YOU ARE RIGHT, DEBIAN POVRAY-3.6 HAS A KNOWN BUG. I INSTALLED POVRAY-3.5
(3.5.0C-10) DEBIAN. IT WORKS PERFECTLY. NOTHING AGAINST YOU SUGGESTION FOR
INSTALLING (I AM NOT A FANATIC OF FREE, FOR MY WORK I ALSO USE STUFF -
THROUGH WINE - THAT IS NOT AVAILABLE ON UNIX), THOUGH FROM DEBIAN IT WAS
QUICKER AND I AM SURE ABOUT ALL DEPENDENCIES. I HOPE NOW TO BE ABLE TO
INSERT THE TGA OUTPUT INTO OPENOFFICE IMPRESS. THANKS A LOT
FRANCESCO
>
> > I wonder whether
> > [...]
> > is correct, or
> > read+write* = %HOME%
> > is the choice.
>
>  That's up to you, but doing so will allow to write in any sub-directory
> of your home dir.  In general, I'd recommend to run povray from the directory
> where is your input .pov file and let it output the .png (or whatever) image
> in the same, current directory (as suggested in my previous message).
>
>      - NC

Post a reply to this message

> YOU ARE RIGHT, DEBIAN POVRAY-3.6 HAS A KNOWN BUG. I INSTALLED POVRAY-3.5
> (3.5.0C-10) DEBIAN.

	You are of course free to deal with a version that was released more than
*four* years ago and which is known to have weaknesses (in particular the Debian
package for 3.50c contains unofficial, unstable extensions).  POV-Ray 3.6 has been
released two years ago already, after thorough testing; yet the Debian maintainers
did not succeed to provide with a working binary as of today.

> FROM DEBIAN IT WAS
> QUICKER AND I AM SURE ABOUT ALL DEPENDENCIES.

	POV-Ray 3.6.x for Linux contains no external dependencies, while the Debian
package of 3.50c has dependencies to unsupported and outdated libraries.

	Besides, if you start having problems with the povray.conf settings in 3.50c,
I'm sorry to tell that you will be on your own to solve them (hint: you will have
to search back in this newsgroup).

	- NC

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Calimet <pov### [at] freefr> wrote:
> > YOU ARE RIGHT, DEBIAN POVRAY-3.6 HAS A KNOWN BUG. I INSTALLED POVRAY-3.5
> > (3.5.0C-10) DEBIAN.
>
>  You are of course free to deal with a version that was released more than
> *four* years ago and which is known to have weaknesses (in particular the Debian
> package for 3.50c contains unofficial, unstable extensions).  POV-Ray 3.6 has been
> released two years ago already, after thorough testing; yet the Debian maintainers
> did not succeed to provide with a working binary as of today.
>
> > FROM DEBIAN IT WAS
> > QUICKER AND I AM SURE ABOUT ALL DEPENDENCIES.
>
>  POV-Ray 3.6.x for Linux contains no external dependencies, while the Debian
> package of 3.50c has dependencies to unsupported and outdated libraries.
>
>  Besides, if you start having problems with the povray.conf settings in 3.50c,
> I'm sorry to tell that you will be on your own to solve them (hint: you will have
> to search back in this newsgroup).
>
>  - NC

Hi Nic:
Thanks a lot for your warnings that I appreciate and agree on. However, I am
at the moment too pressed in setting up the lecture for an important task,
to convince the political authorities to put a south-seas marine area under
environmental protection (therefore the need of impressive slides). As soon
as the task is concluded, I'll resume the problem of getting an official
release of povray.

The 3.6 I downloaded was not from Debian, I recognized later. It was posted
anonymous, while uploaded by aptitude. The 3.5 from Debian allows me to
insert png files into OpenOffice Impress and I'll refrain to ask any help
about this release from this site. Should I meet obstacles, economy demands
that I go to the official 3.6 immediately.

Again, I am not bound to any flavor of linux, not even to unix (although I
do not use other OS than Linux Debian, unix lacks viable free-form database
and molecular drawings packages, which I have to use through wine).

Nice week end

francesco

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