Installation Difficulties
This section deals with common snags to installing VAST Platform on Linux and ways to overcome the difficulties.
Linux Rpm
For Linux distributions which use the RPM installer, these are the known difficulties in installation.
Not enough disk space for Installation
If there is not enough disk space to install one of the three packages (Admin Tools, Client, Manager), you will see an error message from the package manager in the terminal output stating something like:
"Installing package vasmalltalk-manager-8.6.2-1 needs 20Mb on the /usr filesystem"
The message does not clearly communicate that the installation will terminate and fail to finish installation.
Solution:
Free up at least the amount of disk space which appears in the warning message. Restart the installation.
Difficulties launching an image from the Environments tool
The installation completed successfully, and Environments shows an environment is available, but I cannot open that image.
Solution:
Even though the installation reported no errors, Linux may not have all the necessary requirements to use the Motif-based user interface. The most common problems are that Linux does not have the correct version of GLIB installed, or that it does not have xterm installed.
VAST requires GLIBC 2.28 or above
If you have installed VAST on an older version of Linux, e.g., Mint 19.3, the version of GCLIBC it supports may be too old. VAST Platform V11.0.0 requires version 2.28 or above.
To verify this is the case, either:
• start a terminal window from your environment and run ./abt.
• Or run ldd --version from a command line to determine the version of libc you have currently installed.
If the error is VERSION 'GLIBC_2.28' not found, install VAST platform on a more current version of Linux.
VAST requires xterm
Although the installation process for VAST Platform includes installing xterm, many apt packages can fail to install – for example because of a DNS lookup failure. VAST completes the installation nonetheless.
The evidence for this will be in the installation log in the console. The solution is to add xterm manually.
Do you have the latest version of Environments on your Machine?
Environment tool is backward compatible in that it recognizes the structure of Installations the particular version of VAST Platform with which it is installed and all prior versions, but not any later versions.
If you have been using Environments to organize your development configurations, you will likely have an Environments data file (environments.dmp) in envroot when you install the VAST Platform product.
When you install VAST Platform, Environments becomes aware of this installation. This is true whether you are simply adding the most recent VAST Platform or constructing a joint 32-bit 64-bit VAST Platform installation.
Post Installation Action:
You register the newest VAST installation by starting the Environments tool. The new environments will automatically be added to the installation. This will make the new installation visible to Environments by adding the installation location to the Environments data file. They will also be visible from the
Installations view in the
System Settings. See the section on
Managing VAST Platform Installations for details.
32-bit/64-bit considerations
There are several things to be aware of when installing both 32-bit and 64-bit VAST Platform. Each installation comes with its own Environments tool. Although the installations do not share a code repository a.k.a. library, the Environments tools included with each installation share private files like the data file, environments.dmp.
This situation leads to post installation decisions regarding
registering the 32-bit and 64-bit installations with the Environments tool.
If you decide to install 32-bit v14.1.0 on a 64-bit system that already has a 64-bit v14.1.0 installed (or vice versa) you can install just the Client portion of the second installation. The library in the 64-bit install is compatible with the library from the 32-bit install. If you choose this path, then the 32-bit Client installation should be adjusted to recognize the 64-bit v14.1.0 installation as the Manager.
Note
Likewise, whenever you uninstall one of your installations, you should take care not to delete the library (aka Manager.)
See “32-bit/64-bit Considerations” under Environments
Advanced Topics for more details.
Log Files
There are currently no log files for the install. The output comes to the terminal screen where the install/uninstall is taking place. Any errors from the installation package managers will be reported to the terminal screen as well.
Last modified date: 07/16/2025