DS9 FAQ

DS9 FAQ

    This FAQ is a new, on going project, and it is far from being complete. But as common questions on DS9 are received, the FAQ will be updated.

    Contents:

    1. IRAF

    IRAF

  1. I try to display an image from IRAF and I get:
    ERROR: Cannot open device (node!imtool,,512,512)
    1.  
    DS9 works the same way as XIMTOOL, SAOIMAGE, and SAOTNG. No special scripts  should be needed. If you have one of the above currently working, DS9 should  work 'out of the box'.

    IRAF can use one of three methods to commuicate with DS9: fifo, socket, and unix  domain name. The DS9 defaults are:
     

       fifo none
       port 5137
       unix /tmp/.IMT%d
     
    If your IRAF configuration is set up different (ie, a different port number, or  via a fifo), you need to tell DS9 how to commuicate with iraf. DS9 uses the same  command line options as XIMTOOL:
     
      -fifo
      -fifo_only
      -inet_only
      -port
      -port_only
      -unix
      -unix_only
     
    For more Documentation: IRAF Support
     
  2. I try to display an image, I see something, but it's corrupted and I get multiple error messages from DS9...

  3. An IRAF image server (XIMTOOL, SAOIMAGE, DS9, etc...) uses a configuration file  to specify the number of available buffers and their sizes. What actually passes  from IRAF is not the buffer size, but an index number into this file.

    So when an image server starts (DS9), it will attempt to locate this file as  .imtoolrc and /usr/local/lib/imtoolrc. If not found, it will look for shell  environment varibles FBCONFIG_ENV1 and FBCONFIG_ENV2, that contains the name of the configuration file.

    If no configuration file is found, the image server can only assume a 512x512  buffer. If on the other hand, IRAF assumes a different buffer size, the image will appear corrupted and DS9 may issue a number of error messages.

    Another problem is that this file must be in sync with dev$graphcap. If your  system administrator has made changes to graphcap, they must also be implemented in imtoolrc.