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You are here: Home Documentation OMERO v4.2.2 OMERO.server Install - Walkthrough on 10.6 using MacPorts.

Install - Walkthrough on 10.6 using MacPorts.

This walkthrough is a list of the commands used to install OMERO on a clean Mac OS 10.6 SnowLeopard using MacPorts to install Postgres 8.4 and Ice 3.3.x, PIL & Matplot for Python 2.6

Note: At present Ice 3.4.x is not compatible. This is now the default version installed by MacPorts so these instruction have been modified. The accompanying video predates Ice 3.4.x so where there is a difference this page is the correct version.


Since updating these instructions the version of ice-python26 @3.3.1_1 has been removed by MacPorts so the commands have changed.

The page has been update to use ice33-python26 instead of ice-python26. We are currently testing to confirm this works as expected.


It is not a substitute for the general install page but is here to give a feel for the process.

There is an accompanying video available here. This shows the install of OMERO 4.1 onto 10.6 using the version of MacPorts available at the time.

1: Xcode

On a completely clean machine the first step is to install Xcode from Apple. This is required by MacPorts. Xcode is usually available as an optional install on the CD that came with your mac. If not it is available as a download from Apple. A permanent links is not available as you have to register for the download.

2: MacPorts

The MacPorts product is avaliable from http://www.macports.org/ Simply download the disk image (.dmg), in this case for Snow Leopard and follow the steps in the installer. The default settings should be fine.

3: Ports for the OMERO pre-requisites

We need to install several ports (software bundles). If you install all of these in one port command MacPorts should correctly set up most of the paths so the preferred command is:

Prefered method
sudo port install postgresql84 postgresql84-server ice33-python26 py26-pil py26-matplotlib python_select

This will also install all the pre-requisites for these software bundles and will take some time.

If you use the individual command listed below you may find MacPorts has not got all the paths correct. This may be necessary is you are installing on a system which already has some of the packages installed.

Less prefered method
sudo port install postgresql84
sudo port install postgresql84-server
sudo port install ice33-python26
sudo port install python_select
sudo port install py26-pil
sudo port install py26-matplotlib

4: Configure Postgres

We want the postgres server to start when the system restarts so we add the correct settings to the system launch settings

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql84-server.plist

We create a directory for the postgres databases

sudo mkdir -p /opt/local/var/db/postgresql84/defaultdb

Change its owner to be the postgres user and group

sudo chown postgres:postgres /opt/local/var/db/postgresql84/defaultdb

We then create the initial databases needed by postgres in this location

sudo su postgres -c '/opt/local/lib/postgresql84/bin/initdb -D /opt/local/var/db/postgresql84/defaultdb'

At this point if you restart the system the postgres server should be ready for connections.

5: Configure Python

MacPorts will install a new version of python along side the Apple supplied one that came with your system. You use the python_select command we installed using MacPorts to choose the one you use:

sudo python_select python26

If you need to revert back to the apple versions you can use:

sudo python_select python26-apple

6: Configure PATH and PYTHONPATH

To configure the paths you need to edit the users .profile file. You should add the following lines.

export PATH=/opt/local/lib/postgresql84/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH

# The path to add depends on you OMERO install location.
export PYTHONPATH=/Users/andrew/Desktop/OMERO/lib/python/:$PYTHONPATH
Optional Configure PYTHONPATH for pre-requisites

To check if you PYTHONPATH is correct you can try:

% python
Python 2.6.3 (r263:75183, Oct 15 2009, 19:52:33) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import Ice
>>> import Image
>>> import matplotlib
>>> exit()
%

If your python path was not correctly configured by MacPorts you can add the individual packages directories to your python path. To find where MacPorts has installed a package you can use the location command. e.g. for Python Image Library

port location py26-pil

When you have found the lib folder in this location you can add it to the PYTHONPATH in the .profile file.

export PYTHONPATH=/(your-matplot-lib-location)/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/:$PYTHONPATH
export PYTHONPATH=/(your-PIL-lib-location)/python2.6/site-packages/PIL/:$PYTHONPATH
export PYTHONPATH=(your-ICE-lib-location)/python2.6/site-packages/:$PYTHONPATH
# and so on...

We are now following the steps outlined in the general install process.

7: Create OMERO databases and folders

Create OMERO databases and directories

sudo -u postgres createuser -P -D -R -S omero
sudo -u postgres createdb -O omero omero
sudo -u postgres createlang plpgsql omero
psql -h localhost -U omero -l
sudo mkdir /OMERO
whoami
sudo chown -R andrew /OMERO

8: Configure and launch the server

cd /Users/andrew/Desktop/OMERO
bin/omero db script
psql -h localhost -U omero omero < OMERO4.1__0.sql
Starting the server
bin/omero admin start
Stopping the server
bin/omero admin stop
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