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Installation


In addition to your MIL DVD, you will require a hardware license-key for development of applications. The key allows you to code, debug, and run your applications. MIL only supports hardware license-keys for USB ports. To redistribute your MIL applications, see the Distribution of MIL applications section of Chapter 54: Distribution and licensing.

Your MIL DVD will include either the 32-bit version or 64-bit version of MIL. You can install MIL 32-bit on a 64-bit operating system. You can install both MIL 32-bit and MIL 64-bit on the same computer.

Under Microsoft Windows

To install your MIL software under Microsoft Windows:

  1. Attach the development hardware license-key to the USB port of your computer.

  2. Place the installation DVD in an appropriate drive. Execute the MILxxSetup.exe program.

During installation, you will be asked a number of questions. The type of questions include:

  • Whether to install MIL optional components, such as DirectShow, MIL for .NET and Scripting, Distributed MIL, and Matrox Intellicam.

  • The drive and directory on which to install MIL and the examples.

  • The type of Matrox hardware drivers to install (for example, Matrox Radient eCL). Note that in some cases, Matrox hardware must be installed before you install its drivers.

  • Whether you accept the licensing agreement.

  • How Distributed MIL (if installed) will be launched: automatically at startup as a system service, automatically at startup as a user process, or manually by the user (using the MILConfig utility).

  • The system type and Digitizer Configuration Format (DCF) to define your default configuration.

  • Whether by default, displayed images should be shown in a window on the Microsoft Windows desktop or without a window on a dedicated screen. If the answer is the latter, you will be asked for the Video Configuration Format (VCF) to use by default.

  • Whether to install the DirectX-based display service.

  • The amount of linear non-paged memory to reserve for MIL grab buffers.

  • Whether to enable MIL auto-updates.

Under Linux

To install your MIL software under Linux:

  1. Ensure that the following development tools have been installed. See the MILLinux release notes for the complete list of required packages.

    • GCC (GNU compiler collection) and G++.

    • LSB (Linux standard base support).

    • gtk2-devel (optional, needed for the mdispgtk and mdispwindowgtk examples).

    • qt4-devel (optional, needed for the mdispqt and mdispwindowqt examples).

  2. Attach the development hardware license-key to the USB port of your computer.

  3. Place the installation DVD in an appropriate drive.

  4. Execute one of the following commands as the root user or using the sudo command. To install the full version of MIL, execute:

    # sh ./mil-10_XXXX-installer.run

    Whereas, to install MIL-Lite, execute:

    # sh ./mil-lite-10_XXXX-installer.run

    Replace XXXX with the MIL build number.

During installation, a new group named mil is added to the /etc/group file, and you will be prompted to add at least one valid user to this group. Any user in this group can change the MIL configuration using the MILConfig utility, modify examples, recompile MIL drivers, and manage the Distributed MIL services. Note that you don't need to add the root user to the mil group.

During installation, MIL drivers will be compiled to match the version of the running kernel. After installation, any user in the mil group can recompile the drivers by accessing the Driver Status page of the MILConfig utility, and then clicking on the Compile Drivers button.

During installation, you will be asked a number of questions. The type of questions include:

  • Whether you accept the licensing agreement.

  • The type of Matrox hardware drivers to install (for example, Matrox Solios).

  • The system type and Digitizer Configuration Format (DCF) to define your default configuration.

  • Whether by default, displayed images should be displayed in a window on the desktop or without a window on a dedicated screen. If the answer is the latter, you will be asked for the Video Configuration Format (VCF) to use by default.

  • The amount of linear non-paged memory to reserve for MIL grab buffers.

  • The users to add to the mil group.

  • Whether to restart your computer after installation.

To uninstall MIL completely, type the following command as the root user or using the sudo command.

# mil-uninstall

General installation notes

On Microsoft Windows computers, it is possible to install both MIL 32-bit and MIL 64-bit on the same computer. The versions of MIL must be the same (for example, they must both be MIL X version 1911) and only the 64-bit MIL drivers can be installed if you choose to install both versions of MIL.

When installing MIL or MIL-Lite on a computer with an older version already installed, the setup program will not install MIL. The older version must be uninstalled before the setup program can install MIL.

Note that the installation program also installs Matrox Intellicam (your frame grabber configuration program, not supported under Linux), MIL Control Center, Example Launcher, MIL interactive utilities (not supported under Linux), the MILConfig utility, and MIL CoPilot (not supported under Linux).

After installation, read the MIL Release Notes for last minute information.

MIL can be run without the hardware license-key if you activate a MIL provisional license. Once activated, the provisional license allows use of MIL on your computer for 30 days. Each time you run MIL, a dialog box appears indicating the number of days until the evaluation license expires. Once this time period has elapsed, MIL will not run unless you purchase a permanent license. For more information on activating a MIL license, see the MIL and MIL-Lite licenses section of Chapter 54: Distribution and licensing.

A MIL provisional license can only be installed once. Any attempt to tamper with your computer's calendar, before the date of expiry, will disable MIL. In that event, MIL can only be re-used once a permanent license is obtained.

MIL Control Center

The MIL Control Center is an application that allows you to easily access files and applications that were installed along with MIL. Important utilities (such as Example Launcher, the MILConfig utility, Matrox Profiler, and Matrox Intellicam), interactive utilities related to the processing and analysis modules (such as Code Reader and Edge Finder), and files to help you develop with MIL (such as examples, images, predefined contexts, and the MIL help files), can be launched through links in the MIL Control Center.

The MIL Control Center also allows you to launch MIL CoPilot, which is an interactive environment for experimentation, prototyping, and code generation.

MILConfig utility

The MILConfig utility (MILConfig.exe), launched through the MIL Control Center, provides licensing, MIL reserved non-paged memory configuration, and system information tools. For example, if you need to change the amount of MIL reserved non-paged memory, you can do so at any time using the MILConfig utility. For more information on memory management options, see the Advanced memory management section of Chapter 21: Data buffers.

Should you require technical support, use the MILConfig utility's Troubleshooting page to generate a text file that contains all the necessary system information required for basic troubleshooting; this file can then be forwarded to your Matrox technical support representative. For more information on the text file that the MILConfig utility generates, see the Interactive log subsection of the Matrox Profiler and trace logs section of Chapter 50: Development and debugging tools and techniques.

Automatic updates

The MILConfig utility has automatic update settings which allow you to automatically receive notice when a new version of MIL is available to download from the internet. A valid Matrox maintenance plan is required to download the new version of MIL. If automatic-updates are enabled during installation, the MILConfig utility will request your registration and web proxy information when you first open the MILConfig utility.

If your network uses a proxy server, it must be configured to allow usage of the network protocols used to download MIL updates. Retrieving the list of available MIL updates requires HTTP, and downloading an update requires FTP. You can test whether your computer is able to download MIL updates using the Connection Test page in the MILConfig utility.

Matrox Intellicam

Matrox Intellicam is a program for 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, which provides fast camera interfacing and interactive access to all the grab features and functionalities of your Matrox frame grabber and GenICam SFNC-compliant cameras. It is included with MIL/MIL-Lite. It is automatically installed when installing MIL/MIL-Lite. You can also install Matrox Intellicam as a stand-alone product. The computer and operating system requirements for Matrox Intellicam are the same as MIL/MIL-Lite. A MIL or MIL-Lite license is required to use Matrox Intellicam.

Matrox Intellicam allows you to grab with various camera types and see the results immediately. You can also use Matrox Intellicam to create and/or modify digitizer configuration format (DCF) files for use with Matrox frame grabbers that support non-standard acquisition. These files can then be used to interface with any camera supported by your frame grabber.

Matrox Intellicam has an interactive tool called Feature Browser. This tool allows you to dynamically configure camera, system, and digitizer settings. It is useful if you want to experiment with different control values interactively and verify the results in real-time without having to re-compile your application program. In addition, the Matrox Feature Browser provides code snippets with the MIL functions and MIL constants associated with your selected settings; you can copy and paste these snippets into your MIL application's code.