LarsBlog

I just went through the process of installing RAD 7.5 on Ubuntu 10.04, and there didn't seem to be an easy-to-follow guide for this, so I thought I'd post one.

1. Boot Ubuntu and log in.
2. Open a command prompt and type the following to change your default shell from dash to bash:
   

   $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash

3. Download and install the following debian package: http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libs/libstdc++5 - as RAD requires this and Ubuntu 10.04 ships only with a newer version.
   
4. Insert RAD Setup Disk and run the following commands (launchpad.sh complains if you're not root):
   

   $ cd /media/rad_bundle_disk1
   $ sudo ./launchpad.sh

5. Select "Install IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software".  Follow the prompts to install IBM Installation Manager and wait for it to restart.
6. Select "Install IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software" (again!).
7. Close the launchpad/Firefox window.  Either close your Terminal window (from Step 4) or cd out of /media/rad_bundle_disk1.  This allows the currently mounted CD to be unmounted by Ubuntu later when you need to change discs.
8. Go back to IBM Installation Manager and select Install.  Update IBM Installation Manager if prompted.
9. Select RAD7.5 and WebSphere 7.0 test environment, agree to the license, Click through and accept the default installation components.  (Personally, I disable administrative security on the profile).
10. The installer will trundle away for an hour or so.  Click Finish when done.
11. You're getting there...  Create the following script (/opt/IBM/SDP/launchEclipse.sh) for launching RAD as a lot of people have had troubles with this GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS setting:
    

    #!/bin/sh
    export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true
    /opt/IBM/SDP/eclipse

    Set this script to executable:
    

    $ sudo chmod 755 /opt/IBM/SDP/launchEclipse.sh

12. RAD/eclipse has been installed as root, and (for me anyway) it didn't put the IBM InstallationManager or RAD in the Ubuntu Applications menu.  So I created my own Application Launchers:
    
    Name: RAD7.5
    Command: /opt/IBM/SDP/launchEclipse.sh
    Icon: /opt/IBM/SDP/rad/RAD_v7_16.xpm
    
    Name: IBM Installation Manager
    Command: gksudo /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/launcher
    Icon: /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/documentation/IIM_32.xpm
    
13. Before launching I also needed to add the following line to /opt/IBM/SDP/eclipse.ini, to fix an issue where eclipse will crash on the Welcome screen for a new workspace:

    -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=/usr/lib/xulrunner

14. If you want to run RAD *not* as root, you'll need to add write permissions to the following directory so RAD can interact with your WAS test environment profile (which is only writable by root as this is the user we used to install RAD):
    

    $ sudo chmod -R 777 /opt/IBM/SDP/runtimes/base_v7/profiles

That's it!  You should now be able to run RAD from your Application Launcher.