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Installing PRISM /

Common Problems And Questions

This section describes some of the most common problems and questions related to the installation and running of PRISM. These are grouped into the following categories:

  • Running PRISM on Windows
  • Running PRISM on non-Windows platforms
  • Compiling PRISM
  • Other issues

Running PRISM on Windows

When I try to run PRISM on Windows, I double-click the PRISM shortcut but nothing happens.

The most common cause of this is that you either do not have Java installed or the java executable is not in your path. In any case, to determine the exact problem, launch a command shell and navigate to the bin directory inside the directory where you installed PRISM (you can use the "PRISM (console)" shortcut installed in the start menu to do this). Then, type xprism.bat and see what error message is displayed.


Running PRISM on non-Windows platforms

When I try to run PRISM, I get one of these errors:

  • Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ...
  • java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no prism in java.library.path
  • java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: ...
    Library not loaded: ../../lib/libdd.dylib

Things to check:

(1) Did you run install.sh from the PRISM directory? (non-Windows platforms)

(2) If you compiled PRISM from source code, are you sure no errors occurred during the process? To check, go into the PRISM directory, type make clean_all and then make, checking the output (especially at the end) carefully for any error messages.

(3) Are you running on Mac OS (notably El Capitan)? This had some issues with PRISM calling java. A workaround is to specify the exact path to the java when running PRISM, e.g.:

PRISM_JAVA=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.9.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java prism

or by replacing the value of PRISM_JAVA directly in the prism script directly.

When I try to run PRISM, I get an error of the form:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file

Your version of Java is too old. Update or install a newer version of Java, and then try again.


Compiling PRISM

When I try to compile PRISM, make seems to get stuck in an infinite loop

This is probably due to the detection of Java failing. Specify the location of your Java directory by hand, e.g. make JAVA_DIR=/usr/java/jdk1.9.0. See the Instructions page for more on this.

When I try to compile PRISM, I get errors of the form:
/usr/bin/libtool: for architecture: cputype (16777234) cpusubtype (0) file: -lSystem is not an object file (not allowed in a library)

Are you compiling PRISM on Max OS X? If so, the likely explanation is that you have upgraded to a new version of Mac OS X but have not upgraded the developer tools (eg. XCode). Upgrade and try again.

When I try to compile PRISM, nothing seems to happen

Perhaps you are not using the GNU version of make. Try typing make -v to find out. On some systems, GNU make is called gmake.

When I try to compile PRISM, I get errors of the form:
Unexpected end of line seen...
or:
make: Fatal error in reader: Makefile, line 58: Unexpected end of line seen...

Perhaps you are not using the GNU version of make. Try typing make -v to find out. On some systems, GNU make is called gmake.

When I try to compile PRISM, I get an error of the form:
./setup.sh: line 33: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Are you building on Cygwin? And did you unpack PRISM using WinZip? If so, unpack from Cygwin, using tar xfz (or similar) instead.

When I try to compile PRISM, I get an error of the form:
Assembler messages: Fatal error: can't create ../../obj/dd/dd_abstr.o: No such file or directory

Did you unpack PRISM using a graphical tool or file manager? If so, unpack using tar xfz (or similar) instead.

Do I have to use GNU make to build PRISM?

Strictly speaking, no, but you will have to modify the various PRISM Makefiles manually to overcome this.

Can I build PRISM on operating systems other than those currently supported?

PRISM should be suitable for any Unix/Linux variant.

The first thing you will need to do is compile CUDD (the BDD library used by and included in PRISM) on that platform. Fortunately, CUDD has already been successfully built on a large number of operating systems. Have a look at the sample Makefiles we provide (i.e. the files cudd/Makefile.*) which are slight variants of the original Makefile provided with CUDD (found here: cudd/modified/orig/Makefile). They contain instructions on how to modify it for various platforms. You can then call your new modified makefile something appropriate (cudd/Makefile.$OSTYPE) and proceed to build PRISM as usual. To just build CUDD, not PRISM, type make cuddpackage instead of make.

Next, look at the main PRISM Makefile, in particular, each place where the variable $OSTYPE is referred to. Most lines include comments and further instructions. Once you have done this, proceed as usual.

If you do successfully build PRISM on other platforms, please let us know so we can include this information in future releases. Thanks.


Other issues

How do I uninstall PRISM?

If you installed PRISM on Windows using the self-extracting installer, you can uninstall it using the option on the start menu. If you didn't add these shortcuts, just run uninstall.exe from the directory where you installed PRISM.

For older versions of PRISM on Windows or on any other platform, simply delete the directory containing it.

The only thing that is not removed via either of these methods is the .prism file containing your PRISM settings which is in your home directory (see the section "Configuring PRISM"). You may wish to retain this when upgrading.

I still have a problem installing/running PRISM. What can I do?

Please post a message in the discussion group (see the support section of the PRISM website).

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Installing PRISM

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