3.4.1 Testing the Installation

The following simple commands allow you to test the installation of Mathematica. Running these commands does not guarantee that the installation was successful, but a failed command can indicate that a serious problem occurred during installation.

Before running these commands, make sure that MathLM is already installed and running on a license server on the network. You should run these tests from a user account and not as root.

If you want to test the kernel on a remote machine, run the xhost command on the local machine in order to access the display. Also, be sure to set the environment variable DISPLAY once you are logged onto the remote machine. If you do not need to test graphics, you may simply use the command rsh hostname math to start the kernel on another machine.

1. Test the kernel. In a shell, type math.

% math

Mathematica 5.0 for Linux

Copyright 1988-2003 Wolfram Research, Inc.

-- Motif graphics initialized --



In[1]:=

Type N[Pi, 20] and press . The number in the output should match the output shown here. The prompt will change from In[1] to In[2].

% math

Mathematica 5.0 for Linux

Copyright 1988-2003 Wolfram Research, Inc.

-- Motif graphics initialized --



In[1]:= N[Pi, 20]



Out[1]= 3.141592653589732385



In[2]:=

2. Test the front end.

Make sure you are running X. In a shell, type mathematica. A splash screen with initialization information appears briefly, after which three windows appear. Make the window with the menu the active window. This is a Mathematica notebook. Type N[Pi, 100]. Then hold down the key and press to evaluate. This should send the command to the kernel, and return the same result as before. The In[1] and Out[1] prompts are prepended once the evaluation is completed.

In the notebook window, there should be a horizontal line across the notebook; this is the horizontal insertion bar. If you do not see one, move the pointer until it becomes a horizontal I-beam and click once to see the insertion bar.

Press the key. You should see three small horizontal lines in a column (). Type int and press again. You should see an integral sign ( ). As additional font checks, typing \[CheckmarkedBox] and \[CirclePlus] should print the symbols ☑ and , respectively. If the symbols show up correctly, the fonts have been correctly installed.

If you run into problems when doing these tests, see the troubleshooting tips in Section 3.4.5. If you do not find the answer there, check the Technical Support website at support.wolfram.com.