DeltaVision softWoRx Workstation (CentOS) HDD crash - rebuilding system from scratch

Posted by Mel Symeonides on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/DeltaVision-softWoRx-Workstation-CentOS-HDD-crash-rebuilding-system-from-scratch-tp7582861.html

*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
*****

Hello,

We have a DeltaVision DV/U series microscope on an Olympus IX70 base. This
is the slightly older configuration which uses two computers, a workstation
PC running CentOS Linux and softWoRx, and the IC/MIC which runs Windows XP
and controls the light source/camera/stage motors. We love this scope and
have published with it a lot, but unfortunately we've had a lot of issues
with support, especially since API was bought out by GE Healthcare. Because
it is an older model, GE has denied us a new service contract and has only
offered the option of fully upgrading the microscope for over $100k in order
to become eligible for a service contract.

Recently our microscope became inoperable because the Workstation PC's hard
drive crashed. After analyzing the drive from a different computer, it looks
like a good 30% of it is inaccessible, but I was able to recover important
files such as /usr/local/softWoRx/config/Resolve3D.SYS and our network
configuration files. Also, I've put a new blank drive on the computer and
installed CentOS from scratch, and the computer works fine, but I do not
have the softWoRx packages to install the software and run the microscope.
The IC/MIC is intact and I can fully initialize the microscope by accessing
the IC/MIC directly, so there are no other hardware issues.

The only service option that GE has offered to us is to completely replace
the Workstation PC for about $10,000. Obviously it is unreasonable to do
that given that the PC is completely fine and all it needs is a new HDD with
the software installed. Besides, we were also told that this brand new
Workstation would only come with 3 months' warranty, so if anything else
were to go wrong with it in 4 months, that'd be another $10,000 down the
drain, so to speak.

CentOS is of course free, and we own a softWoRx license that is attached to
the MAC address of our computer's network interface, but we cannot find the
software anywhere. All we can find are the upgrade packages on API's support
website, but those don't seem to be able to establish a softWoRx
installation from scratch. When I install the upgrade packages and try to
run softWoRx, it returns a "segmentation fault (core dumped)" error that is
very hard to debug. I am fairly comfortable with using Linux but I don't
know the specificities of how API sets up the softWoRx environment, the
license manager, etc.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, i.e. have you had to install
softWoRx from scratch? Were you able to find the appropriate packages and do
this on a fresh CentOS installation? I would really be interested in hearing
your experiences with trying to do anything similar to this, and any other
ideas of how we could rescue our system given that all we really need is
software.

Menelaos Symeonides