GRASS GIS - Frequently asked questions

GRASS GIS Introduction:

• General introduction
• First time GRASS users - Welcome!
• National GRASS user groups
• GRASS 5.x Reference Manual
• GRASS 6.x Reference Manual
• How many GRASS users worldwide?
• Estimated Cost to Develop GRASS (SLOC analysis)

How to install GRASS binaries:

• Here are the official GRASS releases
• Installing GRASS:
• When using GRASS and the graphical user interface, I get tcltkgrass: line3: exec: wish: not found
• NVIZ: error loading shared libraries...(libtcl.so.0 and/or libtk.so.0)
• When installing GRASS 5.x Linux binaries I get: error while loading shared libraries: libtermcap !
• When installing GRASS 5.x Linux binaries I get: Unable to properly access /home/michele/.gislock5, Please notify to system personel!
• GRASS 4.x: Installation and locks-directory: I've a problem to understand what to do here.
• Installation of devices:
• How to install a digitizer in GRASS?
• How to install a Calcomp Digitizer in GRASS?
• Further installation instruction of digitizing boards in GRASS/Linux.

Usage problems and Frequently asked questions

• XDRIVER driver: How to define the size of GRASS Monitor windows?
• CELL driver: Why do we have this funny CELL driver which obviously displays nothing ?
• d.3d and CELL driver: I would like to print nice 3D views with d.3d ! [2001: we recommend NVIZ now]
• Using GRASS:
• d.mon problems: Error: "cannot allocate any read/write color cells" .
• d.mon problems: X Error 78 (X_CreateColormap).
• d.mon problems: Color: can't set color 0
• d.mon problems: Graphics driver [x0] is already running
• d.mon problems: I get weird colors when opening a GRASS monitor
• How to use GRASS in batch mode (fully script based)?:
• GRASS 5.x: Download the script batch-grass5.sh from Andrew E. Long
• GRASS 6.0-6.2: Download the script batch-grass6.sh from Robert Nuske. See also GRASS 6 and Shell instructions
• GRASS 6.3 and later: See GRASS Batch jobs for an easy and convenient solution

Is your question not answered yet? Check the GRASS Mailing list archives or send a mail:

• GRASS mailing lists 

How to compile GRASS:

• Compilation terminates with this error: includes.h:7: X11/Xos.h No such file or directory!
• I have developed or found a new extra module for GRASS. How to compile it in GRASS environment?
• GRASS CVS version: If you are familiar with compiling, get the CVS sources: Read on here.

Reporting a bug?

• If not already listed, please use our GRASS GIS Bug and Feature Request Tracking System to report.

Where is all the documentation?

• Visit the GRASS documentation project.
• GRASS 6 Manual pages.
• Programming? Go for the GRASS 5 programming manual

Import of specific file formats into GRASS 5:

• GRASS 5.3 Import modules overview
• See also further extra documents:
• Import: AUTOCAD DXF vector files
• Import: GTOPO30 world digital elevation data
• Import: USGS 7.5min SDTS DEM data The instructions in the document listed here are considered out of date, you probably want to use r.in.gdal for this kind of data instead (see GRASS Request Tracker Item # 1871).

• GRASS 5.3 Export modules overview
• See also further extra documents:
• Export: How can I export overlayed raster and vector maps in one file? Use the CELL or PNG driver.
• Export: How can I convert my GRASS maps to CorelDraw?
• Conversion: GRASS conversion xy-data to UTM

NVIZ visualization tool:

• MPEG: You can generate MPEG animations with NVIZ. You need the mpeg_encoder installed. And here is a file to control the mpeg_encode software: mpegparam.txt. Adjust the file name and the number of images you want to convert. Finally use mpeg_play to play the film.
• Problems with Mesa3D-libraries: Please install MESA properly. Read our instructions...