[Insight-users] ITK-ready Virtual Appliance my first impression

[Oleksandr Dzyubak]

Dear ITK users,


Since I was very exited by Lius' "ITK-ready Virtual Appliance"
I could not wait any longer to give it a try.

My "Experimental Setup".
Five year old laptop Fujitsu LifeBook S7020.
32 bit Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz.
Memory: 2 GB.
Host Linux: Debian Lenny.
Virtualization: Sun (now Oracle) VirtualBox VM version 3.2.10.

First, I grabbed the "ITK-ready Virtual Appliance" files
ITK-VM.mf   ITK-VM.vmdk   ITK-VM.ovf
from the link provided by Luis.
http://midas.kitware.com/item/view/450

Second, I imported this appliance using
VirtualBox menu: File --> Import Appliance...
Afterwards everything was ready to boot into "ITK-ready Ubuntu".

 From now and on "My impression" comes.

1) VM configuration.
VM configurator on my laptop annoyingly sends complaints
about "requested memory exceeds the limit..."
so I changed parameters from Luis' 2 GB down to 768 MB and
I also increased Video Memory up to 64 MB.

2) Host-Guest integration.
Since I am a quite lazy man, I prefer Host-Guest
full/partial integration that makes my life easier.

Because Luis has installed dkms anyway, it's very easy
to make one step further and install "Guest Additions".

Make sure, however, you do not have any vbox* drivers
already installed.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ sudo rm /etc/init.d/vboxadd*
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ sudo rm 
/lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/updates/vbox*

And now you can mount "Guest Additions" iso and install them.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.10_66523/
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.10_66523$ sudo sh 
VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run


4) "Security First".
It immediately boots into Ubuntu session which I do not like at all.
Thus, I disabled "Autologin".

5) ITK Manual and README.
It's nice to see the ITK handy info which sits right in front of you.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ more README.txt


6) Clean the system.
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get clean

7) Ready for the very first test?

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ mkdir ITK_test && cd ITK_test
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test$ mkdir BUILD && mkdir Src
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test$ cd Src && touch CMakeLists.txt
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/Src$ locate ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite

/home/itkuser/src/ITK/Examples/IO/ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.cxx

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/Src$ cp 
/home/itkuser/src/ITK/Examples/IO/ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.cxx ./

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/Src$ ls
CMakeLists.txt  ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.cxx

Almost ready! Lets create a simple CMakeLists.txt file.

######################
#
# Example on the use of ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite
#

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(Region)

# Find ITK.
FIND_PACKAGE(ITK REQUIRED)
INCLUDE(${ITK_USE_FILE})

ADD_EXECUTABLE(
ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite
ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.cxx )

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(
ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite
ITKIO
ITKBasicFilters
)
#########################

Nice! Lets try compiling...

8) First example compilation.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/Src$ cd ~/ITK_test/BUILD
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/BUILD$ ccmake ../Src/

Ooops!!!

****************
 CMake Warning at /usr/lib/InsightToolkit/UseITK.cmake:98 (FIND_PACKAGE):
   Could not find module FindGDCM.cmake or a configuration file for package
   GDCM.

   Adjust CMAKE_MODULE_PATH to find FindGDCM.cmake or set GDCM_DIR to the
   directory containing a CMake configuration file for GDCM.  The file will
   have one of the following names:

     GDCMConfig.cmake
     gdcm-config.cmake

 Call Stack (most recent call first):
   CMakeLists.txt:11 (INCLUDE)

Errors occurred during the last 
pass                                           
                                                            CMake 
Version 2.8.2
Press [e] to exit help
*************


9) Which version has been installed?
Is that from Ubuntu repository or compiled by Luis?

Lets clean the system and make sure that the version
compiled by Luis gets installed.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ apt-cache search insighttoolkit
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get purge insighttoolkit*
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ cd ~/bin/ITK/Release/
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/bin/ITK/Release$ sudo make install


10) Now lets try compiling again.

itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~$ cd ~/ITK_test/BUILD
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/BUILD$ ccmake ../Src/
itkuser at ITK-VirtualBox:~/ITK_test/BUILD$ make
Scanning dependencies of target ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite
[100%] Building CXX object 
CMakeFiles/ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.dir/ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite.cxx.o
Linking CXX executable ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite
[100%] Built target ImageReadRegionOfInterestWrite

Full success!!!

Kudos Luis Ibanez,
the creator of a Virtual Appliance with a pre-installed ITK!

The system is fully operational and very easy to use.

Thanks for this Virtual Appliance,

Alex