Don't follow these instructions when installing 1.0b1 and later releases! Instead, see the new installation instructions.
1. Do a hard drive install. Before doing so, I couldn't apt-get anything.
2. Get the proper apt packages installed $ apt-get update $ apt-get install python-opengl python-tk python-dev xlibmesa-dev \ freeglut-dev
3. Test whether the OpenGL.Tk Python module is working or not. $ python -c 'import OpenGL.Tk' If this command completes without an error, everything is fine. Skip to the next step.
If this segfaults, your package has the bug described in this debian bug report
Get a copy of the PyOpenGL source from SourceForge Untar and apply the patch in the bug report, then in the same togl_setup.py file add the tcl and tk include directories to self.include_dirs in class build_togl:def finalize_options(). (I think the include dirs are /usr/include/tcl8.4 /usr/include/tk8.4)
Build only togl, then manually copy Togl.so to the right place: $ python setup.py build_togl $ cp build/Togl-1.6-tk8.4/Togl.so \ /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/OpenGL/Tk/linux2-tk8.4/Togl.so
4. Build EMC so that the proper libraries are available: $ cd /usr/local/src; tar xjvf ../emc*tar.bz2 $ make -C rcslib/src PLAT=linux_rtai $ make -C emc/src PLAT=linux_rtai
5. Get the AXIS source Untar, change to directory, and install: PLAT=linux_rtai EMCSOURCEDIR=/usr/local/src python setup.py install
6. Create a symlink from the plat bin directory to /usr/bin/axis: $ cd /usr/local/emc/plat/linux_rtai/bin $ ln -s /usr/bin/axis .
7. Modify your emc ini file to say DISPLAY = axis
8. Run emc from the shell. AXIS's gui should be displayed. If not, look
for the errors in the output, and fix whatever is wrong.
(originally posted on the AXIS blog)