Topspin and Iconnmr

From the viewpoint of safely providing a walk-on environment, IconNMR is quite handy.  Here is a simple format of how we can implement this. The immediate platform that can benefit from this is the new 800 MHz spectrometer.  

Before we proceed, keeping the target users in mind i.e. UWNetid users, we should first replicate our Krb5/LDAP auth/auth system in the 800 MHz system's host.

• We can implement the same icewm window manager with the usual startup script. 
• From the autostart.prop file, we can start iconnmr. 
• IconNMR can be configured so that the user is locked out of changing any parameters.  This locks up the Topspin gui automatically so that TS is used only to display the progress of data being collected and the spectrum that gets generated. 
• We still need to make sure that the user cannot access autostart.prop and remove the icon startup command. Such a possibility will give them a potential to access the regular TS interface freely with all its functionalities. 
•  

With further consultation from Bruker,  it looks like this is the simplest way to implement this scheme as of now.

continued 10.24.2011

There are a few points worth recording after further investigation here.

• When the user is logged into ICONNMR interface, based on the configuration, indeed the user cannot access the autostart.prop from the Topspin main window. In fact, most of the pull down menu items on the top are disabled automatically.
• One caveat that needs to be mentioned is this. It takes a few seconds for the autostart.prop to kick in so that IconNMR starts up in earnest. During this period, the topspin window is like a normal window. Nevertheless one cannot prevent IconNMR from starting eventually.  
• A more serious issue is the following : Until a dataset is open from within ICONNMR, the gui lockdown does not commence.
• The TOPSPIN gui lock down includes the inability for a user to close the TS window by brute force i.e. by using the 'X' widget on the top right corner of the window. 
• 
  

superuser in Topspin

We know that the NMR superuser is distinct from the login account and at the time of installation, one can choose an existing user in the file system to be the NMR user. More importantly a unique password for the NMR superuser is maintained in a hashed format in the file /opt/topspin/conf/nmradminpassword.   Any time after the installation, you can change the NMR superuser by running /opt/topspin/prog/bin/installnmr. The shell syntax is :

installnmr  "Topspin install path"   "nmrsuperuser"  .  

Although no 'installation' per se takes place, this script evidently sets file access privileges in the intended manner. The last part of the above statement is under the hood as of now. If I learn more about this I will update the post accordingly.

"setuid = 0 error" : I have been getting the error"seteuid = 0 failed " whenever I start edprosol and the error message asks me to install ICONNMR properly.   What connection does the above has with ICONNMR installation, I don't know. But this error message also continues with the suggestion that " run $TSHOME/prog/bin/installnmr " correctly.

  Indeed, running 'installnmr /opt/topspin nmrsu'  does indeed remove this pop-up error from Topspin, when you start edprosol, for instance.

  Two more  points before we go.

• If you ever forgot the NMR superuser password, simply delete the file /opt/topspin/conf/nmradminpassword and then run the installnmr script. This will allow you to enter a new password. 
• Following the ICONNMR related error message, I tried re-installing ICONNMR in one of the instruments.  This step is not warranted to let the popup message go away and in fact I landed myself into another situation.  I started getting 'module go not found' error inside Topspin, when I start an acquisition. This was solved after I did a cf followed by expinstall, edsolve, etc.  The message here is that, it is safer to do a 'cf' after re-installing any part of the software from the distribution medium.   You might end up with some hiccup or other down the road.