[Chimera-users] problem with chimera

[Greg Couch]

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Vinay Kumar wrote:

> Hello all,
> I have been using chimera and dock6.0 on a RHL9.0 system. More recently if i
> perform simple processes like coloring a molecule in chimera, the display
> goes blank and also logs me out of the session. meaning, i come back to the
> graphical login for my system. I am unable to proceed any further as
> repeated attempts to do simple tasks simply logs me out.
>
> Kindly help with suggestions.
>
> With regards,
> Vinay.

To follow this up: Vinay is using an old version of Mesa, version 4.0.4, a 
software version of OpenGL, to do his graphics drawing.  Upgrading Mesa to 
version 6.4.1 or later (later is even better) would probably fix the 
problem.  Upgrading Mesa usually is done by upgrading the X11 server. 
And that said, you'll get even better performance, and OpenGL stability, 
if you use a NVidia or ATI graphics card.  Even a cheap $40 NVidia 
graphics card and installing the NVidia graphics driver (from NVidia not 
with yum) will dramatically improve things.  I recommend the $100-200 
graphics cards because that's the pricepoint where you typically get the 
most performance for your money.

 	- Greg