Mathematica install - bad interpreter???

[red_over_blue]

I hate to double post, so I must admit that I also posted this in the Gentoo forums, since I use Gentoo. However, it has less than 10 views and no replies, so I thought I would see if anyone here has some suggestions.

I purchased Mathematica 4.1 student version, but am having trouble getting it working.

The install docs say to mount the CD, then "cd /cdrom/Unix/Installers/Linux" and then execute the MathInstaller script. However, this is not working.

I tried to put as much pertenant info as possible in the following commands. Does anyone know what this means? I did some searching on "bad interpreter" but came up empty handed. I would really like to get this working since I actually paid money for it. Thanks for any hints or suggestions.


limbo Linux # ./MathInstaller
-bash: ./MathInstaller: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

limbo Linux # cat MathInstaller
#!/bin/sh
#
# MathInstaller for Mathematica Version 4
#
# This file and all scripts and messages accessed from this file
# (c) 2000 Wolfram Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
#

PROGRAM_NAME=`type $0 | awk '{print $3}'`
PROGRAM_DIR=`dirname $PROGRAM_NAME`
cd $PROGRAM_DIR

INSTALLARCH=Linux
export INSTALLARCH

FROMDIR=`pwd`
export FROMDIR


if [ .$TMPDIR = ."" ]; then
TMPDIR=/usr/tmp
export TMPDIR
fi

INSTALLLANG=English
export INSTALLLANG

if [ ! -d ../../Files/SystemFiles/Installation ]; then
echo
echo "Your system type cannot be determined. "
echo "You are in the wrong directory to run MathInstaller. "
echo "Try again following these instructions: "
echo "cd /cdrom/Unix/Installers/<\SystemID>"
echo "./MathInstaller "
echo
exit
fi

cd ../../Files/SystemFiles/Installation

SystemResources/Utilities/MathInstaller $*


limbo Linux # ls -l /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Mar 21 08:18 /bin/sh -> bash


limbo Linux # ls -l /bin/bash
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 627856 Mar 21 08:18 /bin/bash

[elderdays]

what do the permissions look like on the script file?

[red_over_blue]

Sorry it took me so long to post back, I got side-tracked trying to help someone with an apache problem.


limbo Linux # pwd
/mnt/burner/Unix/Installers/Linux
limbo Linux # ls -l
total 1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 873 Dec 11 2000 MathInstaller
limbo Linux # ./MathInstaller
-bash: ./MathInstaller: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied
limbo Linux #

[elderdays]

have you tried as a regular user and as root? what distro is this?

[red_over_blue]

Same result as both a normal user and as root. I am using Gentoo.

[red_over_blue]

I also tried adding the "exec" flag to /etc/fstab but that didn't help either. I'm wondering if I am not mounting the drive in a way that let's me execute commands from it.

I'm going to try to hack the script a bit and see if I can get anywhere that way.

[red_over_blue]

Well, that got me no-where. elderdays, thanks for your suggestions so far. If anyone has any more ideas, please let me know.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by red_over_blue
I also tried adding the "exec" flag to /etc/fstab but that didn't help either. I'm wondering if I am not mounting the drive in a way that let's me execute commands from it.


Adding 'exec' to /etc/fstab has always worked for me whenever I receive the 'bad interpreter: Permission denied' error.

Could you post the cdrom entry from /etc/fstab for us to have a look at.

[red_over_blue]

Here are the entries in fstab:


/dev/sr0 /mnt/burner iso9660 exec,user,noauto,ro 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvdcd iso9660 exec,user,noauto,ro 0 0


I have tried both, and I mount each with either of the following:


mount /mnt/burner
mount /mnt/dvdcd


Thanks for any suggestions.

[mdwatts]

Tried any searches? That is how I found about adding 'exec' to /etc/fstab.

You may find other suggestions in these G4L search results for 'bad interpreter permission denied' (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bad+interpreter+Permission+denied).

[red_over_blue]

Yes I've been searching and that's also how I happened across the exec in fstab. I also visited wolfram's site, but there is nothing there.

I'll just keep searching. I'm going to try the disk on another computer soon to see if I can get different results.

Thanks for your help.

[mdwatts]

Try copying the installation script to your HD, edit and change the relative paths, set to be executable and try installing that way.

[red_over_blue]

I feel like an ***, but I got it working. Changing fstab didn't work, but simply doing a


mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/burner -t iso9660 -o exec,ro


did the trick. Thanks alot for all your help and suggestions, I really appreciated it. I'm confused, but glad it is working. Here is some CLI stuff that doesn't make sense to me:


limbo root # grep sr0 /etc/fstab
/dev/sr0 /mnt/burner iso9660 exec,user,noauto,ro 1 1
limbo root # mount /mnt/burner/
limbo root # cd /mnt/burner/Unix/Installers/Linux
limbo Linux # ./MathInstaller
-bash: ./MathInstaller: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied
limbo Linux #
limbo Linux #
limbo Linux #
limbo Linux # cd
limbo root # umount /mnt/burner/
limbo root # mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/burner/ -t iso9660 -o exec,ro
limbo root # cd /mnt/burner/Unix/Installers/Linux
limbo Linux # ./MathInstaller
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mathematica For Students 4.1.1 Installer
-----------------------------------------------------------------

You can use this installer to install Mathematica for the first
time, or to install a new version when you already have previous
versions installed.

================================================== ============================

The installer will copy relevant files from the distribution CD-ROM
into your top Mathematica directory. If you specify a top directory
that already contains Mathematica for Students 4.1.1, the installer will update
components to the latest available version. To install Mathematica
from scratch, specify a top directory that does not already exist.

Enter top Mathematica directory [/usr/local/mathematica]: