Re: Problems Installing/Running Octave on Mac OS X 10.6.8

[Ben Abbott]

On Mar 7, 2012, at 2:13 AM, Paul Sims wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I'm having some trouble getting Octave to run on my mac, version 10.6.8. I 
> followed the octave wiki instructions here:
> 
> http://www.octave.org/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_MacOS_X_Bundle
> 
> and got all the files (Octave, GnuPlot, and Aquaterm) into my applications 
> folder. I then opened Octave, got the start up message with copyright, and 
> entered the first line of code per the instructions from the wiki section: 
> Running Octave and Gnuplot from a Terminal
> 
> • sudo touch /usr/local/bin/gnuplot
> 
> However, I got a message asking for confirmation since this could change my 
> settings, which I said yes to and now I can't use Octave. All I got was a 
> request for a password which I didn't know. When I click on Octave now I get 
> my terminal screen, but with no recognition of Octave, no set up screen, etc. 
> I tried uninstalling and reinstalling octave to no avail. 
> 
> Any ideas on what I did wrong and what I can do to fix it would be GREATLY 
> appreciated. 
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> - Paul 

The instructions below are only needed if you want to start Octave from a 
Terminal's command line.

http://www.octave.org/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_MacOS_X_Bundle#Running_Octave_and_Gnuplot_from_a_Terminal

If that is what you want, did you follow all the instructions ?

What does "with no recognition of Octave" mean ?

Why do you expect a setup screen ?

If all you want to do is run Octave you just double-click on the App and Octave 
will be run in a Terminal window and begin by displaying the text below.

-------------------------------
GNU Octave, version 3.4.0
Copyright (C) 2011 John W. Eaton and others.
This is free software; see the source code for copying conditions.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  For details, type `warranty'.

Octave was configured for "x86_64-apple-darwin10.7.3".

Additional information about Octave is available at http://www.octave.org.

Please contribute if you find this software useful.
For more information, visit http://www.octave.org/help-wanted.html

Read http://www.octave.org/bugs.html to learn how to submit bug reports.

For information about changes from previous versions, type `news'.
-------------------------------

Ben