[ncl-install] Problem runing ncl on Ubuntu 18.04

[Diego Remolina]

Hi,

Trying to setup and run ncl-ncarg which comes directly from the ubuntu
repo, but it fails.

cfanprod at prod2:~$ which ncl
/usr/bin/ncl
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ncl -V
6.4.0
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ncl
 Copyright (C) 1995-2017 - All Rights Reserved
 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
 NCAR Command Language Version 6.4.0
 The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.
 See http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/ for more details.
ncl 0>

cfanprod at prod2:~$ echo $NCARG_ROOT
/usr
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ls /usr/lib/ncarg/data
data/     database/
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ls /$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/database/
Earth..1.areas  Earth..3.areas  ezmap_area_ids    EzmapAreaInfo.US
EzmapOutlines.PS  pwritdata  rgb.txt
Earth..1.lines  Earth..3.lines  EzmapAreaInfo.CO  ezmapdata
EzmapOutlines.US  ranfdata
Earth..2.areas  Earth..4.areas  EzmapAreaInfo.PO  EzmapOutlines.CO
NhlMapData        rgb.dir
Earth..2.lines  Earth..4.lines  EzmapAreaInfo.PS  EzmapOutlines.PO
PlotcharData      rgb.pag

So far, everything looks fine, I can run one of the example files:

cfanprod at prod2:~$ wget
https://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/Scripts/maponly_3.ncl
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ncl maponly_3.ncl
 Copyright (C) 1995-2017 - All Rights Reserved
 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
 NCAR Command Language Version 6.4.0
 The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.
 See http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/ for more details.
cfanprod at prod2:~$ ls
CHX     cronback.txt  DY             LOGS            map.000002.png
maponly.png  MDZ  SE
COMMON  Documents     java.log.3981  map.000001.png  maponly_3.ncl
maptest.ncl  MN

However, when trying to run another, the program crashes:
cfanprod at prod2:~$ wget
https://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/Scripts/maponly_9.ncl

cfanprod at prod2:~$ ncl maponly_9.ncl
 Copyright (C) 1995-2017 - All Rights Reserved
 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
 NCAR Command Language Version 6.4.0
 The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.
 See http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/ for more details.
fatal:MapV41DHInitialize: dynamic memory allocation error:[errno=12]
fatal:MapV41DHInitialize: error initializing map outline records
 ERROR    2 IN MPLNRI/MDLNRI - Can't open the ".names" file
 ERROR    1 IN MPSETR - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
 ERROR    1 IN MAPPOS - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
 ERROR    1 IN MAPSTI - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
 ERROR    1 IN MAPROJ - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
 ERROR    2 IN MAPSET/MDPSET - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
fatal:MapSetTrans: error initializing map: MAPINT - UNCLEARED PRIOR ERROR
fatal:(null): Error setting transformation
fatal:MapPlotSetValues: error managing TickMarks
warning:["SetValues.c":474]:SetValuesChild never occurred on
map.PlotManager: Error in mapPlotClass
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

I have seen some similar issues in the mailing list, but there was no
resolution. Any ideas how to fix the problem?

Diego