note added November 2016: I haven't used IDL in about five years, ever since I switched to Python the last year of my thesis work at JHU. The instructions below aren't guaranteed to work any more. I highly recommend moving to the Python scientific/astropy stack if you're not dead set on still using IDL; it's FAR easier to get started and much more rewarding in the long term.
First, become root. Then, install some libraries needed by IDL:
$ yum install compat-libstdc++-33 compat-gcc34-c++ compat-gcc34-g77 libXp
Then make the directory needed for IDL installation and copy over the tarball:
$ mkdir /usr/local/ittvis $ cp [idl-tarball.tar.gz] /usr/local/ittvis $ tar xvfz [idl-tarball.tar.gz]
Run ./install, say yes to everything except for
installing DICOM network services (unless you need them).
Edit /etc/bashrc (or /etc/cshrc):
For bash, add to end:
. /usr/local/ittvis/idl/bin/idl_setup.bash
For tcsh/csh, add to end:
source /usr/local/ittvis/idl/bin/idl_setup
Reload your bashrc/cshrc:
$ . ~/.bashrc (or source ~/.cshrc)
Copy over your license.dat file
to /usr/local/ittvis/license/. Run ittlicense
and pick Install a license you have already
received. Click next a couple of
times. Allow the program to install and launch the FLEXlm daemon.
After the install is complete:
$ chkconfig sys5_idl_lmgrd on
For IDL installation on Fedora 15+, you will need
to rename the em1 interface back to eth0 for
the FLEXlm license server to correctly find the MAC address for use in
licence verification.
For Fedora 15: add the following item to
the grub kernel command line
in /etc/grub/grub.conf:
biosdevname=0
For Fedora 16+: you'll have to update
the /etc/default/grub file for GRUB2. Add the following
item to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX item:
biosdevname=0
Then update the grub configuration (as root):
$ grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Finally, in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules,
change em1 to eth0.
