After years on windows, I decided to give linux a try. I installed IDL 7.0 and immediately ran into some problem. First it was the link to run idlde that was just a 0 byte file.... I found the correct executable and replaced this 0 byte file with a correct symbolic link. Then, as idlde was openning, I got a "Fatal Error Initializing DML". googled about it, (seems this sort of problem is quite common on 64bit systems, but mine is an oldie Pentium 4, so 32bits) found about ldd and installed whatever libraries were missing. I now get, under [IDL base dir]/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86, running ldd *.so|grep "not found": libpicl20.so => not found libidl.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ipcclient.so.7.0 => not found libidl_bml.so => not found libidl_ops.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ipcclient.so.7.0 => not found libidl.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ops.so.7.0 => not found libidl_gmem.so => not found libidl_bml.so => not found libidl_ipcclient.so.7.0 => not found libidl_dml.so => not found libidl.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ops.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ipcclient.so.7.0 => not found libjawt.so => not found libidl_gmem.so => not found libidl_bml.so => not found libidl.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ops.so.7.0 => not found libidl_ipcclient.so.7.0 => not found These are all found inside IDL's directory, so I guess all external libraries that are required, are correctly installed... however, I still get this error: Fatal error initializing DML Configuration info IDL : /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/../bin/bin.linux.x86 (Use default IDL) BML : /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86 (Use default IDL) DML : /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86 (Use default IDL) JDML: /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86 (Use default IDL) com.rsi.jdml.LibraryLoadException: Failed to load idl_jdml from /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86 at com.rsi.jdml.PlatformSupport.loadNeededLibrary(PlatformSupport.java:170) at com.rsi.jdml.PlatformSupport.loadLibraries(PlatformSupport.java:371) at com.rsi.jdml.DMLAccess.initializeDML(DMLAccess.java:178) at com.rsi.idldt.core.IDLProcessManager.initializeDML(IDLProcessManager.java:236) at com.rsi.idldt.core.IDLProcessManager.createIDLProcess(IDLProcessManager.java:105) at com.rsi.idldt.core.IDLDTCorePlugin$PostCoreBundleStartJob.run(IDLDTCorePlugin.java:242) at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:55) Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /mnt/data/utils/IDL/idl70/bin/bin.linux.x86/libidl_jdml.so: libidl_dml.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary1(ClassLoader.java:1939) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1864) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1825) at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:792) at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1059) at com.rsi.jdml.PlatformSupport.loadExplicitLibrary(PlatformSupport.java:127) at com.rsi.jdml.PlatformSupport.loadNeededLibrary(PlatformSupport.java:161) ... 6 more But libidl_dml.so is there! Right in the same path as that other libidl_jdml.so!! What's going on?