Installation for Windows

We provides two different ways to install SCT on Windows machines. You can either use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), or Docker.

Option 1: Install on Windows 10 with WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) makes it possible to run native Linux programs, such as SCT, on Windows 10.

Basic installation (No GUI)

  1. Make sure that your version of Windows 10 is up to date before continuing.

    • In Windows, search for “System Information” and open the app. In the “Version” field, make sure that you are running “Build 19041” or higher.

    • Then, search for “Powershell” in your Start Menu, then right-click and “Run as administrator”. Then run the following command:

      wsl --update

    • If this command is successful, then you can proceed to the next step. Otherwise, please try the following troubleshooting steps:

  2. Install an Ubuntu distribution in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

    • In Windows, search for “Powershell” in your Start Menu, then right-click and “Run as administrator”.

    • In PowerShell, type the following command and press enter:

      wsl --install

    • After this command finishes, you will be prompted to restart your computer.

    • After restarting, the installation should automatically resume, and you will be able to create a user account inside Ubuntu by selecting a username and password.

  3. Choose the WSL version (1/2).

    By default, Microsoft’s instructions will create an Ubuntu environment using Version 2 of WSL. While version 2 has been tested to work with SCT, our development team tests more thoroughly using Version 1 of WSL (due to better support from GitHub Actions).

    Because of this, we recommend that you convert the WSL2 Ubuntu environment to use WSL1 before continuing. To do this, first close Ubuntu, then re-open Powershell and run the following command:

    wsl --list --verbose

    If WSL installed correctly, you should see a list of installed distributions (as well as their WSL versions). Find the name of the distribution you just installed (which should be something like Ubuntu or Ubuntu-20.04), then specify that name in the following command:

    wsl --set-version Ubuntu 1

    After you run this command, you can then run wsl --list --verbose again to check that the distribution has changed from WSL2 to WSL1.

  4. Environment preparation

    Now that you have set up an Ubuntu environment with WSL, please open Ubuntu and run the following commands to install various packages that will be needed to install SCT.

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get -y install gcc unzip python3-pip python3 psmisc net-tools git gfortran libjpeg-dev

  5. Install SCT

    First, download SCT by running the following commands in Ubuntu:

    cd ~
git clone https://github.com/spinalcordtoolbox/spinalcordtoolbox.git
cd spinalcordtoolbox

    To select a specific release, replace X.Y below with the proper release number. If you prefer to use the development version, you can skip this step.

    git checkout X.Y

    Install SCT:

    ./install_sct -y

    Note

    At the end of this installation step, you may see the following warnings:

    Check if figure can be opened with matplotlib.......[FAIL] (Using non-GUI backend 'agg')
Check if figure can be opened with PyQt.............[FAIL] ($DISPLAY not set on X11-supporting system)

    This is expected, because WSL does not come with the ability to display GUI programs by default. Later on in this page, there will be optional GUI settings you can configure for WSL to address these warnings.

    To complete the installation of SCT, run:

    source ~/.bashrc

    You can now use SCT. Your local C drive is located under /mnt/c. You can access it by running:

    cd /mnt/c

WSL Installation with GUI (Optional)

If you would like to use SCT’s GUI features, or if you would like to try FSLeyes within the same Ubuntu environment, first complete the previous “Basic Installation” section, then continue on to the steps below.

  1. Download and install VcXsrv, a program that makes it possible to run Linux GUI programs installed with WSL.

  2. Run the newly installed XLaunch program, then click the following settings:

    • On the “Display settings” page, click “Next”.

    • On the “Client startup” page, click “Next”.

    • On the “Extra settings” page, check the “Disable access control” box, then click “Next”.

    • Click “Finish”, then click “Allow access” when prompted by Windows Firewall.

    • You should now see the X Server icon running in the bottom-right system tray in your taskbar.

    Note

    XLaunch must be running each time you wish to use GUI programs in WSL.

  3. Next, run the following commands in Ubuntu, depending on the version of WSL you are using.

    WSL1:

    echo "export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=0" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

    WSL2:

    echo "export DISPLAY=$(awk '/nameserver / {print $2; exit}' /etc/resolv.conf 2>/dev/null):0.0" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=0" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

  4. Finally, run the sct_check_dependencies command in Ubuntu to verify that matplotlib and PyQt figures can be opened by SCT.

  5. Optionally, you can install FSLeyes using the following commands:

    source ${SCT_DIR}/python/etc/profile.d/conda.sh
conda create -c conda-forge -p ~/fsleyes_env fsleyes -y
sudo ln -s ~/fsleyes_env/bin/fsleyes /usr/local/bin/fsleyes

    These instructions will install FSLeyes into a fresh conda environment, then create a link to FSLeyes so that you can use the fsleyes command without having to activate the conda environment each time.

Option 2: Install with Docker

Docker is a portable (Linux, macOS, Windows) container platform.

Basic Installation (No GUI)

First, install Docker. Then, follow either of the examples below to create an OS-specific SCT installation.

Option 1: Ubuntu Docker Image

# Start from the Terminal
docker pull ubuntu:16.04
# Launch interactive mode (command-line inside container)
docker run -it ubuntu
# Now, inside Docker container, install dependencies
apt-get update
apt install -y git curl bzip2 libglib2.0-0 gcc
# Note for above: libglib2.0-0 is required by PyQt
# Install SCT
git clone https://github.com/spinalcordtoolbox/spinalcordtoolbox.git sct
cd sct
./install_sct -y
export PATH="/sct/bin:${PATH}"
# Test SCT
sct_testing
# save the state of the container. Open a new Terminal and run:
docker ps -a  # list all containers
docker commit <CONTAINER_ID> <YOUR_NAME>/ubuntu:ubuntu16.04

Option 2: CentOS7 Docker Image

# Start from the Terminal
docker pull centos:centos7
# Launch interactive mode (command-line inside container)
docker run -it centos:centos7
# Now, inside Docker container, install dependencies
yum install -y which gcc git curl
# Install SCT
git clone https://github.com/spinalcordtoolbox/spinalcordtoolbox.git sct
cd sct
./install_sct -y
export PATH="/sct/bin:${PATH}"
# Test SCT
sct_testing
# save the state of the container. Open a new Terminal and run:
docker ps -a  # list all containers
docker commit <CONTAINER_ID> <YOUR_NAME>/centos:centos7

Enable GUI Scripts (Optional)

In order to run scripts with GUI you need to allow X11 redirection. First, save your Docker image:

  1. Open another Terminal

  2. List current docker images

    docker ps -a

  3. Save container as new image

    docker commit <CONTAINER_ID> <YOUR_NAME>/<DISTROS>:<VERSION>

  4. Install Xming

  5. Connect to it using Xming/SSH:

    • If you are using Docker Desktop, please download and run (double click) the following script: sct-win.xlaunch.

    • If you are using Docker Toolbox, please download and run the following script instead: sct-win_docker_toolbox.xlaunch

    • If this is the first time you have done this procedure, the system will ask you if you want to add the remote PC (the docker container) as trust pc, type yes. Then type the password to enter the docker container (by default sct).

Troubleshooting:

The graphic terminal emulator LXterminal should appear (if not check the task bar at the bottom of the screen), which allows copying and pasting commands, which makes it easier for users to use it. If there are no new open windows:

  • Please download and run the following file: Erase_fingerprint_docker.sh

  • Try again

  • If it is still not working:

    • Open the file manager and go to C:/Users/Your_username

    • In the searchbar type ‘.ssh’ - Open the found ‘.ssh’ folder.

    • Open the ‘known_hosts’ file with a text editor

    • Remove line starting with 192.168.99.100 or localhost

    • Try again

To check that X forwarding is working well write fsleyes & in LXterminal and FSLeyes should open, depending on how fast your computer is FSLeyes may take a few seconds to open. If fsleyes is not working in the LXterminal:

  • Check if it’s working on the docker machine by running fsleyes & in the docker quickstart terminal

  • If it works, run all the commands in the docker terminal.

  • If it throws the error Unable to access the X Display, is $DISPLAY set properly? follow these next steps:

    • Run echo $DISPLAY in the LXterminal

    • Copy the output address

    • Run export DISPLAY=<previously obtained address> in the docker quickstart terminal

    • Run fsleyes & (in the docker quickstart terminal) to check if it is working. A new Xming window with fsleyes should appear.

Notes:

  • If after closing a program with graphical interface (i.e. FSLeyes) LXterminal does not raise the shell ($) prompt then press Ctrl + C to finish closing the program.

  • Docker exposes the forwarded SSH server at different endpoints depending on whether Docker Desktop or Docker Toolbox is installed.

    • Docker Desktop:

      ssh -Y -p 2222 sct@127.0.0.1

    • Docker Toolbox:

      ssh -Y -p 2222 sct@192.168.99.100