Run Ninja Trader on all the platforms - Linux or Mac OS X

[rocketfx]

NT on Ubuntu

Just want to keep this thread alive. We need to push for Ubuntu support.

That would be neat. I'd finally be able to ditch Windoz and then, when it becomes available as a fully supported release, run NT on my tablet and/or phone under Ubuntu Touch.

[sledge]

That would be neat. I'd finally be able to ditch Windoz and then, when it becomes available as a fully supported release, run NT on my tablet and/or phone under Ubuntu Touch.

Keep dream on. ..

[NathanH]

Hi all!

Just figured I would chime in here and let you know I WAS able to get NT 7 running under Linux (Wine specifically, not under a virtualbox VM). I've attached a screen shot, and will try to post a writeup with instructions later tonight or tomorrow. There is a little bit of a tap dance that you need to do. Its still a little hackish, and I have not tested every aspect, but it does seem to be working.

- Nathan

[bltoby]

Hi all!

Just figured I would chime in here and let you know I WAS able to get NT 7 running under Linux (Wine specifically, not under a virtualbox VM). I've attached a screen shot, and will try to post a writeup with instructions later tonight or tomorrow. There is a little bit of a tap dance that you need to do. Its still a little hackish, and I have not tested every aspect, but it does seem to be working.

- Nathan

great!
waiting for your instruction.

[NathanH]

While it would be nice to have a NinjaTrader running Nativity under Linux, with it being based on .Net, this is not likely to happen. .Net is probably never going to be officially ported over, and baring that it would require a complete rewrite. So, if we want to run under Linux we have to jump through a few hoops.


Here how I was able to set up NinjaTrader to run in Linux with Wine. I ran into two main challenges that took a few extra steps to configure. One is that NinjaTrader did not install with Mono, and needed the full .Net runtime installed. Installing the .Net runtime did not work correctly on my system because Wine does not fully support x86, and a few other wired things that a utility call winetricks help address. If you have an existing wine environment setup you may will need to replace it (or create an additional one) x86.


You can save a little time by downloading the two files ahead of time. If you don't part of the install will prompt you to download them and save them in a specific location, then restart the script. It will pick up where it left off.


Download netframework3.exe and put it in ~/.cache/winetricks/dotnet30/

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-XML-Parser-MSXML-3-0-Service-Pack-7-SP7/3000-7241_4-10731613.html

Download msxml3.msi and put it in ~/.cache/winetricks/msxml3

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/net-framework-3-0

For reference I'm running Fedora 18, but it should work on other distributions.

1. Install Wine in your environment
   1. sudo yum wine -OR- sudo apt-get wine
      1. Any dependencies should be automatically installed
      
      
   
   
2. Install cabextract
   1. sudo yum cabextract -OR- sudo apt-get cabextract
   
   
3. Install winetricks (https://code.google.com/p/winetricks/wiki/Installing)
   1. wget http://winetricks.org/winetricks
   2. sudo cp wintricks /usr/bin
   3. wudo chmod +x /usr/bin/winetricks
   
   
4. Initialize Wine
   1. WINEARCH=win32 wincfg
      1. Do not 'sudo' this command! It will create the .wine directory under the root directory (not wanted) and give anything running in wine full access to your system!
      
      
   2. Set 'Windows Version' to Windows 7 (this will change automatically a few times through the process, leave it as it ends up)
   
   
5. Run winetricks
6. Select 'Select the default wineprefix' and click 'Ok'
7. Select 'Install a Windows DLL or component'
8. Select 'dotnet45 – MS .NET 4.5 (Microsoft 2012) and click 'Ok'
   1. You may be able to select dotnet35, but I did not test that.
   2. There will be a LOT of prompts that come up and statements in the command window that look like errors. Despite these, the process still completed and NinjaTrader functioned.
   
   
9. If you did not pre-download the files and need to restart the script, start at step 5.
10. Once you have .Net installed, download the NinjaTrader installer
11. run wine setup.exe and follow the setup process as normal.
12. This will create shortcuts for you (.lnk), but for me these did not function. You can start NinjaTrader by using the following command.
    1. Wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/NinjaTrader 7/bin/NinjaTrader.exe
    
    

Let me know how things work for you!

[above1]

Price Scaling

On a pc you can hold down "control" and slide the right hand scale up and down to center the price action. How do you do that on Mac w/parallels?

[NinjaTrader_Brandon]

Hello above1,

Thanks for your post.

What key is used for CTRL in Parallels would be set in Parallels preferences. I would recommend contacting Parallels for information about the settings.

[canuck]

I tried your steps, but it crashes and says "does not support 64 bit system" - so does this mean I can't run NT??

It also says Mono not installed... not sure if that means anything

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello,

Please contact me at Support AT NinjaTrader DOT com. In your message please include a link to this forum thread and a copy of today's trace file.

You will find the file in the Documents > NinjaTrader 7 > Trace folder. I will need a copy of the 'trace.20140429.txt' file.

[canuck]

Kyle were you talking to me? I wasn't discussing a crash of NT, I'm still trying to install it on Linux, what a headache.

I think this is too complicated for me to install, I'll need to find another system to use, I can't even find ~/.cache/winetricks/ to place msxml3 - I can see winetricks but I can't find where to put that file.

Oh well, I really like NT, but I have no choice.... have to see if I can find another piece of software that works on Linux with IB.

Thanks anyway

[MinjaTrader]

Kyle were you talking to me? I wasn't discussing a crash of NT, I'm still trying to install it on Linux, what a headache.

I think this is too complicated for me to install, I'll need to find another system to use, I can't even find ~/.cache/winetricks/ to place msxml3 - I can see winetricks but I can't find where to put that file.

Oh well, I really like NT, but I have no choice.... have to see if I can find another piece of software that works on Linux with IB.

Thanks anyway

~/.cache is a hidden directory as by denfition ~/.<> corresponds to hidden files and dirs in *nix.

You don't have to download those files necessarily as winetricks would do it automatically or prompt you for it. Sad thing is it still fails at Dotnet 3.5 SP1 assemblies.

If this company has any sense it would gauge its efforts towards a Java based platform.

[.kypa]

Wine has gone a long way for the past year.
On Wine 1.7 with dotnet3.5 Ninja starts and runs very smootly, charts, indicators, instruments - all works just fine. On my PC (realtively old) it loads faster in Fedora 21 than in Windows 8.1.
Only thing not working is it doesn't want to connect to any server, even for news.
After installing isdn4k and xslt libs it connects to Kinetick free end-of-day. Other connections still don't work.
It would be nice if someone from Ninja says what protocols and versions different connections use so we can put them in our Linux.
I'm fairly confident that NinjaTrader on Linux is just a few libs and dlls away, the Wine guys have done the hard part already.

[Peque]

While it would be nice to have a NinjaTrader running Nativity under Linux, with it being based on .Net, this is not likely to happen. .Net is probably never going to be officially ported over, and baring that it would require a complete rewrite. So, if we want to run under Linux we have to jump through a few hoops.

I'm happy to say you were wrong. ;-)

I created a new thread asking specifically for Linux support now that the circumstances have changed:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=73773

[clifftlong]

I too am a LINUX user with a MAC only to trade. The platform is so superior it is night and day. So include my vote for LINUXcompatible Ninja.
certschief

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello clifftlong,

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have submitted this as a feature request to the Development Team. I will follow up with an internal tracking number for your reference as soon as it is created.

Thanks in advance for your patience.