Installation

This topic explains how to install IBM Aspera Connect on your system.

System Requirements: For information on the supported operating systems and browsers, see the release notes for this release of IBM Aspera Connect.

Note: Connect now requires your browser's local storage to be enabled.

Before You Begin

Ensure that your Linux environment includes the following libraries:
  • OpenSSL version 1.0.2g or higher (see below)
  • Mesa EGL (If you get a launch error about libEGL, see below.)
  • glib2 version 2.28 or higher.
The absence of up-to-date versions of these libraries could prevent Connect from launching.

OpenSSL

Depending on your Linux distribution and version, you may need to update your OpenSSL installation in order to allow Connect to launch. The required minimum version of OpenSSL is 1.0.2g. To determine which version of OpenSSL is installed on your machine, run the following:

$ openssl version 

For information on how to download and install the latest version of OpenSSL, see the KB article Upgrading OpenSSL on Linux for Connect 3.7.x.

Mesa EGL

Connect requires Mesa EGL to be installed on your machine. If you are unable to launch Connect, and you encounter an error about libEGL, it generally means the Mesa EGL package is not installed. To confirm this, run the following:

$ ldd ~/.aspera/connect/plugins/platforms/libqxcb.so

If you then see the following, you need to install the Mesa EGL libraries on your machine:

libEGL.so.1 => not found

To install the Mesa EGL libraries on Debian (for example), run the following:

$ sudo apt-get install libegl1-mesa

Then reboot your machine.

For other Linux OSs, run the equivalent command.

The Connect Desktop Installer

You can download the Connect package directly from http://downloads.asperasoft.com/connect/. Once downloaded, close your Web browser and run the following commands in the installer's directory (replace the version number accordingly):

$ tar -zxvf ibm-aspera-connect-version.tar.gz
$ ./ibm-aspera-connect-version.sh
Note: The Connect installation script should not be run by user root. Connect on Linux may only be installed per user, as opposed to system wide. To avoid errors, install Connect per user, excluding user root.

After Installation

Once Connect has finished installing, it will execute automatically when you access a Connect, Faspex, or IBM Aspera Shares web page. Look for the Connect icon in your menu bar to confirm that it's running.

If Connect does not start automatically (or if you need to restart it), you can execute the application manually with the following command:

$ ~/.aspera/connect/bin/asperaconnect

Aspera provides a web-based IBM Aspera Connect Diagnostic Tool that can be useful for identifying connection issues. You can access the tool here:

https://test-connect.asperasoft.com/