How do I install Stata on a Unix/Linux machine?

To install Stata for Unix/Linux:

1. Become superuser (root) and insert the installation DVD.
2. Create the installation directory (we recommend /usr/local/stata12) with 755 permissions and change into that directory.
3. Because most current Linux distributions will automatically mount an inserted DVD-rom with the noexec option, you will need to remount the device with the proper options, or the Stata installer will fail.

   # umount /mnt/dvdrom
   # mount -o exec -t iso9660 /dev/dvdrom /mnt/dvdrom
   
   NOTE:   you may need to change the devices to be appropriate for your machine
   

4. You can now launch the Stata installer by typing /mnt/dvdrom/install from within the directory you created in step 2.
5. Once the installer has completed, you must initialize the license by typing ./stinit

If the steps above fail, you can copy the contents of the DVD to a temporary location and run the installer from there:

# mkdir /tmp/statainstall
# cp -a /path/to/dvdrom/* /tmp/statainstall
# mkdir /usr/local/stata12
# cd /usr/local/stata12
# /tmp/statainstall/install

NOTE:  current Linux distributions will generally automount the DVD-rom as /media/Stata