Ferret paths cannot be used

[Roland von Glasow <Roland.von.Glasow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I've installed the Ferret binaries version 5.53 for RedHat9 on a Linux PC 
with SuSE 9.0:

        NOAA/PMEL TMAP
        FERRET v5.53  
        Linux(g77) 2.4.20 - 10/16/03
         2-Apr-04 18:40    

I can start and use Ferret but it seems that all environment variables 
cannot be used by it even though they are all defined properly and point 
to the correct directories (checked individually and using "Fenv"). I've 
tried to use some example datasets which I can only do by explicitly 
stating the path:

--------------------------------------------------------------
yes? set data etopo120
 **TMAP ERR: non-existent or not on line
             Searched $FER_DESCR and $FER_DATA for etopo120(.des,.cdf,.nc)
yes? set data "/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/fer_dsets/data/etopo120"
yes? shade rose

 PPL+ error: Unable to read "default.spk" to set shade and fill colors.

gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
gsetcolourrep()   96 Colour is outside range [0,1]
yes? 

-----------------------------------------------------------
 
This is the output of Fenv:

roland@guille:~/check_ferret> Fenv 
FER_GO=.:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/go:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/examples:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/contrib
FER_GRIDS=.:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/fer_dsets/grids
FER_EXTERNAL_FUNCTIONS=/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/ext_func/libs
FER_PALETTE=.:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/ppl
FER_DSETS=/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/fer_dsets
FER_DATA=.:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/fer_dsets/data:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/go:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/examples:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/contribexport
FER_DESCR=.:/soft/ferret-5.53RH9/fer_dsets/descr
FER_WEB_BROWSER=mozilla -ncols 60
FER_DIR=/soft/ferret-5.53RH9


Any advice?

Thanks!!

Roland