Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/Fedora

From OpenFOAMWiki

1 Introduction

This page is dedicated to explaining how to install OpenFOAM OF Version 240.png in Fedora.

If you do not yet feel comfortable using Linux, then perhaps you better first read the page Working with the Shell and train a bit with the shell/terminal environments, so you can have a better perception of the steps shown below.


2 Copy-Paste steps

A few notes before you start copy-pasting:

  1. Lines that start with # don't have to be copy-pasted. They are just comments to let you know what's going on.
  2. One wrong character is enough for breaking this guide, so make sure you can read the characters properly or that the installed language system does not break the copied characters!

2.1 Fedora 22

Here you have the following choices:

  • You can install from source, by either:


Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: OpenFOAM 2.4.0 and Fedora 22: error building CGAL

Steps:

  1. Switch to root mode (administrator), to install the necessary packages:
    sudo -s
    • If the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list, then run:
      su -
  2. Install the necessary packages:
    dnf groupinstall 'Development Tools' 
    dnf groupinstall 'C Development Tools and Libraries'
    dnf install openmpi openmpi-devel qt-devel qtwebkit-devel zlib-devel wget \
    boost-devel gmp-devel mpfr-devel patch readline-devel ncurses-devel python python-devel
  3. Now exit from the root mode:
    exit
  4. Start a new terminal. This is because you'll need a fully refreshed shell.
  5. Download and unpack (here you can copy-paste all in single go):
    #OpenFOAM downloading and installation
    cd ~
    mkdir OpenFOAM
    cd OpenFOAM
    wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz
    wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz
     
    tar -xzf OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz 
    tar -xzf ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz
  6. For building OpenFOAM itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of Fedora. To check this, run:
    uname -m

    Now, accordingly:

    • For i386:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load mpi/openmpi-i386 || export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/openmpi/bin
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI WM_ARCH_OPTION=32

      Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:

      echo "alias of240='module load mpi/openmpi-i386; source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      Note: This last line means that whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
      of240
      
      For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
    • For x86_64:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load mpi/openmpi-x86_64 || export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib64/openmpi/bin
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI

      Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:

      echo "alias of240='module load mpi/openmpi-x86_64; source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      Note: This last line means that whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
      of240
      
      For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
  7. Fedora 22 comes with CMake 3.x, but both ParaView 4.1.0 and CGAL 4.6 need one of the latest of versions from the CMake 2.8.x series. Therefore, we'll need to build the CMake version that is packaged with ThirdParty-2.4.0:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
    ./makeCmake > log.mkcmake 2>&1
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
  8. Now let's build the ThirdParty folder, because we need the shell environment to be updated afterwards, for CGAL to be properly picked up for building OpenFOAM:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
     
    #update the shell environment
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
  9. Now let's build OpenFOAM:
    (Warning: this may take somewhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on your machine.)
    #Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder
    cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
     
    #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
  10. To check if everything went well:
    1. Check if icoFoam is working, by running this command:
      icoFoam -help

      which should tell you something like this:

      Usage: icoFoam [OPTIONS]
      options:
        -case <dir>       specify alternate case directory, default is the cwd
        -noFunctionObjects
                          do not execute functionObjects
        -parallel         run in parallel
        -roots <(dir1 .. dirN)>
                          slave root directories for distributed running
        -srcDoc           display source code in browser
        -doc              display application documentation in browser
        -help             print the usage

      Note: And keep in mind that you need to be careful with the letter case of the command. It's icoFoam, not icoFOAM.

    2. If the previous command failed to work properly, then edit the file log.make and check if there are any error messages. A few examples on how you can edit this file:
      • By using kwrite:
        kwrite log.make
      • By using gedit:
        gedit log.make
      • By using nano:
        nano log.make

        You can then exit by using the key combination Ctrl+X and following any instructions it gives you.

      Note: It's the first error message that matters.

    3. If you don't understand the output, then please compress the log-file log.make and attach the compressed file to a post in the designated thread.
      If you do not know how to create a compressed file, then try one of the following examples:
      • You can compress the file with gzip by running this command:
        gzip < log.make > log.make.gz

        Then attach the resulting package file named log.make.gz to a post in the designated thread.

      • Or you can compress one or more log-files into a tarball package file, by running this command:
        tar -czf logs.tar.gz log.*

        Then attach the resulting package file named logs.tar.gz to a post in the designated thread.

    4. Instructions on how to further diagnose the issue yourself, have a look at the section Common errors when building OpenFOAM from source code in the page FAQ/Installation and Running.
  11. Now, in order to build ParaView 4.1.0 that comes with OpenFOAM, including with the ability to use Python and MPI, several steps are needed:
    1. Need to do several fixes:
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
       
      sed -i -e 's=//#define GLX_GLXEXT_LEGACY=#define GLX_GLXEXT_LEGACY=' \
        ParaView-4.1.0/VTK/Rendering/OpenGL/vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow.cxx
       
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR/ParaView-4.1.0
       
      wget http://www.paraview.org/pipermail/paraview/attachments/20140210/464496cc/attachment.bin -O Fix.patch
      patch -p1 < Fix.patch
       
      cd VTK
      wget https://github.com/gladk/VTK/commit/ef22d3d69421581b33bc0cd94b647da73b61ba96.patch -O Fix2.patch
      patch -p1 < Fix2.patch
       
      cd ../..
    2. For building ParaView with Python and MPI, run:
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
      ./makeParaView4 -qmake $(which qmake-qt4) -mpi -python  > log.makePV 2>&1
    3. Once the makeParaView4 script is finished running, make sure to check the contents of the file log.makePV and check if there are any errors.
    4. Finally, update the shell environment and build the official reader plug-in:
      cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV4Readers 
      wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
      ./Allwclean 
      ./Allwmake
  12. Now you can go read the User Guide, where you may have more than one choice:
    1. Which you can find a local copy of the User Guide by running the following command:
      ls -A1 $WM_PROJECT_DIR/doc/Guides*/*UserGuide*.pdf
      • You should see two available formats: A4 and US-Letter.
      • But if it instead tells you that there is No such file or directory, then the OpenFOAM environment is possibly not properly activated.
    2. You can also find the more recent OpenFOAM Foundation User Guides online at the following page: official OpenFOAM User Guide - but be careful if you use the version that is too much ahead of the version you are currently using, given that some features have changed overtime.


Reminder: Whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:
of240
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.


Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: OpenFOAM 2.4.0 and Fedora 22: error building CGAL


2.2 Fedora 23

Here you have the following choices:

  • You can install from source, by either:


Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: Problems installing OpenFOAM 2.4.0 on Fedora 23

Steps:

  1. Switch to root mode (administrator), to install the necessary packages:
    sudo -s
    • If the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list, then run:
      su -
  2. Install the necessary packages:
    dnf groupinstall 'Development Tools' 
    dnf groupinstall 'C Development Tools and Libraries'
    dnf install openmpi openmpi-devel qt-devel qtwebkit-devel zlib-devel wget \
    boost-devel gmp-devel mpfr-devel patch readline-devel ncurses-devel python python-devel
  3. Now exit from the root mode:
    exit
  4. Start a new terminal. This is because you'll need a fully refreshed shell.
  5. Download and unpack (here you can copy-paste all in single go):
    #OpenFOAM downloading and installation
    cd ~
    mkdir OpenFOAM
    cd OpenFOAM
    wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz
    wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz
     
    tar -xzf OpenFOAM-2.4.0.tgz 
    tar -xzf ThirdParty-2.4.0.tgz
  6. For building OpenFOAM itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of Fedora. To check this, run:
    uname -m

    Now, accordingly:

    • For i386:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load mpi/openmpi-i386 || export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/openmpi/bin
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI WM_ARCH_OPTION=32

      Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:

      echo "alias of240='module load mpi/openmpi-i386; source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      Note: This last line means that whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
      of240
      
      For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
    • For x86_64:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load mpi/openmpi-x86_64 || export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib64/openmpi/bin
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI

      Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:

      echo "alias of240='module load mpi/openmpi-x86_64; source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.4.0/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      Note: This last line means that whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
      of240
      
      For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
  7. Fedora 22 comes with CMake 3.x, but both ParaView 4.1.0 and CGAL 4.6 need one of the latest of versions from the CMake 2.8.x series. Therefore, we'll need to build the CMake version that is packaged with ThirdParty-2.4.0:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
    ./makeCmake > log.mkcmake 2>&1
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
  8. Now let's build the ThirdParty folder, because we need the shell environment to be updated afterwards, for CGAL to be properly picked up for building OpenFOAM:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
     
    #update the shell environment
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
  9. Now, before we can build OpenFOAM, we need to do a few fixes:
    #Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder
    cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
     
    #Change how the flex version is checked
    find src applications -name "*.L" -type f | xargs sed -i -e 's=\(YY\_FLEX\_SUBMINOR\_VERSION\)=YY_FLEX_MINOR_VERSION < 6 \&\& \1='
  10. Now let's build OpenFOAM:
    (Warning: this may take somewhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on your machine.)
    #Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder
    cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
     
    #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
    ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1
  11. To check if everything went well:
    1. Check if icoFoam is working, by running this command:
      icoFoam -help

      which should tell you something like this:

      Usage: icoFoam [OPTIONS]
      options:
        -case <dir>       specify alternate case directory, default is the cwd
        -noFunctionObjects
                          do not execute functionObjects
        -parallel         run in parallel
        -roots <(dir1 .. dirN)>
                          slave root directories for distributed running
        -srcDoc           display source code in browser
        -doc              display application documentation in browser
        -help             print the usage

      Note: And keep in mind that you need to be careful with the letter case of the command. It's icoFoam, not icoFOAM.

    2. If the previous command failed to work properly, then edit the file log.make and check if there are any error messages. A few examples on how you can edit this file:
      • By using kwrite:
        kwrite log.make
      • By using gedit:
        gedit log.make
      • By using nano:
        nano log.make

        You can then exit by using the key combination Ctrl+X and following any instructions it gives you.

      Note: It's the first error message that matters.

    3. If you don't understand the output, then please compress the log-file log.make and attach the compressed file to a post in the designated thread.
      If you do not know how to create a compressed file, then try one of the following examples:
      • You can compress the file with gzip by running this command:
        gzip < log.make > log.make.gz

        Then attach the resulting package file named log.make.gz to a post in the designated thread.

      • Or you can compress one or more log-files into a tarball package file, by running this command:
        tar -czf logs.tar.gz log.*

        Then attach the resulting package file named logs.tar.gz to a post in the designated thread.

    4. Instructions on how to further diagnose the issue yourself, have a look at the section Common errors when building OpenFOAM from source code in the page FAQ/Installation and Running.
  12. Now, in order to build ParaView 4.1.0 that comes with OpenFOAM, including with the ability to use Python and MPI, several steps are needed:
    1. Need to do several fixes:
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
       
      sed -i -e 's=//#define GLX_GLXEXT_LEGACY=#define GLX_GLXEXT_LEGACY=' \
        ParaView-4.1.0/VTK/Rendering/OpenGL/vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow.cxx
       
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR/ParaView-4.1.0
       
      wget http://www.paraview.org/pipermail/paraview/attachments/20140210/464496cc/attachment.bin -O Fix.patch
      patch -p1 < Fix.patch
       
      cd VTK
      wget https://github.com/gladk/VTK/commit/ef22d3d69421581b33bc0cd94b647da73b61ba96.patch -O Fix2.patch
      patch -p1 < Fix2.patch
       
      cd ../..
    2. For building ParaView with Python and MPI, run:
      cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
      ./makeParaView4 -qmake $(which qmake-qt4) -mpi -python  > log.makePV 2>&1
    3. Once the makeParaView4 script is finished running, make sure to check the contents of the file log.makePV and check if there are any errors.
    4. Finally, update the shell environment and build the official reader plug-in:
      cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV4Readers 
      wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
      ./Allwclean 
      ./Allwmake
  13. Now you can go read the User Guide, where you may have more than one choice:
    1. Which you can find a local copy of the User Guide by running the following command:
      ls -A1 $WM_PROJECT_DIR/doc/Guides*/*UserGuide*.pdf
      • You should see two available formats: A4 and US-Letter.
      • But if it instead tells you that there is No such file or directory, then the OpenFOAM environment is possibly not properly activated.
    2. You can also find the more recent OpenFOAM Foundation User Guides online at the following page: official OpenFOAM User Guide - but be careful if you use the version that is too much ahead of the version you are currently using, given that some features have changed overtime.


Reminder: Whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 2.4.0 shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:
of240
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.


Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: Problems installing OpenFOAM 2.4.0 on Fedora 23