1 Introduction

This page is dedicated to explaining how to install OpenFOAM in openSUSE.

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:

Lines that start with # don't have to be copy-pasted. They are just comments to let you know what's going on.
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 openSUSE Leap 42.1

You can follow either one of these instructions:

Follow the official instructions for building from source code: Download v4.1 | Source Pack
Install GeekoCFD, which is an openSUSE installation with OpenFOAM pre-installed: albertopassalacqua.com - category openSUSE
Or follow the instructions below...

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: No thread available. Please a create a new thread in the forum.

Steps:

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 -
```

Install the necessary packages:

zypper install -t pattern devel_C_C++
zypper install cmake libqt4-devel qt4-x11-tools qt4-assistant-adp-devel gnuplot openmpi-devel \
boost-devel cgal-devel gmp-devel mpfr-devel libQtWebKit-devel python-devel

Note: If you are going to build with 64-bit integer support (see step #7 for more details), you can also install the package metis-devel:

zypper install metis-devel

Now exit from the root mode:
```
exit
```
Now, since we're trying to minimize the number of packages to be built, the Open-MPI package that is available with openSUSE is going to be chosen. The downside is that this requires that you logout and log back in, for the system to update the environment settings.
Nonetheless, we can postpone logging out by running:
```
source /etc/profile.d/mpi-selector.sh
```
Note: But keep in mind that until you logout, use this command line on every new terminal window/tab!

Download and unpack (here you can copy-paste all in single go):

#OpenFOAM downloading and installation
cd ~
mkdir OpenFOAM
cd OpenFOAM
wget "http://download.openfoam.org/source/4-1" -O OpenFOAM-4.1.tgz
wget "http://download.openfoam.org/third-party/4-1" -O ThirdParty-4.1.tgz
 
tar -xzf OpenFOAM-4.1.tgz
tar -xzf ThirdParty-4.1.tgz
 
mv OpenFOAM-4.x-version-4.1 OpenFOAM-4.1
mv ThirdParty-4.x-version-4.1 ThirdParty-4.1

Optional: If the system's METIS installation is to be used (64-bit integer support only), we need to configure the respective file accordingly and fix a few issues:

mkdir -p ~/.OpenFOAM/4.1/config.sh
 
echo export METIS_VERSION=metis-5.1.0 > ~/.OpenFOAM/4.1/config.sh/metis
echo export METIS_ARCH_PATH=/usr >> ~/.OpenFOAM/4.1/config.sh/metis
 
sed -i -e 's=/lib\s=/lib64 =' OpenFOAM-4.1/src/parallel/decompose/metisDecomp/Make/options
sed -i -e 's=/lib/=/lib64/=' OpenFOAM-4.1/src/parallel/decompose/metisDecomp/Allwmake

For building OpenFOAM itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of openSUSE. To check this, run:
```
uname -m
```
Now, accordingly:
- For i386:
```
#here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-4.1/etc/bashrc WM_ARCH_OPTION=32
```
- For x86_64, it depends on whether you need 64-bit integer support or not:
  - For building with the normal 32-bit integer support (maximum 2.147×10⁹ cells, faces or points):
```
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-4.1/etc/bashrc
```
  - For building with the normal 64-bit integer support (maximum 9.22×10¹⁸ cells, faces or points):
```
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-4.1/etc/bashrc WM_LABEL_SIZE=64
```
Save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:
```
echo "alias of41='source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-4.1/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 4.1 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
```
of41
```
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
Now, in order to build ParaView 4.4.0 that comes with OpenFOAM, including with the ability to use Python and MPI, several steps are needed:
1. For building ParaView with Python and MPI, it depends on whether you have installed the i686 or x86_64 architecture of openSUSE. To check this, run:
```
uname -m
```
  Now, accordingly:
  - For i686:
```
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
 
#this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more
./makeParaView -python -mpi -python-lib /usr/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 > log.makePV 2>&1
```
  - For x86_64:
```
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
 
#this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more
./makeParaView -python -mpi -python-lib /usr/lib64/libpython2.7.so.1.0 > log.makePV 2>&1
```
2. Once the makeParaView script is finished running, make sure to check the contents of the file log.makePV and check if there are any errors. If you have any problems building or using ParaView, please check the ParaView installation FAQ page.
3. Finally, update the shell environment:
```
wmRefresh
```
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 -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
 
#Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
```
Note: The "4" refers to the number of cores to be used for building in parallel. In addition, the amount of RAM needed for building scales with the number of cores used, something like 1GB of RAM per core; a minimum of 1.5GB is needed for linking the libraries, which is not done in parallel.
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.
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 4.1 shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:

of41

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: No thread available. Please a create a new thread in the forum.

Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-4.1/openSUSE

1 Introduction

Contents

2 Copy-Paste steps

2.1 openSUSE Leap 42.1