1 Introduction

This page is dedicated to explaining how to install OpenFOAM+ in Ubuntu.

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 Ubuntu 18.04

Here you have the following choices:

You can install from source, by either:
- Following the official instructions from here: OpenFOAM+ Installation From Source
- Or by following the detailed step-by-step 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 -
```
Update the apt-get cache by running:
```
apt-get update
```

Install the necessary packages:

apt-get install build-essential flex bison cmake zlib1g-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev \
libopenmpi-dev openmpi-bin gnuplot libreadline-dev libncurses-dev libxt-dev \
qt5-default libqt5x11extras5-dev libqt5help5 qtdeclarative5-dev qttools5-dev \
libqtwebkit-dev freeglut3-dev libqt5opengl5-dev texinfo \
libscotch-dev libcgal-dev python python-dev

Note: It has been reported that the following should also be executed in some cases, so that ParaView and CGAL will build properly:

apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev

Important for Virtual Machine users: As of ParaView 5.5, we must either use OpenGL2 (not available in many virtualization solutions, such as VirtualBox) or we must use Mesa (CPU based OpenGL drivers). Therefore, there will be another set of packages that will have to be installed, which are documented here: Installation/On-Screen_Mesa/Ubuntu#Ubuntu_18.04
Now exit from the root mode:
```
exit
```

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/openfoamplus/files/OpenFOAM-v1806.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O OpenFOAM-v1806.tgz
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/openfoamplus/files/ThirdParty-v1806.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O ThirdParty-v1806.tgz
 
tar -xzf OpenFOAM-v1806.tgz
tar -xzf ThirdParty-v1806.tgz

Optional: Let's make a few symbolic links that should ensure that the correct global MPI installation is used by this OpenFOAM+ installation:
```
ln -s /usr/bin/mpicc.openmpi OpenFOAM-v1806/bin/mpicc
ln -s /usr/bin/mpirun.openmpi OpenFOAM-v1806/bin/mpirun
```
This way we avoid having problems in case there is more than one MPI toolbox installed in your Ubuntu system, for example if MPICH2 is installed and is the default MPI toolbox.
For building OpenFOAM+ itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i686 or x86_64 architecture of Ubuntu. To check this, run:
```
uname -m
```
Now, accordingly:
- For i686:
```
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v1806/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-v1806/etc/bashrc
```
  - For building with the normal 64-bit integer support (maximum 9.22×10¹⁸ cells, faces or points):
```
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v1806/etc/bashrc WM_LABEL_SIZE=64
```
Save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:
```
echo "alias of1806+='source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-v1806/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+ v1806+ shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
```
of1806+
```
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.
Next step is to build ParaView 5.5.2, including with the ability to use Python and MPI, several steps are needed:
1. Make sure you're running in the ThirdParty folder and that the correct Qt version is used:
```
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
export QT_SELECT=qt5
```
2. For building ParaView with Python and MPI, it depends both on whether you have installed the i686 or x86_64 architecture of Ubuntu, as well as whether you have Ubuntu installed inside a virtual machine. Also keep in mind that this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more. Therefore, for building ParaView, first check the architecture you are running this on, so run the following command to check:
```
uname -m
```
  Now, accordingly:
  - For i686, in a real machine, run:
```
./makeParaView -python -mpi -python-lib /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0 > log.makePV 2>&1
```
  - For x86_64:
```
./makeParaView -python -mpi -python-lib /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so.1.0 > log.makePV 2>&1
```
3. 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.
4. Finally, update the shell environment:
```
wmRefresh
```
5. Important for Virtual Machine users: On virtual machines or when using older graphics cards and/or drivers, it's not possible to use ParaView 5.5 because it needs OpenGL2 support with version 3.3 or newer. Therefore, a workaround, is to build and deploy On-Screen Mesa drivers, for which we provide instructions here: Installation/On-Screen_Mesa/Ubuntu#Ubuntu_18.04
Now let's build OpenFOAM+:
1. Go into OpenFOAM+'s main source folder and be certain that the correct Qt version is being used:
```
cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
export QT_SELECT=qt5
```
2. This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours:
```
./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.
3. Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation:
```
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
```
  Note: Technically, the build will stop as soon as the first error is found. Running a second time only makes it easier to sort through between what's already been built and where the crash occurred.
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 Tutorial Guide: OpenFOAM+ Tutorial Guide

Reminder: Whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM+ v1806+ shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:

of1806+

For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.

Sources for the tricks used for building Onscreen Mesa:

For building Onscreen Mesa: Messing with Mesa for ParaView 5.0/VTK 7.0 @ blog.kitware.com
For easily getting the dependencies and source code needed for Mesa, in a version known to be compatible with the current Ubuntu: Workaround for getting GLX 1.4 working @ wiki.x2go.org

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-v1806/Ubuntu

1 Introduction

Contents

2 Copy-Paste steps

2.1 Ubuntu 18.04