Revision as of 22:34, 3 May 2013

1 Introduction

This page is dedicated to explaining how to install the foam-extend project 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:

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 Ubuntu 10.04

Here you have at least two choices:

• You can install the Deb packages, which provide a quick and easy way for having a working installation of OpenFOAM 1.6-ext. This is the quickest solution for beginners and instructions are provided here: OpenFOAM-dev-1.5 or OpenFOAM-1.6-ext under Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS
• You can install from source, by either:
  • Following the official instructions from one of these repositories:
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu 10.04 at the official Extend repository - currently broken link, as indicated in the Main_Page.
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu 10.04 at ogoe@github mirror
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu 10.04 at repo.or.cz mirror
  • Or by following the detailed step-by-step instructions below (which has been based on the previous link)...

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none so far.

Steps:

1. Switch to root mode (administrator) and install the necessary packages (run one line at a time):

   sudo -s
    
   #if the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list,
   #then remove the # from the next line:
   #su -
    
   #these 2 lines count as a single line, due to the blackslash "\" character
   apt-get install git-core flex bison rpm g++ zlib1g-dev binutils-dev libstdc++5 \
   libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools libxext-dev libxt-dev libreadline-dev libncurses-dev
    
   exit

2. Set-up the base folder where OpenFOAM-1.6-ext will be installed (here you can copy-paste all in single go):

   cd ~
   mkdir OpenFOAM
   cd OpenFOAM

3. The next command will depend on the repository mirror you want to use:
   • Extend's official repository:

     git clone git://openfoam-extend.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/openfoam-extend/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext

   • Mirror ogoe@github repository:

     git clone git://github.com/ogoe/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext.git

   • Mirror at repo.or.cz repository:

     git clone git://repo.or.cz/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext.git

4. After the cloning is complete, go into the cloned folder:

   cd OpenFOAM-1.6-ext

5. Configure the preferences file to specify the usage of the system's Qt 4:

   cp etc/prefs.sh-EXAMPLE etc/prefs.sh
    
   sed -i s/"#export QT_DIR=path_to_system_installed_qt"/"export QT_DIR=\/usr"/g etc/prefs.sh
   sed -i s/"#export QT_BIN_DIR=\$QT_DIR\/bin"/"export QT_BIN_DIR=\$QT_DIR\/bin"/g etc/prefs.sh
    
   #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
   echo "export WM_NCOMPPROCS=4" >> etc/prefs.sh

6. Create a symbolic link for gmake:

   ln -s /usr/bin/make bin/gmake

7. For building 1.6-ext itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of Ubuntu. To check this, run:

   uname -m

   Now, accordingly:

   • For i386:

     echo "export WM_ARCH_OPTION=32" >> etc/prefs.sh

   • For x86_64... there's nothing special to do.
8. Activate the environment and save it in the personal .bashrc file:

   source etc/bashrc
    
   echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext/etc/bashrc" >> $HOME/.bashrc

9. Build the several stages of the ThirdParty folder in a single go:

   #Go into the ThirdParty folder:
   cd ThirdParty
    
   # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
   ./AllMake >& log.AllMake
    
   #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
   ./AllMake >& log.AllMake

10. To check if everything went well:

    #Edit the file "log.AllMake" and check if there are any error messages
    #Example:
    gedit log.AllMake
     
    #Create a tarball in case you've seen any errors (it's the first error that matters)
    #or if you don't understand the output
    #and attach the file "log.AllMake.tar.gz" to a post in the designated thread
    tar -czf log.AllMake.tar.gz log.AllMake

11. Now let's build 1.6-ext:

    #Go back to the main folder and update the environment
    cd ..
    source etc/bashrc
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
    ./Allwmake > make.log 2>&1
     
    #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
    ./Allwmake > make.log 2>&1

12. To check if everything went well:

    #Check if icoFoam is working
    icoFoam -help
     
    #Edit the file "make.log" and check if there are any error messages
    #Example:
    gedit make.log
     
    #Create a tarball in case you've seen any errors (it's the first error that matters)
    #or if you don't understand the output
    #and attach the file "make.log.tar.gz" to a post in the designated thread
    tar -czf make.log.tar.gz make.log

13. Now you can go read the User Guide, which is located at $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext/doc/Guides-a4/UserGuide.pdf.

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none so far.

2.2 Ubuntu 11.04

Here you have a few choices:

• You can install from source, by either:
  • Trying to follow the available official instructions from one of these repositories (but keeping in mind that you are using 11.04):
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu at the official Extend repository - currently broken link, as indicated in the Main_Page.
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu at ogoe@github mirror
    • Building Instructions for Ubuntu at repo.or.cz mirror
  • Or by following the detailed step-by-step instructions below (which has been based on the instructions from previous link)...

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none so far.

Steps:

1. Switch to root mode (administrator) and install the necessary packages (run one line at a time):

   sudo -s
    
   #if the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list,
   #then remove the # from the next line:
   #su -
    
   #these 2 lines count as a single line, due to the blackslash "\" character
   apt-get install git-core flex bison rpm g++ zlib1g-dev binutils-dev libstdc++5 \
   libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools libxext-dev libxt-dev libreadline-dev libncurses-dev libxrender-dev
    
   exit

2. Set-up the base folder where OpenFOAM-1.6-ext will be installed (here you can copy-paste all in single go):

   cd ~
   mkdir OpenFOAM
   cd OpenFOAM

3. The next command will depend on the repository mirror you want to use:
   • Extend's official repository:

     git clone git://openfoam-extend.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/openfoam-extend/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext

   • Mirror ogoe@github repository:

     git clone git://github.com/ogoe/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext.git

   • Mirror at repo.or.cz repository:

     git clone git://repo.or.cz/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext.git

4. After the cloning is complete, go into the cloned folder:

   cd OpenFOAM-1.6-ext

5. Configure the preferences file:

   cp etc/prefs.sh-EXAMPLE etc/prefs.sh
    
   #configuring it to build using the custom Qt build
   sed -i s/"#export QT_THIRD_PARTY=1"/"export QT_THIRD_PARTY=1"/g etc/prefs.sh
    
   #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
   echo "export WM_NCOMPPROCS=4" >> etc/prefs.sh

6. Create a symbolic link for gmake:

   ln -s /usr/bin/make bin/gmake

7. For building 1.6-ext itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of Ubuntu. To check this, run:

   uname -m

   Now, accordingly:

   • For i386:

     echo "export WM_ARCH_OPTION=32" >> etc/prefs.sh

   • For x86_64... there's nothing special to do.
8. Activate the environment and save it in the personal .bashrc file:

   source etc/bashrc
    
   echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext/etc/bashrc" >> $HOME/.bashrc

9. Build the several stages of the ThirdParty folder in a single go:

   #Go into the ThirdParty folder:
   cd ThirdParty
    
   # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
   ./AllMake >& log.AllMake
    
   #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
   ./AllMake >& log.AllMake

10. To check if everything went well:

    #Edit the file "log.AllMake" and check if there are any error messages
    #Example:
    gedit log.AllMake
     
    #Create a tarball in case you've seen any errors (it's the first error that matters)
    #or if you don't understand the output
    #and attach the file "log.AllMake.tar.gz" to a post in the designated thread
    tar -czf log.AllMake.tar.gz log.AllMake

11. Now let's build 1.6-ext:

    #Go back to the main folder and update the environment
    cd ..
    source etc/bashrc
     
    # This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours.
    ./Allwmake > make.log 2>&1
     
    #Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation
    ./Allwmake > make.log 2>&1

12. To check if everything went well:

    #Check if icoFoam is working
    icoFoam -help
     
    #Edit the file "make.log" and check if there are any error messages
    #Example:
    gedit make.log
     
    #Create a tarball in case you've seen any errors (it's the first error that matters)
    #or if you don't understand the output
    #and attach the file "make.log.tar.gz" to a post in the designated thread
    tar -czf make.log.tar.gz make.log

13. Now you can go read the User Guide, which is located at $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6-ext/doc/Guides-a4/UserGuide.pdf.

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none so far.