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 12.04

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 1.7.1. This is the quickest solution for beginners and instructions are provided here: Ubuntu Deb Pack Installation
- On Ubuntu 12.04, you'll have to replace the line:
```
VERS=`lsb_release -cs`
```
  With this one:
```
VERS=maverick
```
- Note: If are getting an error when trying to install the packages for Ubuntu, then check this FAQ: Why am I not able to install the official OpenFOAM Deb packages on Ubuntu ?
You can install from source, by either:
- Following the official instructions from here: Source Pack Installation - Caution: these instructions are outdated for Ubuntu 12.04.
- 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 -
```

Install the necessary packages:

apt-get install build-essential cmake flex bison zlib1g-dev gnuplot libreadline-dev \
libncurses-dev libxt-dev gcc-4.5 g++-4.5 binutils-dev

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/foam/OpenFOAM-1.7.1.gtgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O OpenFOAM-1.7.1.tgz
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/ThirdParty-1.7.1.gtgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O ThirdParty-1.7.1.tgz
 
tar -xzf OpenFOAM-1.7.1.tgz 
tar -xzf ThirdParty-1.7.1.tgz 
 
#fix 'settings.sh' file
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/master/etc/settings.sh" -O OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/settings.sh

For building OpenFOAM 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:

#update rules' files
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/master/wmake/rules/linuxGcc45/c" -O wmake/rules/linuxGcc/c
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/master/wmake/rules/linuxGcc45/c++" -O wmake/rules/linuxGcc/c++
 
#fix the rules' files
sed -i -e 's/gcc/\$(WM_CC)/' wmake/rules/linuxGcc/c
sed -i -e 's/g++/\$(WM_CXX)/' wmake/rules/linuxGcc/c++
 
#here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI WM_ARCH_OPTION=32
export WM_CC='gcc-4.5'
export WM_CXX='g++-4.5'

For x86_64:

#update rules' files
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/master/wmake/rules/linux64Gcc45/c" -O wmake/rules/linux64Gcc/c
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/master/wmake/rules/linux64Gcc45/c++" -O wmake/rules/linux64Gcc/c++
 
#fix the rules' files
sed -i -e 's/gcc/\$(WM_CC)/' wmake/rules/linux64Gcc/c
sed -i -e 's/g++/\$(WM_CXX)/' wmake/rules/linux64Gcc/c++
 
#here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI
export WM_CC='gcc-4.5'
export WM_CXX='g++-4.5'

Save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following commands:
```
FULL_SETTINGS="$FOAM_SETTINGS; export WM_CC=gcc-4.5; export WM_CXX=g++-4.5"
echo "alias of171='source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/bashrc ${FULL_SETTINGS}'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
unset FULL_SETTINGS
```
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 1.7.1 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
```
of171
```
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 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 OpenFOAM-1.7.1
 
# 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

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, in order to build ParaView 3.8.0 that comes with OpenFOAM, we first need to build a custom version of Qt 4.6.4:

cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
mkdir -p etc/tools
 
wget "https://raw.github.com/wyldckat/scripts4OpenFOAM3rdParty/master/getQt"
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.1.x/master/makeQt" -O makeQt
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.1.x/master/etc/tools/QtFunctions" \
  -O etc/tools/QtFunctions
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.1.x/master/etc/tools/ThirdPartyFunctions" \
  -O etc/tools/ThirdPartyFunctions
 
sed -i -e 's=\-opensource =-opensource -stl =' makeQt
 
chmod +x getQt
chmod +x makeQt
 
./getQt
 
#fix the defaults for Qt not to use gcc or g++ by default
sed -i -e 's/= gcc/= gcc-4.5/' qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.6.4/mkspecs/common/g++.conf
sed -i -e 's/= g++/= g++-4.5/' qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.6.4/mkspecs/common/g++.conf
 
./makeQt 4.6.4 > mkqt.log 2>&1

Now to build ParaView 3.8.0:

#Fix one of the files
sed -i -e 's=ptrdiff_t=std::ptrdiff_t=' paraview-3.8.0/VTK/Utilities/vtkmetaio/metaUtils.cxx
 
#make sure that Qt libraries are packed along with ParaView
echo "addCMakeVariable DEVELOPMENT_INSTALL_QT_LIBS:BOOL=ON" >> tools/makeParaViewFunctions
echo "addCMakeVariable CMAKE_C_COMPILER:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/gcc-4.5" >> tools/makeParaViewFunctions
echo "addCMakeVariable CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/g++-4.5" >> tools/makeParaViewFunctions
 
#build ParaView 3.8.0
./makeParaView -qmake ${WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR}/platforms/$WM_ARCH$WM_COMPILER/qt-4.6.4/bin/qmake \
  > mkPV.log 2>&1
 
#build the OpenFOAM reader for ParaView
export PATH=${WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR}/platforms/$WM_ARCH$WM_COMPILER/qt-4.6.4/bin:$PATH
cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV3FoamReader
 
#hack the file that will enforce that libOpenFOAM.so is loaded when needed
sed -i -e 's/LIB_LIBS = /LIB_LIBS = \-lOpenFOAM /' vtkPV3Readers/Make/options
 
./Allwclean
./Allwmake
 
#last but not least, remove the old settings file for ParaView
rm ~/.config/ParaView/ParaView3.8.0.ini

Now you can go read the User Guide, which is located at $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/doc/Guides-a4/UserGuide.pdf.

Reminder: Whenever you start a new terminal window or tab, you should run the alias command associated to the OpenFOAM 1.7.1 shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:

of171

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-1.7.1/Ubuntu

1 Introduction

Contents

2 Copy-Paste steps

2.1 Ubuntu 12.04