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

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-installation/86225-openfoam-1-5-ubuntu-10-04-a.html

Steps:

Note: Given the age difference of OpenFOAM 1.5.x vs Ubuntu 12.04, these instructions will install the ParaView version that Ubuntu provides.
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 libglib2.0-dev build-essential flex bison libreadline-dev libncurses5-dev paraview git
 
#if you have Ubuntu 64bit (see step #4)
apt-get install libc6-dev-i386

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/project/foam/foam/1.7.1/ThirdParty-1.7.1.gtgz" -O ThirdParty-1.7.1.gtgz
 
tar xzf ThirdParty-1.7.1.gtgz --transform 's=ThirdParty-1.7.1=ThirdParty-1.5.x='

In addition, the necessary git repository can be retrieved with one of the following commands:

Via Git protocol:

git clone git://repo.or.cz/OpenFOAM-1.5.x.git

Via HTTP protocol (useful when working behind firewalls):
```
git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/OpenFOAM-1.5.x.git
```

Now to do several more necessary fixes:

Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder:
```
cd OpenFOAM-1.5.x
```

Upgrade several of the scripts at etc:

cd etc
 
mv bashrc bashrc.orig
wget -c --no-check-certificate https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/etc/bashrc
mv settings.sh settings.sh.orig
wget -c --no-check-certificate https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/etc/settings.sh
mv aliases.sh aliases.sh.orig
wget -c --no-check-certificate https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/etc/aliases.sh
 
sed -i -e 's_1\.7\.x_1.5.x_' -e 's_Gcc};_Gcc43};_' bashrc
sed -i -e 's_: ${compilerInstall:=system}_: ${compilerInstall:=OpenFOAM}_' settings.sh
 
#add an option that was valid back in 1.5 but not in 1.7
echo 'export WM_OS=Unix' >> bashrc
 
#we'll need this one for cleaning up the shell environment for ParaView
wget "https://raw.github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/master/etc/config/unset.sh" -O unset.sh
 
cd ..

Now lets get some important things in the bin folder:

cd bin
wget -c --no-check-certificate https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/bin/foamEtcFile
chmod +x foamEtcFile
 
#because we're using Ubuntu's ParaView
mv paraFoam paraFoam.orig
wget -c --no-check-certificate https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/bin/paraFoam
chmod +x paraFoam
sed -i -e 's=\.OpenFOAM=\.foam=' paraFoam
sed -i -e 's=^\(unset FOAM_ABORT\)=. $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/unset.sh 2>&1 ; \1=' paraFoam
 
#get the path checker, because we're going to need it for building Gcc
wget https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-1.7.x/raw/master/wmake/wmakeCheckPwd -O wmakeCheckPwd
chmod +x wmakeCheckPwd
 
cd ..

Adjust build rules to modern times:

cd wmake/rules
cp -r linux64Gcc linux64Gcc43
cp -r linuxGcc linuxGcc43
sed -i -e '/include $(GENERAL_RULES)\/java/d' General/standard
sed -i -e 's=/lib/cpp $(GFLAGS)=cpp -traditional-cpp $(GFLAGS)=' linuxGcc43/general
sed -i -e 's=/lib/cpp $(GFLAGS)=cpp -traditional-cpp $(GFLAGS)=' linux64Gcc43/general
 
cd ../..
 
#Remove all comments from "Make/options" and of some "Make/files"
find . -name 'options' | grep 'Make/options' | xargs sed -i -e '/^\/\//d'
sed -i -e 's=^//.*==' src/finiteVolume/Make/files

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:

#here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
echo export WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 >> etc/bashrc
 
#we're building the 32bit version
sed -i -e 's/WM_ARCH_OPTION:=64/WM_ARCH_OPTION:=32/' etc/bashrc
 
#This is a hack for modern 32bit Ubuntu (http://www.lukedodd.com/?p=225)
echo 'export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu:/lib/i386-linux-gnu' >> etc/bashrc
echo 'export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/i386-linux-gnu' >> etc/bashrc
echo 'export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/i386-linux-gnu' >> etc/bashrc
 
source etc/bashrc

For x86_64:

#here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
echo export WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 >> etc/bashrc
 
#This is a hack for modern 64bit Ubuntu (http://www.lukedodd.com/?p=225)
echo 'export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' >> etc/bashrc
 
source etc/bashrc

Save an alias in the personal .bashrc file:
```
echo "alias of15x='source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.5.x/etc/bashrc'" >> $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 1.5.x shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:
```
of15x
```
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell.

Have to build Gcc 4.3.3 from source, because Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't have it:

#Go into the ThirdParty folder
cd ../ThirdParty-1.5.x
 
#Let's get a special compiler script
wget http://original.nucleation.googlecode.com/hg/build-gcc_v4.tar.gz -O build-gcc_v4.tar.gz
tar -xzf build-gcc_v4.tar.gz
 
#And this is going to build Gcc 4.3.3, along with downloading everyone that is needed
./build-gcc43 > gccmake.log 2>&1
 
#You can track the current progress in another terminal, by running:
#  tail -F gccmake.log

Now we need to do a first pass in building the ThirdParty folder, where the second pass will be done when building OpenFOAM itself:

#update the shell environment
. ../OpenFOAM-1.5.x/etc/bashrc
 
#need to do some repairs in the Allwmake script
wget -c http://modular.nucleation.googlecode.com/hg/of17x/files/ThirdParty_Allwmake.diff
patch -p0 < ThirdParty_Allwmake.diff
 
# This next command will take a while... somewhere between 5 minutes to 60 minutes.
./Allwmake > make.log 2>&1

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-1.5.x
 
#update the shell environment
. 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

To check if everything went well:

#update the shell environment one more time
. etc/bashrc
 
#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

Now you can go read the User Guide, which is located at $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.5.x/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 1.5.x shell environment. In other words, run the following command whenever you start a new terminal:

of15x

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: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-installation/86225-openfoam-1-5-ubuntu-10-04-a.html

Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-1.5.x/Ubuntu

1 Introduction

Contents

2 Copy-Paste steps

2.1 Ubuntu 12.04