Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/Ubuntu

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:

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 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

• 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  • Following the official instructions from here: Source Pack Installation - Caution: these instructions are outdated for Ubuntu 12.04.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: none so far.

Steps:

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

   sudo -s
   #or
   su -
    
   #these 2 lines count as a single line, due to the blackslash "\" character
   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
    
   exit

2. 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

3. 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'
      
     echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS" >> $HOME/.bashrc
     echo "export WM_CC='gcc-4.5'; export WM_CXX='g++-4.5'" >> $HOME/.bashrc

   • 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'
      
     echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS" >> $HOME/.bashrc
     echo "export WM_CC='gcc-4.5'; export WM_CXX='g++-4.5'" >> $HOME/.bashrc
     </li>
     </ul>
     </li>
      
     <li>Now let's build OpenFOAM:<br>
     ('''Warning''': this may take somewhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on your machine.)<br>
     <bash>#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:

     #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, 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 "http://www.openfoam.com/mantisbt/file_download.php?file_id=142&type=bug" -O 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=4\.7\.3=4.6.4=' getQt
     sed -i -e 's=ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/=http://releases.qt-project.org/qt4/source/=' getQt
     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.

   </ol>

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