Installation/Windows/Outdated/Cross Compiling OpenFOAM 1.7 in Linux For Windows with MinGW

NOTE: This page is still Under Construction...

The patches will only be released when they are ready and when this page is completed!

The parent page of this page is Tip Cross Compiling OpenFOAM in Linux For Windows with MinGW - please visit it for more information.

1 Introduction

This is an exhaustive step by step guide on how to fully cross-compile OpenFOAM 1.7.0 in Linux for Windows, for both 32 and 64 bits architectures (from and to), using the patches available here. NOTE: for cross-compiling in Cygwin for Windows, see the section Using Cygwin for cross-compiling OpenFOAM.

These patches are a continuation of the ones for OpenFOAM 1.6.0 (see Cross Compiling OpenFOAM 1.6 in Linux For Windows with MinGW). These are now based on Symscape's "v11" patch for OpenFOAM 1.6.x available here. For a brief description on the differences between the patches on this page and the ones on Symscape's page, see the Introduction chapter page on the parent page.

With this guide and available patches, you should be able to cross-compile the whole and complete OpenFOAM libraries and applications, using MPICH2 instead of Open MPI for parallel computing. Currently you can cross-compile using mingw-w64 for both 32 and 64 bit versions and mingw32 for 32bit version. These enable you to build OpenFOAM 1.7.0 for Windows 32 and 64 bit versions, from Linux 32 and 64bit architectures. See the chapter Notes on what doesn't work and why, for information on things that don't work properly.

Versions these patches apply to:

Other versions and common information to all MinGW cross-compiled versions is available in the page Tip Cross Compiling OpenFOAM in Linux For Windows with MinGW.

Support for this page is available at OpenFOAM's forum here.

2 Get OpenFOAM packages

1. In your Linux machine, open a terminal window (example) and create the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM:

   mkdir $HOME/OpenFOAM
   cd $HOME/OpenFOAM

2. Get OpenFOAM-1.7.0.gtgz and ThirdParty-1.7.0.gtgz from the OpenFOAM's sourceforge.net project page and copy/move them to the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM. If you want direct download from the terminal, then do:

   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/OpenFOAM-1.7.0.gtgz?use_mirror=mesh
   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/ThirdParty-1.7.0.gtgz?use_mirror=mesh

3. Extract both files, by running in a terminal:

   tar xzf OpenFOAM-1.7.0.gtgz
   tar xzf ThirdParty-1.7.0.gtgz

3 Things needed for properly cross-compiling OpenFOAM 1.7.0

The following packages should allow you to both build OpenFOAM for Linux and Windows:

• The packages needed in Linux (these are Ubuntu 10.04 package names) are: w3m flex build-essential binutils-dev libreadline5-dev wget zlib1g-dev texinfo byacc bison.
• The packages required for building the code documentation are: doxygen graphviz texlive-latex-base qt4-dev-tools.
• For the x86_64 Linux platform, you might will also need: gcc-multilib
• Packages that might be useful sooner or later: git-core python-dev libqt4-dev

4 Applying patches

1. Copy/move the PatchesNBatches170.tar.gz file into the $HOME/OpenFOAM folder. Then unpack it by running:

   tar -xzf PatchesNBatches170.tar.gz

2. A new folder is created, named pnb17. Now to apply the patches, run from the $HOME/OpenFOAM folder:

   patch -p0 < pnb17/OpenFOAM-1.7.0_patch
   patch -p0 < pnb17/ThirdParty-1.7.0_patch

3. Still have to do some chmodding, for new scripts to run properly. Run the following lines in the terminal:

   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/src/Allclean
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/applications/utilities/parallelProcessing/Allwmake
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/tutowin
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/foamDiff
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/backupSourceFolder
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/backupFullFolder
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/chtMultiRegionFixK
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/bin/fixPatchExeNames
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/tutorials/Allwmake
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/multiBuilder
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/AllwcleanRegEx
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/AllwcleanZLib
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/AllwmakeMinGWScotch
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/AllwmakeRegEx
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/AllwmakeZLib
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/build-mingw44
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/build-mingw45
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/build-pexports
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/fixSystemMingw
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/genMPICH2stubs
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/getMinGWBin
   chmod 744 $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/makeGcc

5 Getting Windows version of MPICH2 into the ThirdParty-1.7.0 folder in Linux

With these patches there is only one way to compile OpenFOAM with MPICH2, and it's done automatically by the script Allwmake.

So this chapter is only relevant in case you want to update the headers and definition files from 1.2.1p1 to another MPICH2 version:

1. Download and install in Windows the MPICH2, any other version than 1.2.1p1 from here. Install both 32 and 64bit versions, if you wish to build OpenFOAM for both architectures.
2. You will also have to download the source code package from that page.
3. Create the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/mpich2-version/source/arch/include in your Linux set up (example and depending on the architectures you may want):

   mkdir -p $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/mpich2-1.2.1p1/source/i686/include
   mkdir -p $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/mpich2-1.2.1p1/source/x86_64/include

4. From the installed MPICH2 in Windows, you will need to copy the following files from the include folder: mpi.h mpio.h mpicxx.h. And copy those files to the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/mpich2-version/source/arch/include.
5. Then copy the files mpi.def mpich2.def from the source code package into the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-1.7.0/mpich2-version/source.
6. Now to use a version of MPICH2 other than 1.2.1p1, then edit the file $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.1/etc/settings.sh and find the line that has mpi_version=mpich2-1.2.1p1 and change to the version you want, as shown here.

The Allwmake script at the folder ThirdParty-1.7.0 will take care of the rest.

6 Tweaking environment options

1. Choose which version you want to use:
   • Custom builds:

   mingw32: for getting a 32bit version of OpenFOAM, using gcc + mingw;

   mingw-w32: for getting a 32bit version of OpenFOAM, using gcc + mingw-w64;

   mingw-w64: for getting a 64bit version of OpenFOAM, using gcc + mingw-w64;

   • Using Ubuntu's 10.04 builds of mingw-w64: (Wyldckat 17:26, 2 August 2010 (UTC) - unknown at this time if other distributions use the same nomenclature)

   i586-mingw32msvc: for getting a 32bit version of OpenFOAM, using system's gcc + mingw-w64;

   amd64-mingw32msvc: for getting a 64bit version of OpenFOAM, using system's gcc + mingw-w64;

   • Using builds available at mingw-w64's sourceforge.net project page [1]:

   i686-w64-mingw32: for getting a 32bit version of OpenFOAM, using the latest pre-built gcc + mingw-w64;

   x86_64-w64-mingw32: for getting a 64bit version of OpenFOAM, using the latest pre-built gcc + mingw-w64;

   
   Variants of the "bashrc" file that is inside the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc, have been created, to meet the most likely options. These are:

   sample - <bashrc-version> 

   configured for <compiler>, <mingw version>, <MPI option>, <WM_COMPILE_OPTION>, <WM_ARCH_OPTION>

   bashrc-mingw32 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 32

   bashrc-mingw-w32 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 32

   bashrc-mingw-w32-prof 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw-w32, No MPI, Prof, DP, 32 (untested)

   bashrc-mingw-w32S 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, SP, 32

   bashrc-mingw-w64 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw-w64, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 64

   bashrc-mingw-w64-prof 

   configured for custom gcc, mingw-w64, No MPI, Prof, DP, 64 (untested)

   NOTE: the following 3 versions were tested but the 64bit version didn't work in Windows Vista/7 x64:

   bashrc-i586-mingw32msvc 

   configured for system's gcc, mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 32

   bashrc-i586-mingw32msvcS 

   configured for system's gcc, mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, SP, 32

   bashrc-amd64-mingw32msvc 

   configured for system's gcc, mingw-w64, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 64

   NOTE: for this last one above, you will possibly need to install the mingw-w64 version for Ubuntu 10.04 available by Pali here (currently a dead link), because Ubuntu's initial version doesn't have the compiler amd64-mingw32msvc-g++. See bug report here.

   NOTE: the following 3 versions were tested, both 32 and 64 bit versions work in Windows Vista/7 x64, but require some additional tweaking for them to work properly:

   bashrc-i686-w64-mingw32 

   configured for gcc-4.5.1 (or more recent), mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 32

   bashrc-i686-w64-mingw32S 

   configured for gcc-4.5.1 (or more recent), mingw-w32, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, SP, 32

   bashrc-x86_64-w64-mingw32 

   configured for gcc-4.5.1 (or more recent), mingw-w64, MPI with MPICH2, Opt, DP, 64

2. After choosing the version you wish to build, edit the file $HOME/.bashrc and add to the end of it, a line analogous to the following line:

   . $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw-w32

   WARNING: sometimes the leading dot doesn't work, so use the following instead:

   source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw-w32

   Optional: in case you want to have access to all versions without having to edit again the file $HOME/.bashrc, then instead of adding that line above, add one or more of these:

   alias of170-mingw32='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw32'
   alias of170-mingw-w32S='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw-w32S'
   alias of170-mingw-w32D='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw-w32'
   alias of170-mingw-w64='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-mingw-w64'
   alias of170-i586Dsys='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-i586-mingw32msvc'
   alias of170-i586Ssys='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-i586-mingw32msvcS'
   alias of170-x64sys='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/amd64-mingw32msvc'
   alias of170-i686Dmingw='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-i686-w64-mingw32'
   alias of170-i686Smingw='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-i686-w64-mingw32S'
   alias of170-x64mingw='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc-x86_64-w64-mingw32'
   alias of170-linux='export WM_ARCH_OPTION=32; . $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc'
   alias of170-linux64='. $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.7.0/etc/bashrc'

   Now, whenever you start a new terminal, run one of the alias commands; for example:

   of170-i686Dmingw

   NOTE: Feel free to change the alias names to something more short and to your liking!

7 Build the cross compiler

In this version of patches for OpenFOAM 1.7.0, there are three types of MinGW cross-compilers, as already mentioned in the previous section Tweaking environment options. For all of these possibilities, start a new terminal. In case you chose to use the alias method, activate the OpenFOAM environment by running the respective alias command, as demonstrated before.

7.1 Using custom built MinGW cross-compilers

Valid for WM_COMPILER: mingw32 mingw-w32 mingw-w64

1. Go to the ThirdParty-1.7.0 folder, in your new terminal:

   cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR

2. Now you have to build the cross-compiler. You can now choose which version of gcc you wish to build mingw(-w64) with. The two possibilities available are:
   • to build with gcc 4.4.x version, run:

     ./build-mingw44

     NOTE: 64bit builds of OpenFOAM provided by the resulting gcc-4.4.x+mingw-w64 will probably only run in Windows XP x64.
   • to build with gcc 4.5.x version, run:

     ./build-mingw45

     NOTE: 64bit builds of OpenFOAM provided by the resulting gcc-4.5.x+mingw-w64 should run on any Windows x64, but its stability isn't 100% guaranteed.
   
   NOTE: updates are bound to be done to the packages that these scripts use. Therefore, you should edit the script you have chosen, and check accordingly:
   • Near the beginning of the scripts, you will find these:

     #GNU GCC and company
     GCCVERSION="gcc-4.5.0"
     GMPVERSION="gmp-4.3.2"
     MPFRVERSION="mpfr-2.4.2"
     MPCVERSION="mpc-0.8.2" #'''build-mingw45''' only
     BINUTILSVERSION="binutils-2.20.1"
      
     #MinGW versions
     MINGW32RTVERSION="mingwrt-3.18"
     W32APIVERSION="w32api-3.14"

     NOTE: Mingw-w64 isn't version-ed because these scripts will always retrieve the latest stable 1.0 version directly from SVN.

     Check if they those versions still exist or if newer ones exist, by browsing the links provided a few lines below the version variables:

     GNU_URL="ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/sourceware.org/pub/gcc/releases/${GCCVERSION}/${GCC_TARFILE}"
     GMP_URL="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gmp/${GMP_TARFILE}"
     MPFR_URL="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mpfr/${MPFR_TARFILE}"
     MPC_URL="http://www.multiprecision.org/mpc/download/${MPC_TARFILE}"
     BINUTILS_URL="ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/sourceware.org/pub/binutils/releases/${BINUTILS_TARFILE}"
      
     MINGW64_URL="http://mingw-w64.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mingw-w64/branches/releases/v1.0/?view=tar" #changes here only required if new stable version is launched
      
     #MinGW versions
     MINGW32RT_URL="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mingw/MinGW/BaseSystem/RuntimeLibrary/MinGW-RT/${MINGW32RTVERSION}/${MINGW32RT_TARFILE}?use_mirror=mesh"
     W32API_URL="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mingw/MinGW/BaseSystem/RuntimeLibrary/Win32-API/${W32APIVERSION}/${W32API_TARFILE}?use_mirror=mesh"

     The respective addresses for checking available versions:

     • GCC [2]
     • GMP [3]
     • MPFR [4]
     • MPC [5] (build-mingw45 only)
     • Binutils [6]
     • MinGW Runtime [7]
     • Win32API [8]

     NOTE: You can also change the URLs, in case you can find a closer server to you!

3. If no error messages appear while running the script, then you should now be ready to go to the next chapter.

7.2 Using system build of MinGW cross-compilers

Valid for WM_COMPILER: i586-mingw32msvc amd64-mingw32msvc

7.3 Using mingw-w64 automatic builds of MinGW cross-compilers

Valid for WM_COMPILER: i686-w64-mingw32 x86_64-w64-mingw32

You simply have to run the script getMinGWBin available in the folder ThirdParty-1.7.0:

cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
./getMinGWBin

This script will search for the latest available pre-built version of the mingw-w64 compiler defined by the bashrc-compiler script for you Linux machine, whether it's i?86 or x86_64! It should also work in Cygwin.

NOTE: this script needs the application w3m, a text based browser, to be installed.

8 Cross-Compile OpenFOAM in Linux for Windows

1. Open a new terminal window or tab, so it will reset environment variables and add the newly built cross-compiling gcc into the executable path variable (see Tweaking environment options). Go to the project folder as so:

   cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR

2. Go to the folder "OpenFOAM-1.6" and run "Allwmake":

   ./Allwmake

   This will build the entire OpenFOAM package. This does not include: Paraview, OpenMPI and code documentation.
3. Optional - If you want to build the code documentation, after OpenFOAM is built, run:

   wmake all doc

   This is only needs to be built once, since it's the same for all architectures.

   In the chapter Creating a compact help file for the code documentation is explained how to finish this step.

4. Optional - If you want to be able to run the tutorial cases that need custom applications to be built, run:

   wmake all tutorials

   The applications will be cross-compiled and put in the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/$USER-1.7.0/application/bin/$WM_OPTIONS, or $FOAM_USER_APPBIN for short.

5. Building the mesh conversion utility ccm26ToFoam is now done automatically, when compared with the previous patch versions.
6. For testing MPICH2, as described in this page's parent page, chapter Using MPICH2 with OpenFOAM in Windows, the parallel test application will be built automatically. The built executable will be placed in the folder $HOME/OpenFOAM/$USER-1.7.0/application/bin/$WM_OPTIONS, or $FOAM_USER_APPBIN for short.

9 Copying the files to your Windows installation

TODO...

10 Creating a compact help file for the code documentation

TODO...

11 Notes on what doesn't work and why

TODO...

13 History

Wyldckat 22:39, 31 July 2010 (UTC) - Page development has stalled due to technical difficulties with existing pre-built mingw-w64 cross-compilers.

Wyldckat 15:48, 22 July 2010 (UTC) - Page created... content will be inserted periodically over the next hours...