Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-2.1.1/CentOS SL RHEL

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< Installation‎ | Linux‎ | OpenFOAM-2.1.1
Revision as of 17:37, 23 September 2012 by Wyldckat (Talk | contribs)

1 Introduction

This page is dedicated to explaining how to install OpenFOAM OF Version 211.png in:

  • Community ENTerprise Operating System, aka CentOS.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux, aka RHEL.
  • Scientific Linux, aka SL.

In theory, all of the above follow the same versioning. Therefore, at the time this page was first written, RHEL, CentOS and SL were all at version 6.3.

Both SL and CentOS derive from RHEL, but CentFOAM is what inspired this page. Therefore, before even trying to follow the instructions on this page, try first CentFOAM.

Last but not least, RHEL uses Fedora as their bleeding edge Linux Distribution, where they test new features. This leads to very close similarities between them, e.g. RHEL 6.3 is very similar to Fedora 14; which means that whatever you can build on Fedora 14, you should also be able to build on RHEL 6.3!

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 CentOS 6.3

Note: this was tested with the LiveDVD's of CentOS 6.3.

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none created yet.

Steps:

  1. Switch to root mode (administrator) and install the necessary packages (run one line at a time):
    su -
    yum groupinstall 'Development Tools' 
    yum install openmpi openmpi-devel qt-devel qt-webkit-devel zlib-devel cmake
     
    #This step might be crucial... but you can do it only if you have problems with running the command "module"
    yum upgrade
     
    exit
  2. Start a new terminal. This is because you'll need a fully refreshed shell.
  3. 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-2.1.1.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O OpenFOAM-2.1.1.tgz
    wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foam/ThirdParty-2.1.1.tgz?use_mirror=mesh" -O ThirdParty-2.1.1.tgz
     
    tar xzf OpenFOAM-2.1.1.tgz 
    tar xzf ThirdParty-2.1.1.tgz
  4. For building OpenFOAM itself, it depends on whether you have installed the i386 or x86_64 architecture of Fedora. To check this, run:
    uname -m

    Now, accordingly:

    • For i386:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load openmpi-i386
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.1/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI WM_ARCH_OPTION=32
       
      echo "module load openmpi-i386" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.1/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS" >> $HOME/.bashrc
    • For x86_64:
      #forcefully load Open-MPI into the environment
      module load openmpi-x86_64       
       
      #here you can change 4 to the number of cores you've got
      source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.1/etc/bashrc WM_NCOMPPROCS=4 WM_MPLIB=SYSTEMOPENMPI
       
      echo "module load openmpi-x86_64" >> $HOME/.bashrc
      echo "source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-2.1.1/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS" >> $HOME/.bashrc
  5. 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-2.1.1
     
    # 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
  6. 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
  7. CentOS 6.3 comes with CMake 2.6.4, but ParaView 3.12.0 needs a one of the versions from the more recent CMake 2.8.x series. Therefore, we'll need to do a custom build:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
    wget "http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/file_download.php?file_id=143&type=bug" -O getCmake
    chmod +x getCmake
    ./getCmake
    ./makeCmake
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
  8. Now, in order to build ParaView 3.12.0 that comes with OpenFOAM:
    cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
    ./makeParaView -qmake $(which qmake-qt4)
     
    cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV3Readers 
    wmSET $FOAM_SETTINGS
    ./Allwclean 
    ./Allwmake
  9. Now you can go read the User Guide: official OpenFOAM User Guide

Discussion thread where you can ask questions about these steps: none created yet.