Installation/Linux/OpenFOAM-6/CentOS SL RHEL
1 Introduction
This page is dedicated to explaining how to install OpenFOAM 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 6.10.
Both SL and CentOS derive from RHEL, but CentFOAM is what inspired this (and other related instruction pages). 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:
- 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 CentOS 6.10 (SCL)
Here you have the following choices:
- You can install from source, by either:
- Following the official instructions from here: OpenFOAM Source Repository
- Or by following the detailed step-by-step instructions below...
Notes regarding the instructions below:
- These instructions rely heavily on the Software Collections ( SCL ) Repository, which can be used to install software in a non-intrusive way... which will require its own environment loading mechanism.
- This way it's not necessary to compile Python and GCC from source code and instead use pre-built packages provided by the SCL community.
- If you want to build the majority of the toolboxes from source code (for example, if you do not have root/admin permissions), then jump to the section CentOS 6.10 (without SCL)
- The instructions below were tested with CentOS 6.10, but might work with 6.6, 6.7, 6.8 or newer versions.
WARNING: These instructions are currently being written and under testing!
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 -
- If the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list, then run:
- Install the necessary packages:
yum groupinstall 'Development Tools' yum install zlib-devel texinfo gstreamer-plugins-base-devel \ libXext-devel libGLU-devel libXt-devel libXrender-devel libXinerama-devel libpng-devel \ libXrandr-devel libXi-devel libXft-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libXcursor-devel \ readline-devel ncurses-devel #This one is useful, but not crucial yum upgrade
Also install the aforementioned SCL repository and the packages we need from it:
yum install centos-release-SCL yum install python27 devtoolset-7
- To check if the desired SCL packages are installed, run:
scl --list
- For future reference, the easiest way to activate the environment for the installed SCL packages on the current command line is to run, but do not do this right now:
source /opt/rh/python27/enable source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable
This command will be indicated to be executed at the right point in the instructions below.
</li>
exit
#OpenFOAM downloading and installation cd ~ mkdir OpenFOAM cd OpenFOAM git clone https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6.git git clone https://github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-6.git
But we will now have to download a few more of the necessary packages for the ThirdParty-6 folder:
- First, we need to prepare for the downloads:
cd ThirdParty-6 mkdir download
- Now, we need to download the essential source code packages for these instructions you are following (the links are from the file README.org):
wget -P download https://www.cmake.org/files/v3.9/cmake-3.9.0.tar.gz wget -P download https://github.com/CGAL/cgal/releases/download/releases%2FCGAL-4.10/CGAL-4.10.tar.xz wget -P download https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.55.0/boost_1_55_0.tar.bz2 wget -P download https://www.open-mpi.org/software/ompi/v2.1/downloads/openmpi-2.1.1.tar.bz2 wget -P download http://www.paraview.org/files/v5.4/ParaView-v5.4.0.tar.gz wget -P download http://download.qt-project.org/archive/qt/4.8/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.6.tar.gz
- Next, we need to unpack the packages we've downloaded:
tar -xzf download/cmake-3.9.0.tar.gz tar -xJf download/CGAL-4.10.tar.xz tar -xjf download/boost_1_55_0.tar.bz2 tar -xjf download/openmpi-2.1.1.tar.bz2 tar -xzf download/ParaView-v5.4.0.tar.gz --transform='s/ParaView-v5.4.0/ParaView-5.4.0/' tar -xzf download/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.6.tar.gz
- Last but not least, the final command on this sub-list is to go back to the main OpenFOAM folder:
cd ..
sed -i -e 's/\(boost_version=\)boost-system/\1boost_1_55_0/' OpenFOAM-6/etc/config.sh/CGAL sed -i -e 's/\(cgal_version=\)cgal-system/\1CGAL-4.10/' OpenFOAM-6/etc/config.sh/CGAL
source /opt/rh/python27/enable source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable
uname -m
Now, accordingly:
- For i386:
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc WM_COMPILER_TYPE=ThirdParty WM_ARCH_OPTION=32 WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI FOAMY_HEX_MESH=yes
Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:
echo "alias of6='source /opt/rh/python27/enable && source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable && source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $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 6 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:of6
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell. - For x86_64, it depends on whether you need 64-bit integer support or not. Depending on whether you need 64-bit integer support or not:
- For building with the normal 32-bit integer support (maximum 2.147×109 cells, faces or points):
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc WM_COMPILER_TYPE=ThirdParty WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI FOAMY_HEX_MESH=yes
- For building with the normal 64-bit integer support (maximum 9.22×1018 cells, faces or points):
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc WM_LABEL_SIZE=64 WM_COMPILER_TYPE=ThirdParty WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI FOAMY_HEX_MESH=yes
Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:
echo "alias of6='source /opt/rh/python27/enable && source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable && source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $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 6 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:of6
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell. - For building with the normal 32-bit integer support (maximum 2.147×109 cells, faces or points):
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR ./makeCmake > log.makeCmake 2>&1 wmRefresh
# This next command will take a little while... ./makeCGAL > log.makeCGAL 2>&1 #update the shell environment wmRefresh
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR #Get the scripts we need wget https://github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.4.x/raw/master/makeQt wget -P etc/tools/ https://github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-2.4.x/raw/master/etc/tools/QtFunctions #make them executable chmod +x makeQt ./makeQt qt-4.8.6 > log.makeQt 2>&1
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1 wmRefresh
- To check this, run:
uname -m
Now, accordingly:
- For i686:
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR # Load the Python 2.7 that came with the SCL repository source /opt/rh/python27/enable #this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more ./makeParaView -qt-4.8.6 -mpi -python -python-lib /opt/rh/python27/root/usr/lib/libpython2.7.so -python-include /opt/rh/python27/root/usr/include/python2.7 > log.makePV 2>&1
Note: If the SCL repository is not being used when following these instructions, then run the last line like this:
./makeParaView -qt-4.8.6 -mpi > log.makePV 2>&1
- For x86_64:
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR # Load the Python 2.7 that came with the SCL repository source /opt/rh/python27/enable #this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more ./makeParaView -qt-4.8.6 -mpi -python -python-lib /opt/rh/python27/root/usr/lib64/libpython2.7.so -python-include /opt/rh/python27/root/usr/include/python2.7 > log.makePV 2>&1
Note: If the SCL repository is not being used when following these instructions, then run the last line like this:
./makeParaView -qt-4.8.6 -mpi > log.makePV 2>&1
- For i686:
- Once the makeParaView script is finished running, make sure to check the contents of the file log.makePV and check if there are any errors. If you have any problems building or using ParaView, please check the ParaView installation FAQ page.
- Finally, update the shell environment:
wmRefresh
- Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder:
cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
- We need to temporarily populate CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH with the path to the custom Qt build, so that qmake is properly found when building OpenFOAM's plug-in libraries for ParaView:
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR/platforms/$WM_ARCH$WM_COMPILER/qt-4.8.6/
- This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours:
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
Note: The "4" refers to the number of cores to be used for building in parallel. In addition, the amount of RAM needed for building scales with the number of cores used, something like 1GB of RAM per core; a minimum of 1.5GB is needed for linking the libraries, which is not done in parallel.
- Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation:
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
Note: Technically, the build will stop as soon as the first error is found. Running a second time only makes it easier to sort through between what's already been built and where the crash occurred.
- 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.
- 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.
- By using kwrite:
- 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.
- You can compress the file with gzip by running this command:
- 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.
</ol>
of6For 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.
2.2 CentOS 7.5 (1804)
Here you have the following choices:
- You can install from source, by either:
- Following the official instructions from here: OpenFOAM Source Repository
- Or by following the detailed step-by-step instructions below...
Notes regarding the instructions below:
- The instructions below were tested with CentOS 7.5, but might work with older 7.0-7.3 or with newer 7.x versions.
- There is no support for the 32-bit architectures in CentOS 7, therefore these instructions only address the x86_64 architecture.
WARNING: These instructions are currently being written and under testing!
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 -
- If the 'sudo' command tells you're not in the sudoers list, then run:
- Install the necessary packages:
yum groupinstall 'Development Tools' yum install zlib-devel libXext-devel libGLU-devel libXt-devel libXrender-devel libXinerama-devel \ libpng-devel libXrandr-devel libXi-devel libXft-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libXcursor-devel \ readline-devel ncurses-devel python python-devel cmake qt-devel qt-assistant \ mpfr-devel gmp-devel #This one is useful, but not crucial yum upgrade
- Now exit from the root mode:
exit
- Start a new terminal. This is because you'll need a fully refreshed shell.
- Download and unpack (here you can copy-paste all in single go):
#OpenFOAM downloading and installation cd ~ mkdir OpenFOAM cd OpenFOAM git clone https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6.git git clone https://github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-6.git
But we will now have to download a few more of the necessary packages for the ThirdParty-6 folder:
- First, we need to prepare for the downloads:
cd ThirdParty-6 mkdir download
- Now, we need to download the essential source code packages for these instructions you are following (the links are from the file README.org):
wget -P download https://www.cmake.org/files/v3.9/cmake-3.9.0.tar.gz wget -P download https://github.com/CGAL/cgal/releases/download/releases%2FCGAL-4.10/CGAL-4.10.tar.xz wget -P download https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.55.0/boost_1_55_0.tar.bz2 wget -P download https://www.open-mpi.org/software/ompi/v2.1/downloads/openmpi-2.1.3.tar.bz2 wget -P download http://www.paraview.org/files/v5.4/ParaView-v5.4.0.tar.gz
- Next, we need to unpack the packages we've downloaded:
tar -xzf download/cmake-3.9.0.tar.gz tar -xJf download/CGAL-4.10.tar.xz tar -xjf download/boost_1_55_0.tar.bz2 tar -xjf download/openmpi-2.1.3.tar.bz2 tar -xzf download/ParaView-v5.4.0.tar.gz --transform='s/ParaView-v5.4.0/ParaView-5.4.0/'
- Last but not least, the final command on this sub-list is to go back to the main OpenFOAM folder:
cd ..
- First, we need to prepare for the downloads:
- A few details need to be fixed, before proceeding, which will change the default Boost and CGAL versions:
sed -i -e 's/\(boost_version=\)boost-system/\1boost_1_55_0/' OpenFOAM-6/etc/config.sh/CGAL sed -i -e 's/\(cgal_version=\)cgal-system/\1CGAL-4.10/' OpenFOAM-6/etc/config.sh/CGAL
- For building OpenFOAM itself, first we need to activate the correct environment settings and it depends on whether you need 64-bit integer support or not. Depending on whether you need 64-bit integer support or not:
- For building with the normal 32-bit integer support (maximum 2.147×109 cells, faces or points):
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI FOAMY_HEX_MESH=yes
- For building with the normal 64-bit integer support (maximum 9.22×1018 cells, faces or points):
source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc WM_LABEL_SIZE=64 WM_MPLIB=OPENMPI FOAMY_HEX_MESH=yes
Also, save an alias in the personal .bashrc file, simply by running the following command:
echo "alias of6='source \$HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6/etc/bashrc $FOAM_SETTINGS'" >> $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 6 shell environment. In other words, whenever you start a new terminal, you should run:of6
For more information on this topic, read section Using aliases to help manage multiple OpenFOAM versions in the page Installation/Working with the Shell. - For building with the normal 32-bit integer support (maximum 2.147×109 cells, faces or points):
- CentOS 7.4 comes with CMake 2.8.12.1, but ParaView 5.4.0 needs a one of the versions from the more recent CMake 3.x series and CGAL also needs CMake. Therefore, we'll need to do a custom build by running:
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR ./makeCmake > log.makeCmake 2>&1 wmRefresh
- Given that a custom Open-MPI version is being built with these instructions, it's necessary to first build it before ParaView so that Open-MPI can be used by ParaView:
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR ./Allwmake > log.make 2>&1 wmRefresh
- For building ParaView 5.4.0 with Python and MPI, do the following steps:
- Build by running these commands:
cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR #this will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours or more ./makeParaView -mpi -python -qmake $(which qmake-qt4) > log.makePV 2>&1
- Once the makeParaView script is finished running, make sure to check the contents of the file log.makePV and check if there are any errors. If you have any problems building or using ParaView, please check the ParaView installation FAQ page.
- Finally, update the shell environment:
wmRefresh
- Build by running these commands:
- Now let's build OpenFOAM:
- Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder:
cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
- This next command will take a while... somewhere between 30 minutes to 3-6 hours:
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
Note: The "4" refers to the number of cores to be used for building in parallel. In addition, the amount of RAM needed for building scales with the number of cores used, something like 1GB of RAM per core; a minimum of 1.5GB is needed for linking the libraries, which is not done in parallel.
- Run it a second time for getting a summary of the installation:
./Allwmake -j 4 > log.make 2>&1
Note: Technically, the build will stop as soon as the first error is found. Running a second time only makes it easier to sort through between what's already been built and where the crash occurred.
- Go into OpenFOAM's main source folder:
- To check if everything went well:
- 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.
- 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.
- By using kwrite:
- 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.
- You can compress the file with gzip by running this command:
- 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.
- Check if icoFoam is working, by running this command:
- Now you can go read the User Guide: official OpenFOAM User Guide
- Note: When you want to update your build, follow the instructions on section Steps for updating on the parent page.
of6For 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.