[boffin5]

It's a long story, but my current challenge is installing OpenFoam8 on virtualbox/Fedora.


After following the directions in the openfoam.org website, I decided I had put the source code in the wrong place. But then I looked for it, and couldn't find it. Okay, I thought I would just change to my intended directory, and install it again.


What followed was a short canned message, as seen in the attached, apparently indicating that OF8 is already installed. But I can't find it anywhere, so I can't delete it.


I know it's a silly problem, but I'm stumped at this point.

[boffin5]

After my first attempt, I'm stepping back and starting over. I just created a new virtual machine with Fedora 36, and am now hoping for help with the procedure for installing OpenFOAM 8.


I did find some posts about installing with other versions of Fedora, but I thought I would get the latest one. Since the posts that I found were for earlier versions, I'm not at all confident they will apply.


Does anyone have somewhat detailed instructions on how to do this? Bear with me, as my ability level with linux is a bit challenged.

[boffin5]

In my latest attempt, I installed VMware, and created a Fedora virtual machine on it. Then I went to openfoam.org, and found the section on installing v8 in a linux installation.


I religiously followed the directions, and got to the part where I cd to $HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-8. Then I entered the command 'openfoam8-linux' and a few minutes of downloading and churning ensued, getting my hopes up that I was actually going to have a successful installation.


When it finished, there was a '>>' prompt, which was strange, but I just entered 'exit' and got a normal prompt. Then I checked for the OF8 files. Nothing! There was no trace of any installation, except for a canned OpenFOAM script in the /usr/bin folder. All the downloading activity seems to have gone straight to the bit bucket.


This marks the third time I have tried to install OF on my desktop machine, always with the same failure.


All that is left for me to try is a procedure in www.wolfdynamics.com/wiki/OFinstallation.pdf
It looks a bit involved, but what really has me wondering is that it will require me to create another virtual machine to install openSUSE (no idea what that is). Things are getting out of hand, but I am running out of options.


By the way, I tried to make an install in Windows Subsystem for Linux, but there is something weird in my x-server setup which prevents any GUI desktops from being created. I am told that those aren't necessary, but I don't see how I can easily run OF without a desktop.


I am open to suggestions, advice and/or commiseration from anyone who is amused or maybe can help.

[olesen]

A possible alternative would be to use the copr installation of the openfoam.com version - centos/rhel/fedora

[boffin5]

With my Dell laptop computer, OF went on bim, bam boom, no worries. But with my desktop, it was a long drawn out, frustrating process. I guess this could be because everything in the laptop is integrated, whereas my desktop is a collection of parts and bits, customized to run CFD.

First, I tried to use Windows Subsystem for Linux, but some graphics snafu prevented the implementation of a GUI desktop. I researched this, looking for a solution for a long time, before cutting my losses, giving up and moving on to something else. This was a process that I would repeat numerous times.

So I went back to the setup I used on my laptop , using Virtualbox with Ubuntu. But in the latter phases with the laptop, Ubuntu had become squirrely, with the screen turning black. I jury rigged a fix, but when I went to the desktop, it again turned black, this time unfixable.

My next attempt was to try Fedora. But again, I had problems bringing up the desktop, and abandoned the effort. Same story with OpenSuse. Virtualbox was not working for me, so I switched to VMware.

Now, with bad memories of Ubuntu, I installed Fedora, and now things seemed to be working. But after working with it for a while, I found that I repeatedly got the 'command not found' message. After more time spent researching, I gave up on Fedora.

Now back to Opensuse. Nervous and running out of options, I put it on - and found that it worked great! Good German software!

Now for OF installation. In some of my earlier aborted attempts with Ubuntu, I had followed the directions in OpenFOAM.org, and ended up with installation folders containing airware, absolutely nothing. But my past experience with Wolfdynamics was good, and I found this video of theirs on OF installation in virtual machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8shAxyiO1SU And because of errors in paraview installation with OpenSuse, they had followed it up with this one to fix things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLxpMfNBrFk. Following these videos resulted in a working OpenFOAM system!

A massive relief after weeks of false starts; now back to the fun stuff, CFD!

[boffin5]

Not to go into boring details, but finding an effective OpenFOAM setup for my desktop PC has been a long dragout process. I have gone down numerous blind alleys and false leads, with constant wasted research effort along the way.


But here it is: OpenSUSE Leap 15.4, running on VMWare. Even with this. there was a blind alley; in the installation with the Gnome desktop, the graphics and latency were horrible, and Paraview did not work properly. After a couple of tries with this, I switched to the KDE Plasma desktop, and the transformation was magical. All of a sudden graphics were excellent, and Paraview worked perfectly.


I hope that this might save someone some time and effort if they are struggling like I was.