Jorgen
2007-08-28, 19:43
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One of the best Linux distributions that is currently available is SuSE Linux. This distribution, which is my personal favorite, recently released a new version that is based on the new 2.6 kernel. I recently attempted to install ABAQUS on an Intel-based computer equipped with SuSE 9.1. This document summarizes my findings. In summary, with some effort you can make ABAQUS work on this cool OS.
Installing ABAQUS on one of the supported Linux distributions is quite easy, you simply run the installation program. The problem, however, is that ABAQUS only supports old Linux distributions. I have also been told that the new version of ABAQUS that is to be released later this fall, will not support the new 2.6 kernel either.
Just because a distribution, in this case SuSE 9.1, is not supported does not mean that I cannot install it anyway. Or at least that was what I set out to do. The first problem that I encountered was that the installation program crashes almost immediately when used on this new OS. The problem was that the installation software was using an old java library that is not compatible with SuSE 9.1. To overcome this problem I dumped all files from the CD to a local directory on my harddrive and then replaced the java files that were stored on the CD with a new fresh java library. And yes, this indeed solved the first problem.
Unfortunately, there are more challenges that need to be overcome. The next problem was that the java-based zeroG installation software crashed with a negative string index error message. The zeroG version that is available on the CD is somewhat old, and this might be what caused the problem. Unfortunately, I was not able to solve this problem, as I did not have access to a more recent version of the zeroG software. To get around this problem I copied all ABAQUS files from an old installation that I had on another computer. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but quite efficient. If I had not had these files around, it is possible to manually extract the ABAQUS files using the jar command since the files are stored in a few big jar-archives.
After I had installed the files I though that I would be home free, but no such luck. When I tried to start the license server I got a fatal error due to incompatible glibc-libraries. It turns out that SuSE 9.1 is using a more recent glibc-library that what is required by the ABAQUS license manager daemon. Fortunately, this is an easy one to solve. If I give the command export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1 before attempting to start the license daemon, then the right glibc library will be used and the daemon will start properly. Another possibility to accomplish this is to download a more recent version of the ABAQUS flexlm daemon from the ABAQUS support web-site, although I did not learn about this until later and have not tried it yet.
After this I had a functioning ABAQUS installation on a new and exciting SuSE 9.1 system.
However, if you are interested in running user material subroutines, like I often do, then you also need to install a fortran compiler. The recommended compiler is the Intel fortran compiler. Just to make life tricky, ABAQUS does not yet support the latest version of the Intel fortran compiler. Note that the latest version of the compiler can be downloaded from free from the Intel web-site. The ABAQUS support website claims that you need to purchase the commercial version of the fortran compiler and then you are allowed to download an older version that can be used by ABAQUS. I noticed, fortunately, that if I register for the free Intel fortran compiler then I can still download the older compiler for free. All is well and good.
With that I have now finished installing a complete ABAQUS system on SuSE 9.1, somewhat tricky but well worth the effort ;)
One of the best Linux distributions that is currently available is SuSE Linux. This distribution, which is my personal favorite, recently released a new version that is based on the new 2.6 kernel. I recently attempted to install ABAQUS on an Intel-based computer equipped with SuSE 9.1. This document summarizes my findings. In summary, with some effort you can make ABAQUS work on this cool OS.
Installing ABAQUS on one of the supported Linux distributions is quite easy, you simply run the installation program. The problem, however, is that ABAQUS only supports old Linux distributions. I have also been told that the new version of ABAQUS that is to be released later this fall, will not support the new 2.6 kernel either.
Just because a distribution, in this case SuSE 9.1, is not supported does not mean that I cannot install it anyway. Or at least that was what I set out to do. The first problem that I encountered was that the installation program crashes almost immediately when used on this new OS. The problem was that the installation software was using an old java library that is not compatible with SuSE 9.1. To overcome this problem I dumped all files from the CD to a local directory on my harddrive and then replaced the java files that were stored on the CD with a new fresh java library. And yes, this indeed solved the first problem.
Unfortunately, there are more challenges that need to be overcome. The next problem was that the java-based zeroG installation software crashed with a negative string index error message. The zeroG version that is available on the CD is somewhat old, and this might be what caused the problem. Unfortunately, I was not able to solve this problem, as I did not have access to a more recent version of the zeroG software. To get around this problem I copied all ABAQUS files from an old installation that I had on another computer. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but quite efficient. If I had not had these files around, it is possible to manually extract the ABAQUS files using the jar command since the files are stored in a few big jar-archives.
After I had installed the files I though that I would be home free, but no such luck. When I tried to start the license server I got a fatal error due to incompatible glibc-libraries. It turns out that SuSE 9.1 is using a more recent glibc-library that what is required by the ABAQUS license manager daemon. Fortunately, this is an easy one to solve. If I give the command export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1 before attempting to start the license daemon, then the right glibc library will be used and the daemon will start properly. Another possibility to accomplish this is to download a more recent version of the ABAQUS flexlm daemon from the ABAQUS support web-site, although I did not learn about this until later and have not tried it yet.
After this I had a functioning ABAQUS installation on a new and exciting SuSE 9.1 system.
However, if you are interested in running user material subroutines, like I often do, then you also need to install a fortran compiler. The recommended compiler is the Intel fortran compiler. Just to make life tricky, ABAQUS does not yet support the latest version of the Intel fortran compiler. Note that the latest version of the compiler can be downloaded from free from the Intel web-site. The ABAQUS support website claims that you need to purchase the commercial version of the fortran compiler and then you are allowed to download an older version that can be used by ABAQUS. I noticed, fortunately, that if I register for the free Intel fortran compiler then I can still download the older compiler for free. All is well and good.
With that I have now finished installing a complete ABAQUS system on SuSE 9.1, somewhat tricky but well worth the effort ;)