Developer Install Guide

The easiest ways to install Chaste are:

If you encounter any problems, or have an unusual setup, the following material may be useful. Note that some familiarity with installing software on Linux-like systems may be required.

Basic installation

The manual instructions below detail an installation using preferred versions of our dependencies, for a non-root user.

These instructions have been tried successfully on:

  • Fedora 39 (Nov 2023)

Some pre-requisites

The following tools are required or useful. Most systems will already have these installed, or provide an easy way to set them up:

  • gcc and g++
  • gfortran — if you want to build PETSc with HYPRE support (--download-hypre option below).
  • wget
  • python3, python3-venv and python3-pip
  • git — for users of development branches.
  • valgrind — for memory testing (optional).

Since version 3.1, Chaste requires a 64-bit system. Almost all modern systems will be 64-bit. In the terminal, type

uname -m

If this returns i686, you have a 32-bit system, and you will not be able to use modern versions of Chaste.

Many systems will also include some of the below Chaste dependencies already. You can usually have a look for them with locate, e.g.

locate petsc

If you find pre-existing versions, then check Dependency Versions to see if they are compatible with Chaste. If so, you may be able to skip their installation below, but make sure that you have the ‘includes’ and ’libraries’ where required (if you don’t know what this means then just follow all the below instructions!).

Note

The newest versions of libraries may not have been tested yet, so don’t simply install latest version! Ideally follow these instructions, but if this isn’t possible (or you have pre-installed versions) then check Dependency Versions first.

Setup

First define the directory where you want to manually install the libraries that Chaste depends on. It is generally best if this is on a local hard disk for speed. We will also add the binary directory to the path right away, so we can run cmake (which we are about to install) without having to type the full path to this directory. How to do this depends on your shell, but if you are running bash the easiest way is to add it to your .bashrc file, e.g. using

gedit ~/.bashrc

At the end of the file add the following lines:

export CHASTE_LIBS=$HOME/apps/chaste-libs
export PATH=$CHASTE_LIBS/bin:$PATH

Save, quit and then re-load .bashrc (or log out and back in again):

source ~/.bashrc

If it doesn’t already exist, create the directory:

mkdir -p $CHASTE_LIBS

The following instructions assume that:

  • wget is installed.
  • You are connected to the internet.

If either of these is not true, then download the https links in your browser and copy them onto the machine you wish to install on.

This uses scripts from the dependency-modules repository to install Chaste dependencies as environment modules, which makes it possible to install multiple versions of the dependencies side-by-side and enables switching between them. If you do not already have an environment modules system installed, you can install one e.g.

sudo apt-get install environment-modules # Ubuntu
sudo dnf install environment-modules # Fedora

Log out and back in again to activate the environment modules in the shell; alternatively, run

source  /etc/profile.d/modules.sh

To check that environment modules have been activated, run

module avail

If all has gone well, you should see output similar to the following:

----------------------- /usr/share/modules/modulefiles -----------------------
dot  module-git  module-info  modules  null  use.own  

Key:
modulepath

Define the directory where you want to install the libraries that Chaste depends on, and create a modulefiles directory in it e.g.

export CHASTE_LIBS=$HOME/apps/chaste-libs
mkdir -p $CHASTE_LIBS/modulefiles

Register the modulefiles directory with the environment modules system.

module use $CHASTE_LIBS/modulefiles

It is recommended that you add the above line to your .bashrc (or similar) so the modulefiles directory is registered every time you log in e.g.

echo "module use $CHASTE_LIBS/modulefiles" >> ~/.bashrc

The following instructions assume that:

  • git is installed.
  • wget is installed.
  • You are connected to the internet.

If any of these is not true, then download the links in your browser and copy them onto the machine you wish to install on.

Clone the dependency-modules repository.

git clone https://github.com/Chaste/dependency-modules.git
cd dependency-modules/scripts
See the manual setup instructions.
sudo apt-get update

CMake

CMake is the recommended build system for Chaste, and is needed to build several of the dependencies listed below.

wget https://www.cmake.org/files/v3.22/cmake-3.22.6.tar.gz
tar -zxf cmake-3.22.6.tar.gz
cd cmake-3.22.6
./bootstrap --prefix=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4 && make -j4 && make install
cd ..
rm -rf cmake-3.22.6.tar.gz cmake-3.22.6

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_cmake.sh  --version=3.22.6  --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4
sudo dnf install cmake
sudo apt-get install cmake cmake-curses-gui

Boost

wget https://boostorg.jfrog.io/artifactory/main/release/1.74.0/source/boost_1_74_0.tar.gz
tar -zxf boost_1_74_0.tar.gz
cd boost_1_74_0
./bootstrap.sh --prefix=$CHASTE_LIBS --with-libraries=system,serialization,program_options
./b2 install
cd ..
rm -rf boost_1_74_0.tar.gz boost_1_74_0

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_boost.sh --version=1.74.0 --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4
sudo dnf install boost-system boost-serialization boost-program-options
sudo apt-get install libboost-system-dev libboost-serialization-dev libboost-program-options-dev

PETSc

PETSc can install a lot of Chaste’s dependencies for us.

(There is a --download-boost option, but this doesn’t include the particular libraries we need, so we can’t use that.)

These steps can take some time (potentially an hour or more).

cd $CHASTE_LIBS
wget https://ftp.mcs.anl.gov/pub/petsc/release-snapshots/petsc-lite-3.18.6.tar.gz
tar -zxf petsc-lite-3.18.6.tar.gz
rm -f petsc-lite-3.18.6.tar.gz
cd petsc-3.18.6
export PETSC_DIR=`pwd`

Define package versions for MPICH and HDF5

mpich=https://www.mpich.org/static/downloads/4.1.2/mpich-4.1.2.tar.gz
hdf5=https://support.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/releases/hdf5-1.10/hdf5-1.10.11/src/hdf5-1.10.11.tar.bz2

If you want to build PETSc with hypre, optionally remove --with-fc=0 and add --download-hypre=1 in the following code blocks. If you are not sure whether you want to build PETSc with hypre, leave the following as is.

export PETSC_ARCH=linux-gnu
./configure \
  --with-make-np=4 \
  --with-cc=gcc \
  --with-cxx=g++ \
  --with-fc=0 \
  --with-x=false \
  --with-ssl=false \
  --download-f2cblaslapack=1 \
  --download-mpich=$mpich \
  --download-hdf5=$hdf5 \
  --download-parmetis=1 \
  --download-metis=1 \
  --with-shared-libraries
make all
make test # optional

Optional – install optimised PETSc build too.

export PETSC_ARCH=linux-gnu-opt
./configure \
  --with-make-np=4 \
  --with-cc=gcc \
  --with-cxx=g++ \
  --with-fc=0 \
  --with-x=false \
  --with-ssl=false \
  --download-f2cblaslapack=1 \
  --download-mpich=$mpich \
  --download-hdf5=$hdf5 \
  --download-parmetis=1 \
  --download-metis=1 \
  --with-shared-libraries \
  --with-debugging=0
make all
make test # optional
unset PETSC_ARCH
unset PETSC_DIR

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_petsc_hdf5.sh \
    --petsc-version=3.18.6 \
    --hdf5-version=1.10.11 \
    --petsc-arch=linux-gnu \
    --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS \
    --parallel=4

Optional – install optimised PETSc build too.

./install_petsc_hdf5.sh \
    --petsc-version=3.18.6 \
    --hdf5-version=1.10.11 \
    --petsc-arch=linux-gnu-opt \
    --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS \
    --parallel=4

See the manual instructions for PETSc.

Fedora provides a PETSc package, but unfortunately this does not currently contain all the files required to use PETSc with Chaste.

Search for PETSc in the Ubuntu repository:

apt-cache search libpetsc-real

Install e.g PETSc 3.15

sudo apt-get install libpetsc-real3.15 libpetsc-real3.15-dev libpetsc-real3.15-dbg

HDF5

See the manual instructions for PETSc.
See the module install instructions for PETSc.
See the manual instructions for PETSc.
sudo apt-get install hdf5-tools libhdf5-openmpi-dev

ParMETIS

See the manual instructions for PETSc.
See the module install instructions for PETSc.
See the manual instructions for PETSc.
sudo apt-get install libmetis-dev libparmetis-dev

SUNDIALS

wget https://github.com/LLNL/sundials/releases/download/v5.8.0/sundials-5.8.0.tar.gz
tar -zxf sundials-5.8.0.tar.gz
mkdir build-sundials-5.8.0 && cd build-sundials-5.8.0
cmake \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$CHASTE_LIBS \
  -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DEXAMPLES_ENABLE=OFF ../sundials-5.8.0
make -j4 && make install
cd ..
rm -rf build-sundials-5.8.0 sundials-5.8.0 sundials-5.8.0.tar.gz

Load the CMake module

module load cmake/3.22.6

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_sundials.sh --version=5.8.0 --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4
sudo dnf install sundials-devel
sudo apt-get install libsundials-dev

XSD

cd $CHASTE_LIBS
wget https://www.codesynthesis.com/download/xsd/4.0/linux-gnu/x86_64/xsd-4.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
tar -xjf xsd-4.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
ln -s $CHASTE_LIBS/xsd-4.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu/bin/xsd $CHASTE_LIBS/bin/xsd
rm -f xsd-4.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_xsd.sh --version=4.0.0 --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS
sudo dnf install xsd
sudo apt-get install xsdcxx

Xerces

wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/xerces/c/3/sources/xerces-c-3.2.3.tar.gz
tar -zxf xerces-c-3.2.3.tar.gz
cd xerces-c-3.2.3/
export XERCESCROOT=`pwd`
./configure --prefix=$CHASTE_LIBS
make -j4 all
make install
cd ..
rm -rf xerces-c-3.2.3 xerces-c-3.2.3.tar.gz

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_xercesc.sh  --version=3.2.3  --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4
sudo dnf install xerces-c xerces-c-devel
sudo apt-get install libxerces-c-dev

VTK

wget https://www.vtk.org/files/release/9.1/VTK-9.1.0.tar.gz
tar -zxf VTK-9.1.0.tar.gz
mkdir build_VTK-9.1.0 && cd build_VTK-9.1.0
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$CHASTE_LIBS ../VTK-9.1.0 && make -j4 && make install
cd ..
rm -rf build_VTK-9.1.0 VTK-9.1.0 VTK-9.1.0.tar.gz

Troubleshooting

  • Install OpenGL e.g. sudo dnf install mesa-libGL-devel on Fedora (or similar) to get OpenGL headers installed before this point, if you get a configure error stating that these headers have not been found
  • Install RPM Config e.g. sudo dnf install redhat-rpm-config (or similar) if you get gcc: error: /usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1: No such file or directory
  • Install X11 e.g. sudo dnf install libxt-devel (or similar) if you get an error about X11

Load the CMake module

module load cmake/3.22.6

From the dependency-modules/scripts directory, run

./install_vtk.sh --version=9.1.0 --modules-dir=$CHASTE_LIBS --parallel=4
sudo dnf install vtk-devel

Search for VTK in the Ubuntu repository:

apt-cache search libvtk

Install e.g VTK 9.1

sudo apt-get install libvtk9.1 libvtk9-dev

chaste_codegen

chaste_codegen requires:

  • python3
  • python3-venv
  • python3-pip
  • an internet connection at least during the initial build

The build process will create a Python virtual environment and install chaste_codegen from PyPI

If required, a manual copy can also be installed as follows:

python3 -m venv <name_of_new_venv_folder>
python3 -m <name_of_new_venv_folder>/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
python3 -m <name_of_new_venv_folder>/bin/python -m pip install chaste_codegen

For more details see Installing chaste_codegen.

See the manual instructions for chaste_codegen.
See the manual instructions for chaste_codegen.
See the manual instructions for chaste_codegen.

Post-installation

For manually installed dependencies, you probably then want to add various environment variables specifying the installed dependency locations to your .bashrc file, e.g. using

gedit ~/.bashrc

At the end of the file add the lines (leaving out packages you installed via a package manager):

export PETSC_DIR=$CHASTE_LIBS/petsc-3.18.6
export PETSC_ARCH=linux-gnu

export SUNDIALS_ROOT=$CHASTE_LIBS

export HDF5_ROOT=$PETSC_DIR/$PETSC_ARCH

export XERCES_INCLUDE_DIR=$CHASTE_LIBS/include
export XERCES_LIBRARY_DIR=$CHASTE_LIBS/lib

export XSD_ROOT=$CHASTE_LIBS/xsd-4.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu

Save, quit and then re-load .bashrc (or log out and back in again):

source ~/.bashrc

Clean up residual build artifacts and source tarballs

rm -rf $CHASTE_LIBS/src

To view installed modules, run

module avail

The output should be similar to:

--------------------- /home/runner/chaste-libs/modulefiles ---------------------
cmake/3.22.6      boost/1.74.0    petsc_hdf5/3.18.6_1.10.11/linux-gnu
sundials/5.8.0    vtk/9.1.0       xercesc/3.2.3
xsd/4.0.0  

------------------------ /usr/share/modules/modulefiles ------------------------
dot  module-git  module-info  modules  null  use.own  

Key:
modulepath

The installed modules need to be loaded into the environment before configuring Chaste. To do this, run

module load cmake/3.22.6
module load boost/1.74.0
module load petsc_hdf5/3.18.6_1.10.11/linux-gnu
module load sundials/5.8.0
module load vtk/9.1.0
module load xercesc/3.2.3
module load xsd/4.0.0
See the manual post-installation instructions.
You are ready to go. The dependencies will be located automatically.

Configuring Chaste

Once you’ve installed the dependencies as above, you need to get hold of the Chaste code. See Getting Started for the options to pick here. Once you’ve done this, you are ready to build and run the test suite – see the CMake First Run Guide.

See Also

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