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Ubuntu 14.04LTS installation notes
Posted 19 dic 2014, 14:41 GMT-5 Installation & License Management Version 5.0 11 Replies
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I just installed COMSOL 5 on Ubuntu 14.04LTS. Here are my notes in case they could help somebody.
Linux install is a bit of a pain because COMSOL's idea of "support" for unix is, umm..., calibrated differently than for other OS's. In any case, linux install was well worth it. In my preliminary benchmark linux was _twice_ as fast as Windoze running COMSOL and seems to use memory more effectively.
Notes:
-- COMSOL on linux requires LSB support that is not in Ubuntu 14.04LTS by default. Before installing COMSOL you should run
sudo apt-get install lsb-core
to install the LSB dynamic linker
-- I dowloaded COMSOL50_glnxa64.tar.gz. I untarred. Changed to the untarred directory. I ran "sudo ./setup". Answered the questions. Took defaults. Specified my license file, my names, etc.... Click Install. Everything seemed to install OK with no error. The whole pile goes into /usr/local/comsol50 and noplace else. Obviously this approach doesn't give you a working installation. The COMSOL devs don't know about RPMs and such, apparantly.
--No license manager startup is installed. I had to do this manually. The COMSOL devs apparantly have never heard of upstart and such. There's a template rc script in
/usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/license/glnxa64/rc.lm
You can edit this rc script and paste it into /etc/rc.local before the exit 0. Make sure /etc/rc.local is executable. Reboot and this should start LMCOMSOL
--No desktop icon is created by the installer, nor is there a "comsol" command in the command line path.
You'll find some windoze icon files in the installer directory. I converted one to PNG using gimp. Adding desktop launchers are descripbed here help.ubuntu.com/community/UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles
--If you'd rather have a comsol command to run from the command line you can make a symblink to /usr/local/bin as described in COMSOL support "solution" 1086. But be careful cutting and pasting. The command for creating a symbolic link is incorrect. It should be
sudo ln -s /usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/local/bin/comsol
not what appears in the COMSOL solution
sudo ln –s /usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/local/bin/comsol # WRONG!
That one had me going for a few minutes.
-------------------
Anyway, I hope this helps somebody.
Linux install is a bit of a pain because COMSOL's idea of "support" for unix is, umm..., calibrated differently than for other OS's. In any case, linux install was well worth it. In my preliminary benchmark linux was _twice_ as fast as Windoze running COMSOL and seems to use memory more effectively.
Notes:
-- COMSOL on linux requires LSB support that is not in Ubuntu 14.04LTS by default. Before installing COMSOL you should run
sudo apt-get install lsb-core
to install the LSB dynamic linker
-- I dowloaded COMSOL50_glnxa64.tar.gz. I untarred. Changed to the untarred directory. I ran "sudo ./setup". Answered the questions. Took defaults. Specified my license file, my names, etc.... Click Install. Everything seemed to install OK with no error. The whole pile goes into /usr/local/comsol50 and noplace else. Obviously this approach doesn't give you a working installation. The COMSOL devs don't know about RPMs and such, apparantly.
--No license manager startup is installed. I had to do this manually. The COMSOL devs apparantly have never heard of upstart and such. There's a template rc script in
/usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/license/glnxa64/rc.lm
You can edit this rc script and paste it into /etc/rc.local before the exit 0. Make sure /etc/rc.local is executable. Reboot and this should start LMCOMSOL
--No desktop icon is created by the installer, nor is there a "comsol" command in the command line path.
You'll find some windoze icon files in the installer directory. I converted one to PNG using gimp. Adding desktop launchers are descripbed here help.ubuntu.com/community/UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles
--If you'd rather have a comsol command to run from the command line you can make a symblink to /usr/local/bin as described in COMSOL support "solution" 1086. But be careful cutting and pasting. The command for creating a symbolic link is incorrect. It should be
sudo ln -s /usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/local/bin/comsol
not what appears in the COMSOL solution
sudo ln –s /usr/local/comsol50/multiphysics/bin/comsol /usr/local/bin/comsol # WRONG!
That one had me going for a few minutes.
-------------------
Anyway, I hope this helps somebody.
11 Replies Last Post 16 gen 2015, 15:34 GMT-5
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Posted:
10 years ago
Chris, thanks for the notes. I did not have lsb-core installed, and COMSOL runs fine. Do you know what it does for COMSOL ?
Also, it would be nice to gain more Linux support, but the support goes where the number of users are. Perhaps if we can get more COMSOL-linux users through notes like yours, it would help. Thanks again.
At least we get a native-code executable for Linux. I have used some commercial CFD codes (will not name them here) who supply "linux" version that is nothing more than a wine-enabled windows version. Can you imagine getting that for your money ?
I think the approach is that if a user is savvy enough to be able to use Linux, he can figure these simple things out (softlinks, etc.).
When I have had really tough problems, such as getting COMSOL to work well in a parallel Linux environment, COMSOL support has been superb !
Personally, I left the Windows environment and started with Linux for my desktop in 1994 after 3.1 was released and never looked back. I do have to use Windows occasionally which is more like another application in a VM setup on my linux machines.
The application manager ONLY works on the Windows versions of COMSOL.
Also, it would be nice to gain more Linux support, but the support goes where the number of users are. Perhaps if we can get more COMSOL-linux users through notes like yours, it would help. Thanks again.
At least we get a native-code executable for Linux. I have used some commercial CFD codes (will not name them here) who supply "linux" version that is nothing more than a wine-enabled windows version. Can you imagine getting that for your money ?
I think the approach is that if a user is savvy enough to be able to use Linux, he can figure these simple things out (softlinks, etc.).
When I have had really tough problems, such as getting COMSOL to work well in a parallel Linux environment, COMSOL support has been superb !
Personally, I left the Windows environment and started with Linux for my desktop in 1994 after 3.1 was released and never looked back. I do have to use Windows occasionally which is more like another application in a VM setup on my linux machines.
The application manager ONLY works on the Windows versions of COMSOL.
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Posted:
10 years ago
Thank you Chris!
I didn't know about LSB support, I will keep in mind that before installing 5.0
About the icon, I used to take it from demo/api/beammodel/comsolicon.png
I don't know if this path is still useful in 5.0
I believe the problem you had copying and pasting the last command from the pdf is caused by the hyphen. The hyphens renders differently when copied from a PDF than when typed manually at the console. So you just have to erase the hyphen and rewrite it manually.
But I agree with you, having to discover all this tricks and doing all the license procedure manually is a hassle Windows users do not have to suffer. This can make impossible for a Linux newbie to install Comsol in a Linux machine.
I wonder which OS do Comsol's servers run?
Maybe all the open source software (e.g. Arpack, FFTW, etc... ) that Comsol runs on the background were developed under Windows using a Microsoft license?
I'm almost sure they are not. Just check the Acknowledgements in the Help menu and you will see all sort of Open-Source licensed software. So why not to support back that open-source community which is a building block of what we know as Comsol?
cheers,
Felipe Beltran-Mejia
I didn't know about LSB support, I will keep in mind that before installing 5.0
About the icon, I used to take it from demo/api/beammodel/comsolicon.png
I don't know if this path is still useful in 5.0
I believe the problem you had copying and pasting the last command from the pdf is caused by the hyphen. The hyphens renders differently when copied from a PDF than when typed manually at the console. So you just have to erase the hyphen and rewrite it manually.
But I agree with you, having to discover all this tricks and doing all the license procedure manually is a hassle Windows users do not have to suffer. This can make impossible for a Linux newbie to install Comsol in a Linux machine.
I wonder which OS do Comsol's servers run?
Maybe all the open source software (e.g. Arpack, FFTW, etc... ) that Comsol runs on the background were developed under Windows using a Microsoft license?
I'm almost sure they are not. Just check the Acknowledgements in the Help menu and you will see all sort of Open-Source licensed software. So why not to support back that open-source community which is a building block of what we know as Comsol?
cheers,
Felipe Beltran-Mejia
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Posted:
10 years ago
Chris, thanks for the notes. I did not have lsb-core installed, and COMSOL runs fine. Do you know what it does for COMSOL ?
I think LSB is only there to support the license manager. If you have a network license then maybe
you didn't need to install the LM and never encountered this dependency.
--
C
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Posted:
10 years ago
I believe the problem you had copying and pasting the last command from the pdf is caused by the hyphen.
Yes, of course the hyphen was the problem, but knowledgebase article 1086 is not a PDF. In my opinion, if you give command line advice in a post like that, you should SPELL EVERYTHING CORRECTLY. Sweating the details and providing a cut/paste ready command is a sign of helpful professionalism. On the other hand,
providing a command line example with a subtle typo is, ummm, not.
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Posted:
10 years ago
THIS JUST IN....
Under Ubuntu 14.04LTS the help button crashes COMSOL. Yep... Stone cold crashes. Can you imagine the poor COMSOL beginner seeking help, pushes that little blue question mark, and BANG! All work lost.
There's even a support KB article about the issue where the "recommended solution" is to
not push the help button!!! I wonder how people are supposed to know that?
Anyway, the KB article also has some other ways to fix the crash. Not sure strugging this much to get COMSOL "help" is worth it. Now that I know it's a sucker button, I know not to push it.
www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1178/
Under Ubuntu 14.04LTS the help button crashes COMSOL. Yep... Stone cold crashes. Can you imagine the poor COMSOL beginner seeking help, pushes that little blue question mark, and BANG! All work lost.
There's even a support KB article about the issue where the "recommended solution" is to
not push the help button!!! I wonder how people are supposed to know that?
Anyway, the KB article also has some other ways to fix the crash. Not sure strugging this much to get COMSOL "help" is worth it. Now that I know it's a sucker button, I know not to push it.
www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1178/
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Posted:
10 years ago
Wait, I stand corrected, on one minor point. On careful reading of KB 1178 even though it says
"The quickest solution is to use a an external web browser to access the documentation."
Which made me think I was supposed to use an external web browser to access the documentation.
What they actually _mean_ by that is I should choose
Options->Preferences->General->HelpMode->WebBrowser
And indeed this will fire up your external web browser for you and show context help instead of totally crashing COMSOL. Definitely worth doing.
"The quickest solution is to use a an external web browser to access the documentation."
Which made me think I was supposed to use an external web browser to access the documentation.
What they actually _mean_ by that is I should choose
Options->Preferences->General->HelpMode->WebBrowser
And indeed this will fire up your external web browser for you and show context help instead of totally crashing COMSOL. Definitely worth doing.
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Posted:
10 years ago
(...)
There's even a support KB article about the issue where the "recommended solution" is to
not push the help button!!! I wonder how people are supposed to know that?
(...)
www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1178/
Good to know, there's a good reason for not to install 5.0.... yet.
Again, thanks for the advice.
--
Felipe Beltran-Mejia
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Posted:
10 years ago
Good to know, there's a good reason for not to install 5.0.... yet.
Not sure I agree about _that_. I mean, there's a lot of useful stuff in 5.0. In my case, the auto meshing of PML regions, and permittivity aware meshing, is very helpful for the RF and Optics modules.
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Posted:
10 years ago
By the way, along with avoiding clicks on the Help button, I've found that merely hovering my mouse over any top menu item that has a submenu, like Windows -> Desktop Layout, will instantly crash COMSOL. So don't do that either :)
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Posted:
10 years ago
Not sure I agree about _that_. I mean, there's a lot of useful stuff in 5.0....
Totally agree, but I prefer stability rather than those new features.
cheers,
Felipe Beltran-Mejia
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Posted:
10 years ago
Another awesome feature in COMSOL 5 is the beam envelope formulation. This handles some optics
problems that were impractical to solve in 3D using the ordinary Maxwell formulations in COMSOL 4.
I took the time to do a few benchmarks between Win7 and Ubuntu 14.04 with COMSOL 5 and saw much faster solving on Ubuntu. Like a lot faster -- like almost twice as fast. Now, my benchmarks weren't fully scientific so I might've been fooled by something or other, but I became very convinced that running on Ubuntu was "worth it" just for that fact alone, even though I fully expected to hear the usual "we don't support Linux" from COMSOL support as a knee-jerk reaction to any bug in COMSOL I might discover. I REALLY get tired hearing that paltry excuse, especially with respect to egregious GUI crashes.
That said, maybe I should've used a dusty 3-year-old Ubutu 12.04LTS to avoid banging my head against this particular wall, but the COMSOL folks are making noises like they _may_ someday update their configuration so as to support a modern Linux and 14.04LTS has been out almost a year. There's a chance that maybe COMSOL will ship a "modern linux supported" version of 5.0 before I have to pay them again.
problems that were impractical to solve in 3D using the ordinary Maxwell formulations in COMSOL 4.
I took the time to do a few benchmarks between Win7 and Ubuntu 14.04 with COMSOL 5 and saw much faster solving on Ubuntu. Like a lot faster -- like almost twice as fast. Now, my benchmarks weren't fully scientific so I might've been fooled by something or other, but I became very convinced that running on Ubuntu was "worth it" just for that fact alone, even though I fully expected to hear the usual "we don't support Linux" from COMSOL support as a knee-jerk reaction to any bug in COMSOL I might discover. I REALLY get tired hearing that paltry excuse, especially with respect to egregious GUI crashes.
That said, maybe I should've used a dusty 3-year-old Ubutu 12.04LTS to avoid banging my head against this particular wall, but the COMSOL folks are making noises like they _may_ someday update their configuration so as to support a modern Linux and 14.04LTS has been out almost a year. There's a chance that maybe COMSOL will ship a "modern linux supported" version of 5.0 before I have to pay them again.