[gmx-users] Error installing gromacs on Solaris 9

[Erik Lindahl]

Hi John,

Try the new beta of release-3.2 at ftp.gromacs.org:/pub/beta. If it 
doesn't work, send the exact output error message to the list.

Unfortunately I suspect the error message might still be there on 
solaris, but you might be able to help us with some trial and error.


> Solaris? Or can someone guide a unix noob here how to modify the 
> Makefile?

Gromacs uses automake/autoconf, just as most of the GNU programs. This 
means the actual Makefile is generated by the configure script based on 
your system configuration, so you shouldn't touch the makefile itself.

>   (cd $libdir && test -e $libname.a -a ! -e $nompi.a && ln -s 
> $libname.a
> $nompi.a ; exit 0);
>   (cd $libdir && test -e $libname.so -a ! -e $nompi.so && ln -s 
> $libname.so
> $nompi.so ; exit 0);
>

When you build a parallel version of Gromacs, the library is called 
libgmx_mpi.a, instead of the default libgmx.a. If the standard library 
wasn't built already we want to make it a link to the mpi version.

This is what the commands do:

1. go to the library install directory
2. check that the main library is present (we just installed it)
3. check that the non-mpi library is not present
4. if 1-3 were true, make the link.

For some reason all systems except solaris seem to be happy with this, 
but it is no big deal, so if it still doesn't work we will just remove 
the link creation.

It will indeed work to run "make install" manually in all directories 
since the above step is run after the libraries are installed in the 
directories gmxlib and mdlib.

Cheers,

Erik