[gmx-users] install problem

[David van der Spoel]

John Mercer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am a beginning user of GROMACS, and am just now trying to get a 
> functional installation.  There is something not quite right about the 
> installations I have tried.  I have spent considerable time testing 
> ideas about what might be the problem, but have not nailed it.  I am 
> hoping someone will have a suggestion (perhaps obvious) that will reduce 
> the time I am spending getting GROMACS operational.  I can duplicate the 
> problem with multiple GROMACS subprograms but will only refer to "luck" 
> (luck.c).
> 
> Platform:  Mac OS X 10.4.10
> 
> Installations tried:
>     1. Binary package install of gromacs-3.3.dmg.gz (from www.gromacs.org)
>     2. Fink with compile; first standalone, then remove standalone and 
> install openmpi
> In both cases, GMXRC.bash is sourced in "profile".
>     3. All installations exhibit the same problem so I'll stick to fink.
>     
> Indications:
>     1. luck -c executes with a segmentation fault from any directory.
>     2. /sw/bin/luck -c executes normally from any directory. 
> (/usr/local/bin installation exhibits same problem.)
>     3. Not a UNIX PATH problem as non GROMACS functions in /sw/bin 
> execute normally from the same shell.
>     4. A shorter PATH value does function normally without regard to 
> where fink subdirectories are placed in the PATH, causing me to wonder 
> whether PATH is parsed in code with a fixed memory variable.
> 
> 
> Diagnostics:
>     1. luck -c prints the GROMACS banner before it's segmentation fault
>     2. /sw/bin/luck -c prints the banner, a wording for the GROMACS 
> acronym, a version number, the authors, software information, and a user 
> friendly quote.
>     3. Comparing 1. & 2. with luck.c, copyrite.c, etc suggestions that a 
> call to bromacs() in CopyRight() migh be where the problem manifests 
> itself.
>     4. The call sequence could be CopyRight() -> bromacs() -> pukeit() 
> -> low_lib_libopen() -> low_libfn().
>     5. Note: I haven't tested all these functions to verify they are 
> each involved, but suggest them as a hypothesis based on the output and 
> looking at traces of system calls.
>     6. One thing that puzzles me is that it looks as if low_libfn() 
> expects "GMXLIB" as an environment variable, but the script GMXRC.bash 
> sets up "GMXLDLIB as the library environment variable.
> 
> Whatever the problem, the program executes from any directory, but only 
> with the full path specified does it execute without a segmentation fault.
> 
> 
> Any advice on how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.
> 
have you tried using csh?
csh
source .../bin/GMXRC

just guessing at this point, but on my mac it works fins under a 
c-shell, an always has.

-- 
David van der Spoel, Ph.D.
Molec. Biophys. group, Dept. of Cell & Molec. Biol., Uppsala University.
Box 596, 75124 Uppsala, Sweden. Phone:	+46184714205. Fax: +4618511755.
spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se	spoel at gromacs.org   http://folding.bmc.uu.se