[gmx-users] confusion about segmentation fault during mdrun

Lan Hua lan.hua at gmail.com
Thu May 20 00:45:02 CEST 2010


Hi Justin,

   Thank you so much for your quick reply and good suggestions. The
following is my answer.

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Justin A. Lemkul <jalemkul at vt.edu> wrote:

>
>
> Lan Hua wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>>      I understand that the error of segmentation fault may come from many
>> reasons, but I just couldn't figure out the reason of this error in my
>> simulations.  I want to run md simulations with explicit water for 20
>> structures of one domain (residue 77-148) of calmodulin (PDB 1CFC).  These
>> 20 starting structures are from one REMD simulation in implicit water.  The
>> following is what I did to run simulations for these 20 structures.  I used
>> gromacs version 3.1.4 with ffamber ports.  The force field is amber03 and
>> water model is TIP3P.
>>
>>
> Do you have any particular reason for using software that is eight years
> old? You will get a massive performance upgrade with 4.0.7, as well as the
> ability to use multiple processors per replica.  In versions prior to 4.0,
> you can only use one processor per REMD replica.
>
> The reason that I am using gromacs 3.1.4 is to prepare some input files for
simulations at folding at home in which version 3.1.4 is recommended.


>
>    1.  get rid of the steric clash in the starting structure
>>
>
> What do you mean?  Energy minimization?  How did you did do this prior to
> step 2 (generating a topology)?
>
> I used the "protein preparation wizard" which is implemented in maestro
package to do this.   Actually in this wizard, energy minimization is
performed on protein.


>
>    2.  after doing pdb2gmx, then minimze the protein
>>   3,   use "-bt dodecahedron -d 0.9 -c"  in the command line of editconf
>>   4,  after doing genbox, first minimize the water with protein rigid and
>> then minimize the whole system
>>
>
> A lot of these steps are redundant and probably unnecessary.  Some tips:
>
> http://www.gromacs.org/Documentation/How-tos/Steps_to_Perform_a_Simulation
>
>
Thanks for the tips. I went to the link, but I am still a little bit
confused about which steps are unnecessary.  You mean step 7 and step 8?  I
did this in case simulations at F at H would be crashed.


>
>    5,  run md simulation with position restraint for protein heavy atoms
>> with nose-hoover thermostat for 20ps
>>   6,  run NPT simulations with nose-hoover thermostat and
>> Parrinello-Rahman thermostat for 500ps
>>   7,  run NVT simulation for another 100ps
>>   8, then energy minimze the whole system again.
>>
>> Every time, there are always "segmentation fault" in step 6 for some
>> starting structures which could be different in every try.  I checked the
>> energy, volume, pressure, temperature, etc for the trajectories which are
>> crashed because of segmentation fault,  but nothing was wrong.  I roughly
>> checked the trajectory which looks fine.  I also couldn't find any useful
>> information from the log file, which looks like the following:
>>
>>
> Using weak coupling (i.e. Berendsen) coupling is generally recommended for
> initial equilibration.  If a system is far from equilibrium (as it likely
> will be after adding patterned blocks of water with genbox), the N-H
> thermostat can allow for wild changes in the temperature of the system,
> leading to a collapse.
>
> Your temperature coupling groups are also inappropriate:
>
> Tcoupl                   = nose-hoover
> tc_grps                  = Protein  SOL  Na
> tau_t                    = 0.1      0.1     0.1
>
> Never couple solvent and ions separately; it can lead to instability:
>
> http://www.gromacs.org/Documentation/Terminology/Thermostats
>

These are good suggestions.  Thanks.  So use Berendsen coupling for both
temperature and pressure coupling for initial equilibration, for example
position restrained NVT followed by NPT, right? I have another question.  If
I choose constraints = hbonds instead of constraints = all-bonds in NPT
simulation, what will happen?


Best,

Lan


>
> -Justin
>
>
>            Step           Time         Lambda      Annealing
>>         180000      360.00003        0.00000        1.00000
>>
>>   Rel. Constraint Deviation:  Max    between atoms     RMS
>>       Before LINCS         0.045887     47     48   0.004584
>>        After LINCS         0.000020    752    755   0.000003
>>
>>   Energies (kJ/mol)
>>          Angle    Proper Dih. Ryckaert-Bell.          LJ-14     Coulomb-14
>>    2.08335e+03    1.59908e+02    2.95659e+03    1.17109e+03    1.27711e+04
>>        LJ (SR)  Disper. corr.   Coulomb (SR)   Coulomb (LR)      Potential
>>    4.10779e+04   -1.37728e+03   -2.89916e+05   -5.82443e+04   -2.89318e+05
>>    Kinetic En.   Total Energy    Temperature Pressure (bar)
>>    5.25584e+04   -2.36759e+05    2.96920e+02   -1.07683e+02
>>
>>           Step           Time         Lambda      Annealing
>>         185000      370.00003        0.00000        1.00000
>>
>>   Rel. Constraint Deviation:  Max    between atoms     RMS
>>       Before LINCS         0.052014     70     71   0.005149
>>        After LINCS         0.000011    214    215   0.000002
>>
>>   Energies (kJ/mol)
>>          Angle    Proper Dih. Ryckaert-Bell.          LJ-14     Coulomb-14
>>    2.33684e+03    1.42695e+02    2.91169e+03    1.18452e+03    1.28507e+04
>>        LJ (SR)  Disper. corr.   Coulomb (SR)   Coulomb (LR)      Potential
>>    4.06987e+04   -1.37332e+03   -2.88889e+05   -5.83180e+04   -2.88455e+05
>>    Kinetic En.   Total Energy    Temperature
>>
>> The *.mdp files are also attached.   Any help will be highly appreciated.
>>  Thank you.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>> Lan
>>
>>
> --
> ========================================
>
> Justin A. Lemkul
> Ph.D. Candidate
> ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
> MILES-IGERT Trainee
> Department of Biochemistry
> Virginia Tech
> Blacksburg, VA
> jalemkul[at]vt.edu | (540) 231-9080
> http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin
>
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