[gmx-users] LINCS WARNING relative constraint deviation

Justin Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Mon Oct 1 14:52:41 CEST 2012



On 10/1/12 7:10 AM, Ali Alizadeh wrote:
> Dear all users
>
> 1- I am trying to simulate a system that contains 1182 methane
> molecules(5910 atoms) and   1830 water molecules(5490), I
> keep getting these errors.

Something is wrong with the starting configuration, topology, or .mdp settings 
(see below for comments) such that energy minimization fails almost instantly.

http://www.gromacs.org/Documentation/Terminology/Blowing_Up

> 2- Gromacs does not give me  a .xtc file, Why?

Perhaps there's some quirk of the code that won't produce an .xtc file with an 
EM algorithm.  EM is normally quick and takes up little disk space, so the 
benefit to having a compressed trajectory is minimal in most cases.

> My command lines for grompp and mdrun in terminal window:
>
> grompp -f npt.mdp -c wwfull.top.gro -p topol.top -o topol.tpr -n ww.ndx
> mdrun -s topol.tpr -o wwfull.trr -x wwfull.xtc
>
> These are errors and my .mdp file:
>
> ...........................................
> Steepest Descents:
>     Tolerance (Fmax)   =  1.00000e-04
>     Number of steps    =         1000
>
> Step 50, time 0.01 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
> rms 0.000589, max 0.014000 (between atoms 2636 and 2638)
> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>   atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>     2636   2637   39.4    0.1090   0.1092      0.1090
>
> Step 51, time 0.0102 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
> rms 0.001802, max 0.029832 (between atoms 2026 and 2029)
> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>   atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>     2331   2334   43.1    0.1090   0.1093      0.1090
>     2026   2028   49.6    0.1090   0.1095      0.1090
>     5071   5074   41.7    0.1090   0.1093      0.1090
>     4806   4808   47.0    0.1090   0.1095      0.1090
>
> Step 52, time 0.0104 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
> rms 0.003002, max 0.049492 (between atoms 156 and 159)
> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>   atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>      471    474   51.7    0.1090   0.1096      0.1090
>     2331   2334   32.4    0.1093   0.1078      0.1090
>     5071   5074   31.3    0.1093   0.1081      0.1090
>      156    160   55.3    0.1090   0.1095      0.1090
>      916    919   41.0    0.1090   0.1093      0.1090
>     5886   5890   61.1    0.1090   0.1092      0.1090
>
> Step 53, time 0.0106 (ps)  LINCS WARNING
> relative constraint deviation after LINCS:
> rms 0.034606, max 0.843079 (between atoms 5886 and 5890)
> bonds that rotated more than 30 degrees:
>   atom 1 atom 2  angle  previous, current, constraint length
>      471    475   31.5    0.1049   0.1325      0.1090
>      471    474   92.9    0.1096   0.1519      0.1090
>      471    473   38.6    0.1044   0.1402      0.1090
>      471    472   92.7    0.1048   0.1568      0.1090
>     2331   2335   48.8    0.1082   0.1083      0.1090
>     2331   2334   48.4    0.1078   0.1070      0.1090
>     2331   2333   88.8    0.1110   0.1564      0.1090
>     2331   2332   88.8    0.1110   0.1586      0.1090
>     2026   2030   89.4    0.1103   0.1177      0.1090
>     2026   2028   40.0    0.1091   0.1191      0.1090
>     2026   2027   38.2    0.1089   0.1207      0.1090
>     5071   5075   41.9    0.1084   0.1048      0.1090
>     5071   5074   41.6    0.1081   0.1043      0.1090
>     5071   5073   88.6    0.1109   0.1376      0.1090
>     5071   5072   88.7    0.1110   0.1392      0.1090
>     4806   4810   89.3    0.1104   0.1176      0.1090
>     4806   4809   32.7    0.1104   0.0927      0.1090
>     4806   4808   35.2    0.1089   0.1140      0.1090
>     4806   4807   35.0    0.1088   0.1153      0.1090
>      156    160   92.7    0.1095   0.1324      0.1090
>      156    159   80.8    0.1036   0.0523      0.1090
>      156    158   90.0    0.1036   0.1338      0.1090
>      156    157   90.4    0.1037   0.1489      0.1090
>     2276   2280   38.3    0.1091   0.1114      0.1090
>     2276   2277   33.0    0.1089   0.1134      0.1090
>     2286   2290   37.8    0.1090   0.1102      0.1090
>      916    920   90.1    0.1068   0.1704      0.1090
>      916    919   45.9    0.1093   0.1237      0.1090
>      916    917   65.0    0.1067   0.1285      0.1090
>     1296   1300   31.2    0.1090   0.1094      0.1090
>     5886   5890   90.9    0.1092   0.2009      0.1090
>     5886   5889   47.9    0.1043   0.1326      0.1090
>     5886   5888   85.9    0.1045   0.1282      0.1090
>     5886   5887   91.4    0.1046   0.1208      0.1090
>
> Back Off! I just backed up step53b_n0.pdb to ./#step53b_n0.pdb.1#
>
> Back Off! I just backed up step53c_n0.pdb to ./#step53c_n0.pdb.1#
> Wrote pdb files with previous and current coordinates
> ..
> ..
> ..
>
> This is my .mdp file:
> title                    = Yo
> cpp                      = /usr/bin/cpp
> include                  =
> define                   =
>
> ; RUN CONTROL PARAMETERS
> integrator               = steep
> ; Start time and timestep in ps
> tinit                    = 0
> dt                       = 0.0002
> nsteps                   = 1000
> ; For exact run continuation or redoing part of a run
> init_step                = 0
> ; mode for center of mass motion removal
> comm_mode                = Linear
> ; number of steps for center of mass motion removal
> nstcomm                  = 10
> ; ENERGY MINIMIZATION OPTIONS
> ; Force tolerance and initial step-size
> emtol                    = 0.0001

Note that you will never achieve this value with single precision (or likely 
ever, for that matter).

> emstep                   = 0.00001

Something doesn't gel here.  The step size indicated in the mdrun output above 
suggests that your emstep is much larger than this value.  Note that dt is not 
used in conjunction with EM algorithms.

> ; Max number of iterations in relax_shells
> niter                    = 100
> ; Step size (ps^2) for minimization of flexible constraints
> fcstep                   = 0
> ; Frequency of steepest descents steps when doing CG
> nstcgsteep               = 1000
> nbfgscorr                = 10
>
> ; OUTPUT CONTROL OPTIONS
> ; Output frequency for coords (x), velocities (v) and forces (f)
> nstxout                  = 1
> nstvout                  = 100
> nstfout                  = 100
> nstcalcenergy            = -1
> ; Checkpointing helps you continue after crashes
> nstcheckpoint            = 1000
> ; Output frequency for energies to log file and energy file
> nstlog                   = 250
> nstenergy                = 60
> ; Output frequency and precision for xtc file
> nstxtcout                = 1
> xtc_precision            = 1000
> ; This selects the subset of atoms for the xtc file. You can
> ; select multiple groups. By default all atoms will be written.
> xtc_grps                 =
> ; NEIGHBORSEARCHING PARAMETERS
> ; nblist update frequency
> nstlist                  = 20

nstlist should always be set to 1 for EM.

> ; ns algorithm (simple or grid)
> ns_type                  = grid
> ; Periodic boundary conditions: xyz (default), no (vacuum)
> ; or full (infinite systems only)
> pbc                      = xyz
> ; nblist cut-off
> rlist                        = 0.35
> rlistlong                    = 0.35        ; cut off distance for

These cutoff settings make no sense.

> short range neighbor list
> ; OPTIONS FOR ELECTROSTATICS AND VDW
> ; Method for doing electrostatics
> coulombtype              = PME
> rcoulomb_switch          = 0
> rcoulomb                 = 0.35

Same comment here regarding rcoulomb.  You can't just choose arbitrary values 
for these settings and hope they work.  Force fields require certain cutoff 
values.  If you don't know them, spend some time reading about your chosen force 
field - it will save you a lot of time and wasted data in the future.

> ; Method for doing Van der Waals
> vdw_type                 = Cut-off
> ; cut-off lengths
> rvdw_switch              = 0
> rvdw                     = 0.35

Same comment regarding rvdw.

-Justin

-- 
========================================

Justin A. Lemkul, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
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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