• CFD,  Development,  Linux,  Personal projects

    A basic geometry module

    It is time for another update about my hobby project. I have been working on a module to perform basic operations on the geometry used to perform CFD simulations. Originally my application did this inside the module used to configure meshing with snappyHexMesh. However, this directly linked the geometry assembly to the mesh. I wanted to separate the two tasks for two reasons: Allow the same geometry assembly to be reused in multiple simulations. This also allows to reduce the number of times the same geometry information is stored, which is good side effect. Reduce the complexity of the mesh configuration tool. Focus of this update is the part of…

  • CFD,  Development,  Linux,  Personal projects

    Some updates on my hobby project

    Some time ago I tweeted about working on a web-based UI for our codes (and snappyHexMesh) to facilitate working with students and also to make the process less tedious for me, which does not hurt. I have never done development with web technologies until two years ago: most of my focus has been on implementing numerical algorithms. I have written UI code in the past using GTK and Qt, but I was quite far from anything web-related, aside from basic HTML. Saying the learning curve was steep is an understatement, but with the help of a very good friend (with the patience of a saint 😀 ) I have slowly…

  • CFD,  General,  Linux,  OpenFOAM,  Windows

    Developing for OpenFOAM on Windows 10 – Part 3

    Enabling support for graphical applications in WSL with Xming The Windows Subsystem for Linux does not officially support GUI applications. However, it is possible to successfully run several of them using a Windows-based X server as Xming. The steps to follow are simple: Download Xming (please, consider a donation to support the developer!) for your version of Windows Install it accepting the default settings Open the Ubuntu bash terminal and type echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> .bashrc Load the settings with the command: source ~/.bashrc Test the setup as follows: Start the Xming server on Windows. An icon will appear in the notification areas Type paraview in the Ubuntu bash terminal.…

  • CFD,  Linux,  OpenFOAM,  Windows

    Developing for OpenFOAM on Windows 10 – Part 2

    Installing OpenFOAM on WSL – Ubuntu The installation steps for OpenFOAM on Ubuntu are straightforward because the OpenFOAM Foundation provides packages for Ubuntu which can be directly used in WSL. The following steps summarize how to rapidly set OpenFOAM-dev up on WSL. Open the Ubuntu bash terminal on Windows 10, and add the OpenFOAM repository and the corresponding signatures with the commands: sudo add-apt-repository "http://dl.openfoam.org/ubuntu dev" sudo sh -c "wget -O - http://dl.openfoam.org/gpg.key | apt-key add -" sudo add-apt-repository "http://dl.openfoam.org/ubuntu" Refresh the repository with the command: sudo apt-get update Install OpenFOAM-dev with: sudo apt-get install openfoam-dev Add the configuration file for OpenFOAM to bashrc with the command: echo "source /opt/openfoam5/etc/bashrc" >>…

  • Linux,  Windows

    Developing for OpenFOAM on Windows 10 – Part 1

    Installing WSL on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update The following steps illustrate how to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows 10 Falls Creators Update. The procedure is slightly different from previous versions of WSL, because the possibility of using different distributions was added in this update. Each distribution can be obtained from the Microsoft Store. The first step consists in launching the tool to add extra features to Windows 10. This tool can be found by pressing Win + S, and typing “Features”. The menu will show the icon in the figure. In the tool, scroll down and select “Windows Subsystem for Linux”. Check the box, and…

  • CFD,  Linux,  OpenFOAM,  Windows

    Developing for OpenFOAM on Windows 10 – Introduction

    Windows 10 comes with the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows different Linux distributions to run under Windows. Currently Ubuntu, openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are available in the Microsoft Store, with Fedora expected to become available soon. When I started considering the option of ceasing the development of GeekoCFD, I have started exploring the possibility of using WSL for my development work. I am still testing this, and my virtual machine with openSUSE is still there. However, WSL looks promising. Thus, I thought of sharing the steps I have followed to set up my test environment, with a few tweaks to improve the experience. I have divided…

  • CFD,  Linux,  Windows

    OpenSSH client and server in Windows 10

    Windows 10 Fall Creators Update added support for OpenSSH client and server. The two components are packaged separately, and can be installed as optional features. The following instructions show how to install OpenSSH server. Identical steps allow OpenSSH client to be installed. Open the Windows search menu with Win + S and start typing “Apps and Features”. You will see the corresponding page of Settings appear in the options. Select it. Apps and features will open. Select “Manage optional features”: In the next screen, choose “Add feature”:  Finally, scroll the list, and select “OpenSSH Server (beta)” if you want the server. Pick the client if you want the client (not…

  • GeekoCFD,  Linux,  openSUSE

    Goodbye GeekoCFD

    I created GeekoCFD (first release on September 2nd, 2010) with the idea of simplifying the adoption of openSUSE for computing and, in particular, for computational fluid dynamics. It included one of the most popular open-source tools for computational fluid dynamics, OpenFOAM®, computer algebra systems such as octave and wxMaxima, and integrated development environments as Eclipse, in addition to a set libraries commonly used in HPC. At the time when I started to work on GeekoCFD, these packages were either not available on openSUSE, or difficult to build on it, while they were readily available on competing distributions. SUSE Studio, a web-based and user-friendly tool to build customizes Linux images in…

  • CFD,  GeekoCFD,  openSUSE

    GeekoCFD – Status update

    Currently, GeekoCFD images are not available on SUSE Studio, and an error 500 page is shown. I am looking into the cause of this. This may be related to the migration of SUSE Studio to Studio Express. Please, stay tuned for status updates. Updates (reverse chronological order) Latest update, Dec. 26th, 2017: GeekoCFD project ends. See the announcement. Update Dec 8th, 2017: It was announced that SUSE Studio will be shutdown on Feb. 15th, 2018. Official announcement from Studio developers here. Update Dec. 2nd, 2017: The migration of GeekoCFD to the Studio Express infrastructure is still ongoing. At the moment, several attempts to perform the migration have not been successful…