Firedrake installation on Ubuntu 20.04 - cmake/libsupermesh issues

[cpjordan]

I've tried to install firedrake on a new workstation (Ubuntu 20.04 OS) but have run into problems. I attach the relevant logs:
firedrake-install.log
configure.log
make.log

The issue initially seemed to be with cmake so I started from scratch and pre-installed the latest version (3.28) before installing Firedrake again, but it seemed to ignore it when building Firedrake. Instead I just updated cmake after installing Firedrake and tried to do firedrake-update instead, which seemed to solve that problem (I think). Now, however, I have an issue with not finding libsupermesh-c.h, which is definitely present in firedrake/src/libsupermesh/include. firedrake-update.log attached:
firedrake-update.log

Any help would be massively appreciated! I am using Python 3.8, I am not using Anaconda and I am using the latest firedrake install script.

[connorjward]

@JDBetteridge you tinkered with the cmake bits of libsupermesh recently. Do you have any insights? It appears to be picking up the wrong cmake executable as earlier in the script cmake 3.27.9 is installed by PETSc.

[JDBetteridge]

The CMake that is installed by PETSc isn't on the PATH. We should probably detect this and set the CMake installed by PETSc to be the CMake we use in the rest of the install script.

A quick fix would be to activate the Firedrake virtual environment, install libsupermesh manually and then update, by running:

cd $VIRTUAL_ENV/src/libsupermesh/build
$VIRTUAL_ENV/src/petsc/default/bin/cmake .. \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$VIRTUAL_ENV \
    -DMPI_C_COMPILER=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/mpicc \
    -DMPI_CXX_COMPILER=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/mpicxx \
    -DMPI_Fortran_COMPILER=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/mpif90 \
    -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/mpif90 \
    -DMPIEXEC_EXECUTABLE=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/mpiexec
make
make install
firedrake-update

Double check this, I might have made a typo

[cpjordan]

Brilliant, that's done the job - thank you so much for the help!

[cpjordan]

I tried a fresh install of Firedrake this morning and bumped into the same problem, except this time the above solution no longer seems to work. I've attached the relevant files. Python 3.11 & Ubuntu 20.04.

firedrake-install.log
firedrake/firedrake-update.log
src/petsc/configure.log
src/petsc/make.log

Could you please let me know how to link the libsupermesh install to the correct cmake in $VIRTUAL_ENV/src/petsc/default/bin/cmake in the Firedrake install/update? I can't upgrade the machine I am using above Ubuntu 20.04 due to some frustrating system memory issues, so it would also be nice to link to the correct cmake version in the install if possible so that users with older Ubuntu versions can install without this, if possible!

[connorjward]

I think you simply need to run

$ export PATH=$VIRTUAL_ENV/src/petsc/default/bin:$PATH
$ firedrake-update

firedrake-install will be deprecated within the next month or so, at which point this should stop being an issue.