Problems installing firedrake on MacOS (issues with mpich?)

[GeorgAUT]

Dear all,

I have been trying to install firedrake on my Mac (OS 15.2), but unfortunately I cannot get the install to complete. I have gone through the debugging steps suggested (https://www.firedrakeproject.org/download.html) but without success. The problem appears apparently in the install of MPICH during petsc but even with manual installation (brew install mpich prior to firedrake-install) the firedrake install breaks with the same issue. Do you happen to know how to resolve this?

Upon using /opt/homebrew/bin/python3 firedrake-install the install starts and gets to the point of installing petsc, but then interrupts with the following printout in terminal (I had to manually install python-packaging, I am not sure if that made any difference):

brew install python-packaging
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/python-packaging/manifests/24.2
######################################################################### 100.0%
==> Fetching python-packaging
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/python-packaging/blobs/sha256:8
######################################################################### 100.0%
==> Pouring python-packaging--24.2.all.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python-packaging/24.2: 56 files, 491.3KB
==> Running `brew cleanup python-packaging`...
Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.
Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see `man brew`).
georgmaierhofer@Georgs-MacBook-Pro Documents % /opt/homebrew/bin/python3 firedrake-install
Running firedrake-install
Installing command line tools...
Checking brew doctor...
Installing required packages via homebrew...
Installing required package 'gcc' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'pkg-config' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'autoconf' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'make' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'automake' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'cmake' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'ninja' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'libtool' via Homebrew.
Installing required package 'boost' via Homebrew.
Creating firedrake venv in '/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake'.
BLAS config is {'BLAS': '/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake/src/petsc/default', 'OPENBLAS': '/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake/src/petsc/default', 'LDFLAGS': '-L/opt/homebrew/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/14'}
Configuration saved to /Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake/.configuration.json
Cloning firedrake

The authenticity of host 'github.com (20.26.156.215)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:+DiY3wvvV6TuJJhbpZisF/zLDA0zPMSvHdkr4UvCOqU.
This key is not known by any other names.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Failed to clone firedrake using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository firedrake.
Checking out branch master
Successfully checked out branch master
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Creating firedrake-update script.
Pip installing VTK to venv
Cloning the dependencies of firedrake
Cloning ufl

Failed to clone ufl using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository ufl.
Checking out branch master
Successfully checked out branch master
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Cloning fiat

Failed to clone fiat using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository fiat.
Checking out branch master
Successfully checked out branch master
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Cloning pyadjoint

Failed to clone pyadjoint using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository pyadjoint.
Checking out branch master
Successfully checked out branch master
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Cloning loopy

Failed to clone loopy using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository loopy.
Checking out branch main
Successfully checked out branch main
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Cloning pytest-mpi

Failed to clone pytest-mpi using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository pytest-mpi.
Checking out branch main
Successfully checked out branch main
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Cloning petsc

Failed to clone petsc using ssh, falling back to https.
Successfully cloned repository petsc.
Checking out branch firedrake
Successfully checked out branch firedrake
Updating submodules.
Successfully updated submodules.
Installing petsc/
Depending on your platform, PETSc may take an hour or more to build!
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1822, in <module>
    install("petsc/")
    ~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1051, in install
    build_and_install_petsc()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1163, in build_and_install_petsc
    check_call([python, "./configure", "PETSC_DIR={}".format(petsc_dir), "PETSC_ARCH={}".format(petsc_arch)] + petsc_options)
    ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake-install", line 671, in check_call
    log.debug(subprocess.check_output(arguments, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, env=os.environ).decode())
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 472, in check_output
    return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
           ~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
               **kwargs).stdout
               ^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 577, in run
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
                             output=stdout, stderr=stderr)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake/bin/python', './configure', 'PETSC_DIR=/Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake/src/petsc', 'PETSC_ARCH=default', '--CFLAGS=-Wno-implicit-function-declaration', '--download-hwloc', '--download-pnetcdf', '--download-hdf5', '--with-fortran-bindings=0', '--download-metis', '--with-shared-libraries=1', '--download-ptscotch', '--download-netlib-lapack', '--download-mpich', '--download-suitesparse', '--LDFLAGS=-Wl,-ld_classic,-dead_strip_dylibs', '--download-hwloc-configure-arguments=--disable-opencl', '--with-c2html=0', '--download-pastix', '--download-mumps', '--download-scalapack', '--with-netlib-lapack-c-bindings', '--download-mpich-configure-arguments=--disable-opencl', '--download-openblas', "--download-openblas-make-options='USE_THREAD=0 USE_LOCKING=1 USE_OPENMP=0'", '--download-netcdf', '--with-x=0', '--with-zlib', '--download-superlu_dist', '--download-hypre', '--download-bison', '--with-debugging=0']' returned non-zero exit status 1.


Install log saved in /Users/georgmaierhofer/Documents/firedrake-install.log

I have Xcode 16.2 installed and I am using Python 3.13.1. Please find attached the firedrake-install.log and the petsc configure.log. Thank you in advance for your help!

[Ig-dolci]

I think is an issue to configure PETSc associated with the Xcode 16.2 version. I just opened a PETSc issue to have help with this issue. There are alternatives to using the docker firedrake image or perhaps downgrading Xcode.

[GeorgAUT]

Thank you very much for the quick and helpful response! Downgrading Xcode to version 16.1 worked. This is probably unrelated but in case anyone else faces a similar issue, I had to remove lines 780-785 from the firedrake-install script, i.e.

if Version(clt["version"]) >= Version("15"):
                # CLT >= 15 requires legacy linking behaviour (-ld_classic flag)
                # The -dead_strip_dylibs flag is a workaround for MUMPS issues
                # on macOS with parallel solvers. Its necessity is unclear, so a
                # review in the future may be required.
                petsc_options.add("--LDFLAGS=-Wl,-ld_classic,-dead_strip_dylibs")

since I received the error:

  File "/Users/georg/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1822, in <module>
    install("petsc/")
    ~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/georg/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1051, in install
    build_and_install_petsc()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/Users/georg/Documents/firedrake-install", line 1157, in build_and_install_petsc
    petsc_options = get_petsc_options()
  File "/Users/georg/Documents/firedrake-install", line 780, in get_petsc_options
    if Version(clt["version"]) >= Version("15"):
               ~~~^^^^^^^^^^^
KeyError: 'version'

After removing those lines and downgrading to Xcode 16.1 the install worked perfectly.