I needed to install MPICH on my Linux machine in order to run my P3PPLE code at home. Normally this is not a problem, because either LAM-MPI or MPICH is available through Synaptic package manager. That is how I installed it earlier when I used KUBUNTU. However, in PCLinuxOS 2007 neither of those packages is available. I thought that maybe some non-default repositories would allow me to install it, and I asked about this on PCLinuxOS support channel on IRC Freenode. I got not help there.
Since I’ve never installed MPICH from scratch I figured I’ll give it a try this time. I went on the MPICH2 project website and I downloaded mpich2.tar.gz package. I used Ark to extract the package in ~/work directory. Here’s a quick rundown or installation steps I took, and my notes for each steps. The purpose is post is to serve me as a reference if I ever need to do this again.
Installation
Choose an installation directory
I used the default installation directory: /usr/local/lib
Choose a build directory
I used /tmp/mpich2, because its temporary
Choose Configuration Options
I only used –enable-sharedlibs=gcc option.
Configure MPICH 2
You have to do this as ROOT
I had to download gcc-c++ package with Synaptic. During configuration I got an error message saying that c++ compiler was not installed.
Build MPICH2
Still as ROOT
I just followed Installation Guide instructions. This step took about 10 minutes to complete.
Install MPICH2 Commands
Still as root
This step was very quick. I Just followed Installation Guide.
After these 6 steps I basically installed MPICH2. It didn’t take more that 20 minutes all together. I had to create another file .mpd.conf in my home directory and set a secretword in it. My sectretword was mpich2-b3n.
Finally, I added the directory where P3PPLE executable is created to PATH variable. This was done as USER by typing following: PATH = $PATH:/home/Benjamin/work/P3PPLE/
DONE.
