Renouveau 2.2 Mac OS

< Installation‎ Mac OS

1 Known Guides For Building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X

Mac OS 9.2.2 is an update to Mac OS 9.x.It was released as a free update on 2001-12-05. It is the last update for Mac OS 9 and fixes bugs to the Classic environment. With drives over 128GB, as far as the Mac OS revision, you will be stuck with Mac OS 9.2.2 only, as it contains Apple Drive Setup V2.1. This version of this app is the first version to support larger drives and will be needed to format and partition drives greater than 128GB.

  1. Apple added TRIM support to Mac OS X in Snow Leopard update 10.6.7, but it only works on Apple SSDs. Third party SSDs never have TRIM enabled. There is an exception: in Mac OS X 10.10.4 and later have a command you can run in a terminal called “trimforce” that will enable TRIM support for ALL SSDs, not just Apple SSDs.
  2. Mac OS 9.2.2 (Mac mini G4 Only) - Bootable ISO v9 (Updated March 2020) Contains Modified ROM & Hacked Video drivers, No Crazy OF Commands to type, Just Boot and Install! NOTE: Four years in the making, this install is intended for Mac mini G4s only (1.25, 1.33, 1.42, 1.5 Ghz.).

The known guides for building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X are as follows:

  • The current one you're reading: Installation/Mac OS/OpenFOAM 2.2.2 - which explains how to build using GCC 4.6 from Macports.
  • From Alexey Matveichev's blog: Building OpenFOAM on OS X, tested on OS X 10.9.3 with clang 5.1.

2 Introduction and Notes

This guide is derived from OpenFOAM 2.1.x Installation with some modifications, thanks to the help provided on this thread at CFD-Online's Forums.


These compiling instructions have only been tested on the following system:

These instructions may need to be tailored to fit your specific system if they deviate from the above; you should be able to ask support on this thread if you needed it.

Many thanks go to Bernhard Gschaider (a.k.a. gschaider at CFD-Online's Forums) for maintaining the latest OpenFOAM Mac OS X patches and for the big help he provided me.

  • 3Prepare your Mac OS X Environment
    • 3.1Macports
  • 4OpenFOAM Building

Renouveau 2.2 Mac Os Download

3 Prepare your Mac OS X Environment

3.1 Macports

To install Macports you need to install xCode, you can find it on the App Store. After xCode you need to install the Command Line Tools. Installing Command Line Tools for Mavericks is different from what you would do with previous OSX versions, as explained in the following subsections:

3.1.1 Command Line Tools for OSX 10.9 'Mavericks'

To install CLT on OSX 10.9 open a terminal application (for example Terminal.app) and run:

a window will be prompted where you can confirm installation.

3.1.2 Command Line Tools for OSX version < 10.9

In previous versions of OSX (and of xCode) you can download CLT directly from xCode Preferences > Downloads > Components.

3.1.3 xCode License

Now you should accept the xCode License so run, always in the Terminal (this could be needed only on OSX 10.9):

and when asked type 'agree' to accept the license. Now xCode 'things' should work correctly.

3.1.4 MacPorts Installation

Now to install Macports you can download the pre-compiled package from the Official Macports Website.

3.2 Build and Install the necessary software

To install all the tools we'll need run in Terminal:

Wait for the end of all operations then do:

Now wait (a bit...)

4 OpenFOAM Building

4.1 Creation of Case Sensitive .sparseimage

Note: Images here shown are taken from Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x, you could change the name of the sparse-image from OpenFOAM-v2.1 to OpenFOAM-v2.2.2 (and this will be assumed from here on).


First, we create a disk image with the Apple Disk Utility. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Click New Image:

It is important to set as Format: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive,Journaled). The sparse image will grow with the place used inside the image. Create a sparse image with the following settings (examples, you could change the values):


4.2 OpenFOAM sources and patches

Note: Remember that when you're inside the terminal you can auto-complete your commands pressing the TAB button.


Download OpenFOAM 2.2.2 sources from here and the 3 necessary patch files from one of the following places:

  1. From the original forum posts, download the patch files OpenFOAM-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch and ThirdParty-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch from post #108 (SurfaceCGALFix.patch from post #54 should not be longer needed with last updated patches).
  2. More updated patches could be possibly found on this CFD Online Thread.


Put everything inside the .sparseimage (you probably saved in ~/Documents).

  1. Open a Terminal, create a symlink to the OF image:
  2. Now we can go to OF directory just doing (from home directory):
  3. Let's extract the two archives:
  4. Now your OF directory should look like this:
  5. Let's move the patches inside the right folders:
  6. Let's apply them:
  7. OpenFoam patch badly writes compilers symlinks so we have to fix:

4.3 Final Steps

  1. Let's give write permission to addr2line4Mac.py:
  2. Now we have to edit the bashrc file:
  3. Use CTRL+W to find these lines:

    and change them to:

  4. At the end of this file, add:

    A few notes about the last two lines[1]:

    • Apparently it's best that you manually write these two lines instead of copy-pasting, because apparently some weird characters will show up on your file (source).
    • The first entry you should set to the number of processes your CPU could manage in parallel, e.g. 4, 8 or 16.
      • If you don't know how many your machine can handle, then run:
    • The second entry is to increase the number of files which one process may open at a time.
  5. Save (CTRL+O and exit CTRL+X)
  6. Now we need a symlink for openmpirun (this can be useful with snappyHexMesh):
  7. There's some hard-coding to do on a file:
  8. Change this line:

    into this:

    save and exit.
  9. Source the bashrc file:
  10. Now we're ready to compile. Cross your fingers and do:where logName should be replaced by a name for your log :P. Now take your time, call your mum, cook, take a shower and then come back to see if something went wrong.

5 Diagnosis and Problems[2]

You can check if there are any errors by opening the file nameLog.log with a text editor and search for lines have the expression 'Error ' (including the space after the word 'Error').
Keep in mind that if your terminal is returning error messages in another language, then you should search for the respective word for 'Error'.

If you do find errors, the first one is usually the one to blame for all of the other errors.

If you are still unable to figure out what's wrong, then:

  1. Edit the file nameLog.log with a text editor, search and replace any sensitive information, such as user names and folder paths.
  2. Rename the log file so that it is unique, preferably with data and user-name. For instance: log_20130401_bgschaid.log
  3. Pack the log file. For instance with GNU zip if it is only a single file:

    Only tarball it if there are additional files required to diagnose the problem:

  4. Post the log in this forum, along with your question(s).

6 Paraview Installation

  1. Download the right package from official Paraview website and install it.
  2. Let's create a symlink to paraview executable in OpenFOAM to the one installed:
  3. The following command creates a file .alias where you can store aliases for commands:
  4. Add the following lines to it:
  5. To auto-source the .alias at terminal start-up, edit the profile file:
  6. Add the following line at the end of that file:
  7. Then save and exit.

7Permanent Installation

You can set a terminal command to auto-mount the .sparseimage and auto-source the OF's bashrc this way:

  1. Edit the .alias file:
  2. Add at the end of it:
  3. Now, if your .sparseimage is not mounted, then simply doing:

    will mount the OpenFOAM environment.


  1. ↑From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x
  2. ↑From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x
Retrieved from 'https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php?title=Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.2.2&oldid=18551'
Renouveau
< Installation‎ Mac OS

1 Known Guides For Building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X

The known guides for building OpenFOAM 2.2.2 on Mac OS X are as follows:

Mac Os Download

  • The current one you're reading: Installation/Mac OS/OpenFOAM 2.2.2 - which explains how to build using GCC 4.6 from Macports.
  • From Alexey Matveichev's blog: Building OpenFOAM on OS X, tested on OS X 10.9.3 with clang 5.1.

2 Introduction and Notes

This guide is derived from OpenFOAM 2.1.x Installation with some modifications, thanks to the help provided on this thread at CFD-Online's Forums.


These compiling instructions have only been tested on the following system:

These instructions may need to be tailored to fit your specific system if they deviate from the above; you should be able to ask support on this thread if you needed it.

Many thanks go to Bernhard Gschaider (a.k.a. gschaider at CFD-Online's Forums) for maintaining the latest OpenFOAM Mac OS X patches and for the big help he provided me.

  • 3Prepare your Mac OS X Environment
    • 3.1Macports
  • 4OpenFOAM Building

3 Prepare your Mac OS X Environment

3.1 Macports

To install Macports you need to install xCode, you can find it on the App Store. After xCode you need to install the Command Line Tools. Installing Command Line Tools for Mavericks is different from what you would do with previous OSX versions, as explained in the following subsections:

3.1.1 Command Line Tools for OSX 10.9 'Mavericks'

To install CLT on OSX 10.9 open a terminal application (for example Terminal.app) and run:

a window will be prompted where you can confirm installation.

3.1.2 Command Line Tools for OSX version < 10.9

In previous versions of OSX (and of xCode) you can download CLT directly from xCode Preferences > Downloads > Components.

3.1.3 xCode License

Now you should accept the xCode License so run, always in the Terminal (this could be needed only on OSX 10.9):

and when asked type 'agree' to accept the license. Now xCode 'things' should work correctly.

3.1.4 MacPorts Installation

Renouveau 2.2 Mac Os Catalina

Now to install Macports you can download the pre-compiled package from the Official Macports Website.

3.2 Build and Install the necessary software

To install all the tools we'll need run in Terminal:

Wait for the end of all operations then do:

Now wait (a bit...)

4 OpenFOAM Building

4.1 Creation of Case Sensitive .sparseimage

Note: Images here shown are taken from Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x, you could change the name of the sparse-image from OpenFOAM-v2.1 to OpenFOAM-v2.2.2 (and this will be assumed from here on).


First, we create a disk image with the Apple Disk Utility. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Click New Image:

It is important to set as Format: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive,Journaled). The sparse image will grow with the place used inside the image. Create a sparse image with the following settings (examples, you could change the values):


4.2 OpenFOAM sources and patches

Note: Remember that when you're inside the terminal you can auto-complete your commands pressing the TAB button.


Download OpenFOAM 2.2.2 sources from here and the 3 necessary patch files from one of the following places:

  1. From the original forum posts, download the patch files OpenFOAM-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch and ThirdParty-2.2.x-Mac_2014-02-17.patch from post #108 (SurfaceCGALFix.patch from post #54 should not be longer needed with last updated patches).
  2. More updated patches could be possibly found on this CFD Online Thread.


Put everything inside the .sparseimage (you probably saved in ~/Documents).

  1. Open a Terminal, create a symlink to the OF image:
  2. Now we can go to OF directory just doing (from home directory):
  3. Let's extract the two archives:
  4. Now your OF directory should look like this:
  5. Let's move the patches inside the right folders:
  6. Let's apply them:
  7. OpenFoam patch badly writes compilers symlinks so we have to fix:

4.3 Final Steps

  1. Let's give write permission to addr2line4Mac.py:
  2. Now we have to edit the bashrc file:
  3. Use CTRL+W to find these lines:

    and change them to:

  4. At the end of this file, add:

    A few notes about the last two lines[1]:

    • Apparently it's best that you manually write these two lines instead of copy-pasting, because apparently some weird characters will show up on your file (source).
    • The first entry you should set to the number of processes your CPU could manage in parallel, e.g. 4, 8 or 16.
      • If you don't know how many your machine can handle, then run:
    • The second entry is to increase the number of files which one process may open at a time.
  5. Save (CTRL+O and exit CTRL+X)
  6. Now we need a symlink for openmpirun (this can be useful with snappyHexMesh):
  7. There's some hard-coding to do on a file:
  8. Change this line:

    into this:

    save and exit.
  9. Source the bashrc file:
  10. Now we're ready to compile. Cross your fingers and do:where logName should be replaced by a name for your log :P. Now take your time, call your mum, cook, take a shower and then come back to see if something went wrong.

5 Diagnosis and Problems[2]

You can check if there are any errors by opening the file nameLog.log with a text editor and search for lines have the expression 'Error ' (including the space after the word 'Error').
Keep in mind that if your terminal is returning error messages in another language, then you should search for the respective word for 'Error'.

If you do find errors, the first one is usually the one to blame for all of the other errors.

If you are still unable to figure out what's wrong, then:

  1. Edit the file nameLog.log with a text editor, search and replace any sensitive information, such as user names and folder paths.
  2. Rename the log file so that it is unique, preferably with data and user-name. For instance: log_20130401_bgschaid.log
  3. Pack the log file. For instance with GNU zip if it is only a single file:

    Only tarball it if there are additional files required to diagnose the problem:

  4. Post the log in this forum, along with your question(s).

6 Paraview Installation

  1. Download the right package from official Paraview website and install it.
  2. Let's create a symlink to paraview executable in OpenFOAM to the one installed:
  3. The following command creates a file .alias where you can store aliases for commands:
  4. Add the following lines to it:
  5. To auto-source the .alias at terminal start-up, edit the profile file:
  6. Add the following line at the end of that file:
  7. Then save and exit.

7Permanent Installation

You can set a terminal command to auto-mount the .sparseimage and auto-source the OF's bashrc this way:

  1. Edit the .alias file:
  2. Add at the end of it:
  3. Now, if your .sparseimage is not mounted, then simply doing:

    will mount the OpenFOAM environment.

Renouveau 2.2 Mac Os Catalina


  1. ↑From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x
  2. ↑From Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.1.x
Retrieved from 'https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php?title=Installation/Mac_OS/OpenFOAM_2.2.2&oldid=18551'