2.1. Installing MFiX on Linux

MFiX has been developed and tested on the following Linux distributions:

  • Ubuntu 22.04

  • Ubuntu 23.04

  • CentOS 7

  • CentOS 8

Other recent releases of Linux are also likely to work. If you have an issue running or installing MFiX on your system, ask for help at Support forum.

2.1.1. Install Miniforge3

Miniforge3 is a minimal version of the Anaconda Python distribution, which is used for many scientific computing projects. MFiX uses many supporting libraries, and the easiest way to install MFiX and its dependencies is via the conda packages hosted at conda-forge and NETL. As of the 23.4 release we recommend the Miniforge3/mamba installation over Anaconda for easier installation. (However, you may continue to use an existing Anaconda installation, see below.) Note that the terms conda package and conda environment refer generically to both Miniforge and Anaconda.

First, download the Linux x86_64 version of the Miniforge3 installer (~33MB). (There are also Miniforge installers for Linux on arm64 and ppc64 architectures, if you have such a system, see the main Miniforge page.)

Next, go to your Downloads folder and run the downloaded file.

  1. Open the Terminal application for your Linux desktop.

  2. cd to the directory of the downloaded installer (for example ~/Downloads).

  3. Run the downloaded installer: bash Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh⏎ (If you use zsh or some other shell, replace bash with the name of your shell).

  4. When prompted for an installation location, hit enter to use the default, or enter the directory of your choice.

  5. When prompted to run conda init, say yes.

Miniforge is now installed. In order for the changes to take effect, close the terminal and open a new one. Verify that your PATH was updated by running mamba or conda in the new terminal.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of MFiX and you already have Miniforge or Anaconda installed, you may skip this step (but see note below).

Note

If you have previously installed MFiX with Anaconda, you can continue to use your existing Anaconda installation. We are recommending Miniforge for new installations, because it is a smaller download, and it includes the mamba package manager which works much better than conda (it is a multi-threaded version, reimplemented in C++. Many scientific computing packages have switched over from Anaconda to Miniforge and mamba.)

If you are using Anaconda, we recommend installing mamba in the base environment.

bash$ conda activate base
(base)$ conda config --add channels conda-forge
(base)$ conda config --set channel_priority strict
(base)$ conda install mamba

After doing this, you can use the mamba command in place of conda. (Note that the channel name conda-forge remains unchanged). If there are problems with mamba you can always try the same command with conda instead.

2.1.2. Install MFiX

After installing Miniforge, install MFiX:

  1. Open a terminal.

  2. Browse to MFiX Download (requires registration and login)

  3. Copy the installation command.

  4. Paste it in the terminal.

  5. Press enter to run the command.

Note

If you have previously installed this version of MFiX, you will see the following message. Select y to confirm. This will delete the previous MFiX installation and replace it.

WARNING: A conda environment already exists at ...
Remove existing environment (y/[n])? y

MFiX will be installed in a new conda environment. The process may take a few minutes to complete.

2.1.3. Run MFiX

To run MFiX:

  1. Open a terminal

  2. Run mamba activate mfix-24.1

  3. Run mfix⏎ to start MFiX

Your prompt should look something like this:

bash$ mamba env create -n mfix-24.1 mfix==24.1 ...

bash$ mamba env list
# conda environments:
#
base               *  /home/user/miniforge3
mfix-24.1             /home/user/miniforge3/envs/mfix-24.1

bash$ mamba activate mfix-24.1

(mfix-24.1)$ mfix

You are now ready to proceed to the First tutorial and Tutorials.

Note

Activating a conda environment sets certain environment variables such as PATH in the current shell. It does not create a new shell session.

You will need to activate the environment every time before running MFiX.

2.1.4. Deactivate conda environment

After using MFiX you can just exit to leave the terminal session. However, if you need to deactivate the mfix-24.1 conda environment, you can do so with:

(mfix-24.1)$ mamba deactivate
bash$

This returns to the base conda environment.

2.1.5. Uninstall MFiX

To remove an MFiX version, installed from conda packages, simply remove the conda environment (if you have the environment activated, deactivate it first):

(mfix-24.1)$ mamba deactivate
bash$ mamba env remove -n mfix-24.1

To uninstall Miniforge entirely, remove the directory you installed it to. By default, this is ~/miniforge3 in your home directory. From the terminal:

bash$ cd ~
bash$ rm -rf miniforge3/

For Anaconda, the default directory is anaconda3.

Also be sure to edit your shell startup files to remove the conda init section at the end.

Note

To learn more about managing conda environments, visit the conda documentation . To learn more about miniforge, see the Miniforge3 README.