OpenFOAM Installation

Windows 10

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

What you must do What you see on the screen

(Actions appear here) (Screen visuals appear here)

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Updating Windows
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. You must be running Windows 10 1
version 2004 or higher
2. Update windows
a. Start > Settings > Windows Update >
2
Check for updates
b. Install updates
c. Restart windows (may be more than
once)
3. Windows logo key + R, type winver,
select OK (to check latest windows 3
version installed)

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installing PowerShell
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Search for “PowerShell” on windows 1
task bar
2. Right click on the App
3. Run as administrator 2
4. “Yes” to allow app to make changes to 3

your device
5. Look for a window terminal with a
shell prompt 5

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installing WSL (Windows Subsystem Linux)
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Increase the font size if needed 1 1b
a. Right click on the blue icon left top of
powershell > Properties
b. Font tab > Size
2. Type the following on the prompt
> wsl --install
(> is the prompt, don’t type that. Note double minus
sign) 2
3. Restart windows after WSL and
installation
4. Repeat from 2 till ‘reboot’ message 3
goes away (usually twice)

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installing Ubuntu
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Search for the Store app on windows 1

2. Search for Ubuntu and select the latest

version (22.04 or above)
3. Click on “Get” (downloads) 2

4. Click on Open (this will unpack the

distro, may take several minutes)

3 4

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Setting up Ubuntu
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Select the language as “English” 1

a. Use keyboard cursor keys to move

through the options
b. Press “Enter” to select
2 4
2. Use default “Mount location” /mnt
3. Move the cursor, Select “Done”, Enter
4. Profile setup
a. Enter your Full Name
b. username (short one word)
c. Password 3
d. Press “Enter” on “Done”

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Launching and Updating Ubuntu
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Windows icon > Search Ubuntu app 1 2
2. Select to open Ubuntu terminal
3. Type the following on the prompt
(prompt is your username@computername:~$)
$ sudo apt update
(enter your password)
$ sudo apt -y upgrade

(do not type $, that is end of the 3a

prompt)
This will download all latest upgrades
to ubuntu and install them. 3b

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installing OpenFOAM
1. Copy (Ctrl-c) one by one of the following commands
2. Paste (using right mouse click) on the Ubuntu terminal prompt
$ sudo sh -c "wget -O - http://dl.openfoam.org/gpg.key | apt-key add -"
$ sudo add-apt-repository -y http://dl.openfoam.org/ubuntu
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt-get install openfoam10

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Initialise OpenFOAM
1. On the terminal prompt copy-paste the following (one time only)
$ echo ". /opt/openfoam10/etc/bashrc" >> $HOME/.bashrc
$ source $HOME/.bashrc

2. Test if OpenFOAM installation is successful

$ simpleFoam -help 2

(Usage instructions appear)

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installation of VcXsrv (X-Server) and XLaunch
What you must do What you see on the screen
1. Download latest VcXsrv and install 1
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/files/vcxsrv/

3a
2. From taskbar open: XLaunch

3. Use default installation selections

a. Multiple windows

4. Extra settings
4
a. Uncheck “Native opengl”

b. Check “Disable access control”

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Opening Ubuntu GUI on XLaunch
1. On Ubuntu terminal copy-paste
$ echo "export DISPLAY=\$(awk '/nameserver / {print \$2; exit}'
/etc/resolv.conf 2>/dev/null):0" >> ${HOME}/.bashrc
$ . $HOME/.bashrc

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Additional Ubuntu Helper Applications
$ sudo apt install -y gedit gedit-plugins
$ sudo apt install -y gnuplot gnuplot-x11 gnuplot-doc libgd-tools
$ sudo apt install -y mplayer mencoder

Test graphics
$ paraview

This will open a graphical user interface

of paraview

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

● Updating Windows

Summary ● Installing WSL Ubuntu

● Installing OpenFOAM and
related applications
OpenFOAM on Windows 10

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

WSL Installation Progress

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Installing Ubuntu App
What you must do What you see on the screen

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

What you must do What you see on the screen

OpenFOAM Tutorials, P Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay