This post addresses issues encountered when installing Absoft Pro Fortran 2020 (v20.0) on the latest releases of the 64-bit RedHat Enterprise Linux/Scientific Linux/CentOS, Fedora Core, Open SuSE, Debian, and Ubuntu Linux distributions.
RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.0
A default Software Development Workstation installation of RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.0 requires the following additional software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
gcc-c++ Support for software development
xterm Terminal program used by AbsoftTools/Fx3 Debugger
ncurses-compat-libs.x86_64 Shared libraries used by Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing
and the yum install command to install the package.
1) GCC/G++ and other development tools not installed
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: as: command not found
assembler failed.
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: command not found
link failed.
Fix: Install GCC and C++ support
sudo yum install gcc-c++
2) Unable to execute projects inside AbsoftTools
Symptom:
An error dialog appears "Could not start "xterm -name "Absoft Tools"... "
Fix: install xterm program
$ sudo yum install xterm
3) Unable to load a program for debugging using the Fx3 Debugger or the
fx3_64 command line debugger
Symptom:
The Fx3 Debugger reports "Lost communication with Fx3
debugger backend"
The fx3_64 command line debugger reports the error
/opt/absoft20.0/bin/fx3_64bin: error while loading shared
libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file:
No such file or directory
Fix: install ncurses compatibility libraries
$ sudo yum install ncurses-compat-libs.x86_64
RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.4
RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.9
Scientific Linux 6.9
CentOS 6.9 (Final)
A default Software Development Workstation installation of RedHat Enterprise Linux/Scientific Linux/CentOS requires the following software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ---------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
gcc-c++ Support for software development
xterm Terminal program used by AbsoftTools and Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing and the yum command to install the package.
1) GCC/G++ and other development tools not installed
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: as: command not found
assembler failed.
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: command not found
link failed.
Fix: Install GCC and C++ support
sudo yum install gcc-c++
2) Unable to execute projects inside AbsoftTools
Symptom:
An error dialog appears "Could not start "xterm -name "Absoft Tools"... "
Fix: install xterm program
$ sudo yum install xterm
If there is a need to compile and run 32-bit programs, the following additional packages will need to be installed:
glibc.i686 Support for running 32-bit programs
libstdc++.i686 Support for running 32-bit programs
glibc-devel.i686 Support for building 32-bit programs
Fedora Core 29 64-bit
A default installation of Fedora Core Workstation 29 requires the following additional software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ---------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
gcc-c++ Support for software development
xterm Terminal program used by AbsoftTools/Fx3 Debugger
ncurses-compat-libs.x86_64 Support for 64 bit Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing and the dnf command to install the package.
1) GCC/G++ and other development tools not installed
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: as: command not found
assembler failed.
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: command not found
link failed.
Fix: Install GCC and C++ support
$ sudo dnf install gcc-c++
2) Unable to execute projects inside AbsoftTools
Symptom:
An error dialog appears "Could not start "xterm -name "Absoft Tools"... "
Fix: install xterm program
$ sudo dnf install xterm
3) Fx3 Debugger fails whem loading 64-bit program
Symptom: Lost connection with Fx3 debugger backend dialog
or running fx3_64 from the command line gives:
$ fx3_64
/opt/absoft20.0/bin/fx3_64bin: error while loading shared libraries:
libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Fix: Install 64 bit ncurses compatibility package
$ sudo dnf install ncurses-compat-libs.x86_64
If there is a need to compile and run 32-bit programs, the following additional packages will need to be installed:
glibc.i686 Support for running 32-bit programs
libstdc++.i686 Support for running 32-bit programs
glibc-devel.i686 Support for building 32-bit programs
Open SuSE Leap 15 64-bit
A default installation of Open SuSE Leap 15 requires the following additional software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ---------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
gcc-c++ Support for software development
libncurses5 Support for 64-bit Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing and the zypper command to install the package.
1) Link fails, g++ not found
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: command not found
link failed.
Fix: install g++ (along with the rest of the C development tools)
$ sudo zypper install gcc-c++
2) Fx3 Debugger fails when loading a 64-bit program
Symptom: Lost connection with Fx3 debugger backend dialog
or running fx3_64 from the command line gives:
$ fx3_64
/opt/absoft20.0/bin/fx3_64bin: error while loading shared libraries:
libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Fix: Install 64 bit ncurses compatibility package
$ sudo zypper install libncurses5
If there is a need to compile and run 32-bit programs, the following additional packages will need to be installed:
libstdc++47-32bit Support for running-32-bit programs
gcc-32bit Support for building 32-bit programs
gcc-c++-32bit Support for building 32-bit programs
Debian 9.5.0
Debian 10.3.0
Note: The GCC development tools on Debian 9.5.0 default to producing position independent code so you need to add either -fpic to your Fortran compilation options to match this or use the -no-pie option to override the default behavior at the link step.
A default installation of 64 bit Debian 9.5.0 from Debian Desktop "Live" DVD requires the following additional software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ---------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
g++ Support for software development
xterm Terminal program used by AbsoftTools/Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing and the apt-get command to install the package.
1) GCC/G++ and other development tools not installed
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: as: command not found
assembler failed.
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: command not found
link failed.
Fix: Install GCC and C++ support
$ sudo apt-get install gcc
$ sudo apt-get install g++
2) Unable to execute projects inside AbsoftTools
Symptom:
An error dialog appears "Could not start "xterm -name "Absoft Tools"... "
Fix: install xterm program
$ sudo apt-get install xterm
If there is a need to compile and run 32-bit programs, the following additional packages will need to be installed:
lib32stdc++6 Support for running 32-bit programs
gcc-multilib Support for building 32-bit programs
g++-multilib Support for building 32-bit programs
Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 17.10
Ubuntu 16.10
Linux Mint 18.3
Note: The GCC development tools on Ubuntu 17.10 and later default to producing position independent code so you need to add either -fpic to your Fortran compilation options to match this or use the -no-pie option to override the default behavior at the link step.
A default installation of Ubuntu 18.10, 17.10, or 16.10 requires the following additional software to fully support Absoft Fortran 2020:
Package Description
---------------------- ---------------------------------------
gcc Support for software development
g++ Support for software development
libncurses5 Support for Fx3 debugger
xterm Terminal program used by AbsoftTools/Fx3 Debugger
Examples below give possible error messages reported when a package is missing and the apt-get command to install the package.
1) Link fails, g++ not found
Symptom:
$ af90 t.f
sh: g++: not found
link failed.
Fix: install g++ (along with other C development tools)
$ sudo apt-get install g++
2) Fx3 Debugger fails when loading a 64-bit program
Symptom: Lost connection with Fx3 debugger backend dialog
or running fx3_64 from the command line gives:
$ fx3_64
/opt/absoft20.0/bin/fx3_64bin: error while loading shared libraries:
libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file
or directory
Fix: Install the ncurses package
$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5
3) Unable to execute projects inside AbsoftTools
Symptom:
An error dialog appears "Could not start "xterm -name "Absoft Tools"... "
Fix: install xterm program
$ sudo apt-get install xterm
If there is a need to compile and run 32-bit programs, the following additional packages will need to be installed:
ia32-libs Support for running 32-bit programs
gcc-multilib Support for building 32-bit programs
g++-multilib Support for building 32-bit programs
