openEMS on Ubuntu24.04

[istra711]

Has anybody successfully installed openEMS 0.36 with python interface on Ubuntu24.04? I tried this several times but without any luck. The system python (3.12) requires now by default a virtual environment but that doesn't work somehow. I tried the "--break-system-packages" option but it didn't work because of dependencies problems with several python packages. To be able to use openEMS on Ubuntu 24.04 I have build a docker image based on Ubuntu 22.04 (python 3.10). This works so far with some modifications but my actual goal is to use openEMS with Blender and the new IntuitionRF plugin, unfortunately that seems to be impossible with a docker container. (Blender cannot see the openEMS installation inside of the container).

[LubomirJagos42]

hi, since I remember that openEMS python interface is written in cython and is for python 3.11 (also 3.10 could run as you wrote)
newest Blender is using python 3.12
if you want to use openEMS python interface you have to use older Blender version which is bundled with python 3.11, you will have to manualy copy that openEMS python modules folders from site-packages into Blender python site-packages

[thliebig]

@istra711 can you explain how you installed openEMS? Does it (except the python interface) build normally?
I think the upate_openEMS.sh script does on use a python "venv" to build and install the python interface.
Have you tried to setup a venv and then build the interface? It surely should work on any recent python version.

[thliebig]

thliebig/openEMS#110 was unfortunatly not the correct fix, it still works only in some cases
I guess I really have to take a closer look at fix this properly...
Additionally it seems for python you need to install
sudo apt install python3-setuptools

[thliebig]

the "update_openEMS.sh" currently does not use a venv.
You could maybe run the tool as root? e.g.:
sudo ./update_openEMS.sh /usr/local --with-hyp2mat --with-CTB --python
This should install openEMS "globally" but I never tried it and it is not ideal...

[istra711]

Yes, I agree, the fix thliebig/openEMS#110 is quite simple and probably will not work in every case. The "setup.m" has a problem in case it finds "libhdf5" in more than one location. In my case it comes with "serial" and "openmip". As a result "hdf5lib_dir" returns both paths and this generates an error.
Using root might work but I don't like the global installation. With "sudo apt install python3-setuptools" and the modification of "setup.m" I am able to fix my problem. It other words, I think we can close the issue.

[thliebig]

What did you change about setup.m? Maybe you can come up with a good/save solution and either create a PR or just post it here and I can have a look at it and maybe commit it?

[av-p]

I encountered exactly the same problem. I've tried global installation -- this didn't work. istra711 is right -- the problem is setup.m finds "libhdf5" in more than one location. Did a quick fix by overriding hdf5lib_dir and hdf5inc_dir in setup.m:

        if length(fn_so)>0 && length(fn_h)>0
            [hdf5lib_dir, hdf5lib_fn, ext] = fileparts(fn_so);
            hdf5lib_dir = '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/hdf5/serial/'; % Override library path
            disp(["HDF5 library path found at: " hdf5lib_dir])
            [hdf5inc_dir, hdf5inc_fn, ext] = fileparts(fn_h);
            hdf5inc_dir = '/usr/include/hdf5/serial/'; % Override include path
            disp(["HDF5 include path found at: " hdf5inc_dir])
            mkoctfile("h5readatt_octave.cc", ["-L" hdf5lib_dir], ["-I" hdf5inc_dir], "-lhdf5")
        else

This helped in my case.

[nalyd88]

OpenEMS installed just fine for me today on 24.04. The key is simply to create and activate a virtual python environment first and then proceed with installation. I used uv to setup my virtual environment but you could use any thing you want. Once you have the environment active in your shell, install the required python packages, then re-run the openEMS installer script.

cd $HOME
uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install numpy h5py matplotlib cython setuptools

git clone --recursive https://github.com/thliebig/openEMS-Project.git
cd openEMS-Project
./update_openEMS.sh ~/.local --with-hyp2mat --with-CTB --python