Compile and Install Ubuntu

Very Important notes

• Pre-compiled packages and backports are available from UbuntuGIS via their ppa.launchpad repositories. This is by far the simplest and fastest solution. Please prefer it over the manual way described below.

• To build an updated version of GRASS or support libraries unmodified, in most cases it will be easier to use an automated build tool such as pbuilder, debuild or cowbuilder. See the debian/ directory in the source code for details.

• Some things change fast and therefore it is expected that the instructions might fail. Please inform the grass-user list in case something just does not work (like for example non-available dependecies/packages from the repositories) or update this page respectively.

• GRASS version 6.5 exists for development purposes, testing features to-be backported to version 6.4. As such it may include unstable code and is not intended for production and end-users.

• An alternate method is to use the DebianGIS packaging scripts, which enable a lot of this to happen automatically (see debian/README.debian in the GRASS Subversion source code repository). Specifically, this command will get you 90% of the way there:

  sudo apt-get build-dep grass
  

(you'll need to have the deb-src lines active in your /etc/apt/sources.list file)

Quick instructions

 tar xzf grass-6.4.3.tar.gz
 cd grass-6.4.3/
 
 # install build dependency packages:
 sudo apt-get build-dep grass
 
 # configure to taste..
 CFLAGS="-O2 -ggdb -march=native -Wall -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -fno-common -Wextra -Wunused" \
   ./configure \
     --x-includes=/usr/include --x-libraries=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu \
     --with-tcltk-includes=/usr/include/tcl8.5 --with-cairo \
     --with-motif --with-python=/usr/bin/python2.7-config \
     --with-readline --with-cxx --with-odbc --with-sqlite \
     --with-freetype --with-freetype-includes=/usr/include/freetype2 \
     --with-postgres --with-proj-share=/usr/share/proj \
     --enable-64bit --with-pthread -with-openmp \
     --with-wxwidgets=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wx/config/gtk2-unicode-release-2.8 \
     --with-geos \
     2>&1 | tee config_log.txt
 
 # build using 4 CPU cores
 time make -j 4 2>&1 | tee build_log.txt

 sudo make install

Hints

• Usually, the installation of compiled code is done by using the make tool. Alternatively, this can be done by using the checkinstall tool (i.e., sudo checkinstall instead of sudo make install) which eases off removal of packages. If checkinstall fails to deliver, please note some related bugs: 78455 and 599163. Useful information on using checkinstall: Compiling things on Ubuntu the Easy Way.

• In multi-core processors, the compilation performance can be boosted by using -j switches (e.g. make -j2 or make -j3 or even make -j4) which specify the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously.

Dependencies

Current stable Ubuntu version

The following dependencies concern Ubuntu Trusty Tahr (14.04 LTS)

• First, update the system from the repositories

  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
  

• then, install SQLite, SVN and dependencies for compiling PROJ, GEOS, GDAL/OGR, GRASS, GDAL-GRASS-PLUGIN (some additional packages may be required in this case); the following action will also install various dependencies (listed in the command line as The following extra packages will be installed:...):
  

# this is a single command, please copy-paste it entirely into the terminal:
sudo apt-get install \
  build-essential \
  flex make bison gcc libgcc1 g++ cmake ccache \
  python python-dev \
  python-opengl \
  python-wxversion python-wxtools python-wxgtk2.8 \
  python-dateutil libgsl0-dev python-numpy \
  wx2.8-headers wx-common libwxgtk2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-dbg \
  libwxbase2.8-dev  libwxbase2.8-dbg \
  libncurses5-dev \
  zlib1g-dev gettext \
  libtiff-dev libpnglite-dev \
  libcairo2 libcairo2-dev \
  sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev \
  libpq-dev \
  libreadline6 libreadline6-dev libfreetype6-dev \
  libfftw3-3 libfftw3-dev \
  libboost-thread-dev libboost-program-options-dev liblas-c-dev \
  resolvconf \
  libjasper-dev \
  subversion \
  libav-tools libavutil-dev ffmpeg2theora \
  libffmpegthumbnailer-dev \
  libavcodec-dev \
  libxmu-dev \
  libavformat-dev libswscale-dev \
  checkinstall \
  libglu1-mesa-dev libxmu-dev

• See the additional packages bellow and in other sections and install them. Note that some of them are required, namely PROJ.4, GEOS and GDAL. If you don't have special requirements, it is usually enough just to install PROJ.4, GEOS and GDAL from repository (rather then compile them manually).

• for mysql support, libmysqlclient-dev is required

  sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
  

• for netcdf support, netcdf-bin and libnetcdf-dev is required

  sudo apt-get install netcdf-bin libnetcdf-dev
  

• create a directory as a simple user where all source code is going to be stored -- in this example, a directory named src under /usr/local is created

  sudo mkdir /usr/local/src
  

• take over directories ownerships (replace below the terms userid and groupid with a real userid):

  sudo chown userid:groupid /usr/local/src
  

• similarly, grant rwx (read-write-execute) permissions for our userid and groupid onto the src directory:

  sudo chmod ug+rwx /usr/local/src
  

Earlier Ubuntu versions

For earlier Ubuntu versions, watch out for dependency differences! Modify the dependency list given above as instructed below.

• for Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (13.04), change the following dependencies:
  • libav-tools libavutil-dev --> ffmpeg
  • --> lesstif2-dev

• for Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (12.04), change the following dependencies:
  • libpnglite-dev --> libpngwriter-dev
  • libtiff5-dev --> libtiff4-dev

• for Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat (10.10) or later, change the following dependencies:
  • libpngwriter-dev --> libpngwriter0-dev
  • libcairo-dev --> libcairo2-dev
  • fftw3 --> libfftw3-3
  • fftw3-dev --> libfftw3-dev

• for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) or later, also install:

  sudo apt-get install libhdf4-alt-dev libhdf4-0-alt
  

• for earlier Ubuntu versions, also install:

   sudo apt-get install libhdf4g-dev libhdf4g-run
  

Using pre-compiled dev Packages for PROJ.4, GEOS and GDAL

PROJ.4

Install the dev package (possibly without support for datumgrid):

sudo apt-get install libproj-dev

• In the call to ./configure for GRASS, replace --with-proj-share=/usr/local/share/proj/ by --with-proj-share=/usr/share/proj/

GEOS

Install the dev package:

sudo apt-get install libgeos-dev

• In the call to ./configure for GRASS, replace --with-geos=/usr/local/bin/geos-config by --with-geos=/usr/bin/geos-config

GDAL

Install the dev package (possibly without support for datumgrid):

sudo apt-get install libgdal-dev

For support of WMS in wxGUI install Python gdal bindings:

sudo apt-get install python-gdal

• Install also the required extra packages (note the message: The following extra packages will be installed:)
• Look out for packages to be removed by this operation -- this is most likely caused by incompatible package versions. Fix these problems in advance using commands like the following:

  sudo apt-get install <package>=<required.version>
  

GRASS-GIS

Jump to sub-section GRASS-GIS below

Using pre-compiled dev Packages for PROJ.4, GEOS and GDAL from GIS.lab PPA

Ivan Mincik has made all required packages available in his PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:imincik/gis
sudo apt-get install libproj-dev libgdal-dev python-gdal libgeos-dev

Now you can either also install GRASS GIS 7 from there or compile it yourself (see Jump to sub-section GRASS-GIS below)

Compile from source

PROJ4

• within the directory /usr/local/src (create it if it does not exist) checkout proj from its Subversion repository:

  svn co http://svn.osgeo.org/metacrs/proj/branches/4.8/proj/
  

• get proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip from proj' trac and move it under proj/nad

wget http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip
mv proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip /usr/local/src/proj/nad
cd /usr/local/src/proj/nad

• decompress it

  unzip proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip
  

• go back to the proj directory

  cd /usr/local/src/proj
  

• if required, clean previous configuration & compilation

  make distclean
  

• simple configure, compile and install

  ./configure  &&  make  &&  sudo make install
  

or

./configure && make -j2  &&  sudo checkinstall

• ensure that /usr/local/lib is added to /etc/ld.so.conf and afterwards run

  sudo ldconfig
  

• finally, go back to the parent directory simply by instructing

  cd ..
  

GEOS

• download geos-3.4.2.tar.bz2 from http://trac.osgeo.org/geos using wget

  wget http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.4.2.tar.bz2
  

• move to the "source-code" directory and decompress

cd /usr/local/src/
bunzip2 geos-3.4.2.tar.bz2
tar xvf  geos-3.4.2.tar

• if required, clean previous configuration & compilation

  make distclean
  

• move to geos directory

  cd geos-3.4.2
  

• simple configure, compile and install

  ./configure  &&  make  &&  sudo make install
  

or

./configure  && make -j2  &&  sudo checkinstall

• do not forget to execute

  sudo ldconfig
  

GDAL

Note, GDAL must be compiled without GRASS support

• download the current stable version

  svn co https://svn.osgeo.org/gdal/branches/1.11/gdal gdal_stable
  

• enter in the gdal_stable directory

  cd /usr/local/src/gdal_stable
  

• optionally, update the source code

  svn up
  

• if required, clean previous configurations/compilations

  make distclean
  

• a simple configuration without any parameters will detect and support various installed libraries

  ./configure
  

• skip to the compile and install step or check the following customised configuration example

CFLAGS="-g -Wall" LDFLAGS="-s" ./configure \
--with-png=internal \
--with-libtiff=internal \
--with-geotiff=internal \
--with-jpeg=internal \
--with-gif=internal \
--with-ecw=no \
--with-expat=yes \
--with-sqlite3=yes \
--with-geos=yes \
--with-python \
--with-libz=internal \
--with-netcdf \
--with-threads=yes \
--without-grass  \
--without-ogdi \
--with-pg=/usr/bin/pg_config \
--with-xerces=yes

• compile, install & ldconfig

  make -j2  &&  sudo make install  &&  sudo ldconfig
  

or

make -j2  &&  sudo checkinstall  &&  sudo ldconfig

GRASS GIS

Note the differences between different GRASS version (SVN branches) in download and cofiguration. Note also the changes required if you installed some of the dependencies from packages (rather then compiled them yourself).

To fully understand the build process, read the INSTALL file, which is located in GRASS' source code root directory. For example, if you have problems related to 32bit versus 64bit, pay attention to section (C), entitled COMPILATION NOTES for 64bit platforms.

Getting GRASS' source code

Select and download (using SVN) the version you prefer:

• current state of the 6.4.x release branch version (stable)

  svn co https://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/branches/releasebranch_6_4 grass64_release
  

• current state of the 7.0.x release branch version (future stable)

  svn co https://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/branches/releasebranch_7_0 grass70_release
  

• current state of the trunk (latest version of code where the development happens)

  svn co https://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/trunk grass7_trunk
  

• for other versions see GRASS Trac wiki.

Configure, Compile and Install

• GRASS GIS 6 example configuration (which can/should be adjusted according to specific needs):

CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall" LDFLAGS="-s" ./configure \
--enable-largefile=yes \
--with-nls \
--with-cxx \
--with-proj-share=/usr/local/share/proj/ \
--with-geos=/usr/local/bin/geos-config \
--with-readline \
--with-python=yes \
--with-wxwidgets \
--with-cairo \
--with-opengl-libs=/usr/include/GL \
--with-motif \
--with-tcltk-includes="/usr/include/tcl8.5" \
--with-ffmpeg=yes --with-ffmpeg-includes="/usr/include/libavcodec /usr/include/libavformat /usr/include/libswscale /usr/include/libavutil" \
--with-freetype=yes --with-freetype-includes="/usr/include/freetype2/" \
--with-postgres=yes --with-postgres-includes="/usr/include/postgresql" \
--with-sqlite=yes \
--with-mysql=yes --with-mysql-includes="/usr/include/mysql" \
--with-odbc=no

Note, the above configuration uses the Proj4 and GEOS packages compiled from the source. In the case that pre-compiled versions from the repository are required, remove the above corresponding lines to use the "defaults", i.e.

--with-proj-share=/usr/share/proj \
--with-geos=/usr/bin/geos-config \

• GRASS GIS 7 example configuration (which can/should be adjusted according to specific needs):

CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall" LDFLAGS="-s" ./configure \
--enable-largefile=yes \
--with-nls \
--with-cxx \
--with-readline \
--with-pthread \
--with-proj-share=/usr/local/share/proj/ \
--with-geos=/usr/local/bin/geos-config \
--with-wxwidgets \
--with-cairo \
--with-opengl-libs=/usr/include/GL \
--with-freetype=yes --with-freetype-includes="/usr/include/freetype2/" \
--with-postgres=yes --with-postgres-includes="/usr/include/postgresql" \
--with-sqlite=yes \
--with-mysql=yes --with-mysql-includes="/usr/include/mysql" \
--with-odbc=no \
--with-liblas=yes --with-liblas-config=/usr/bin/liblas-config

Note, the above configuration uses the Proj4 and GEOS packages compiled from the source. In the case that pre-compiled versions from the repository are required, remove the above corresponding lines to use the "defaults", i.e.

--with-proj-share=/usr/share/proj \
--with-geos=/usr/bin/geos-config \

• compile & install

  make -j2  &&  sudo make install  &&  sudo ldconfig
  

or

make -j2  &&  sudo checkinstall  &&  sudo ldconfig

For subsequent updates execute (not need for the first time):

svn up
make -j2 && sudo make install  &&  sudo ldconfig

Sometimes, it is required to clean previous configuration and compilation:

make distclean
svn up
./configure ... # (use the configure command above)
make -j2 && sudo make install  &&  sudo ldconfig

GDAL-GRASS-Plugin

• get the plugin from OSGeo's Download Server: http://download.osgeo.org/gdal/gdal-grass-1.4.3.tar.gz using wget

wget http://download.osgeo.org/gdal/gdal-grass-1.4.3.tar.gz
tar xvzf gdal-grass-1.4.3.tar.gz
cd gdal-grass-1.4.3

• create /etc/ld.so.conf.d/grass.conf or add in /etc/ld.so.conf the GRASS library path:

# GRASS 6.4 library path
/usr/local/src/grass64_release/lib

# GRASS 6.5 library path
/usr/local/src/grass6_devel/lib

# GRASS 7.0 library path
/usr/local/src/grass64_release/lib

# GRASS 7 (development version) library path
/usr/local/src/grass7_trunk/lib

• optionally, clean previous configurations/compilations

   make distclean
  

• configure -- point to GRASS installation/binaries

 ./configure \
 --prefix=/usr/local \
 --with-gdal=/usr/local/bin/gdal-config \
 --with-grass=/usr/local/grass-6.4.4svn/ \
 --with-autoload="/usr/local/lib/gdalplugins/" \
 --with-ld-shared="g++ -shared"

• for GRASS 6.5, replace the respective line above, depending on where the source code in question is stored, with something like --with-grass=/usr/local/grass-6.5.svn/
• for GRASS 7.0, replace with --with-grass=/usr/local/grass-7.0.0svn/
• for GRASS 7, replace with --with-grass=/usr/local/grass_trunk/

• compile & install using checkinstall

   make -j2  &&  sudo checkinstall

Post compilation/installation control

• For a recommended quick-check read the Troubleshooting section at Compile_and_install_GDAL-GRASS_plugin

• in case of errors in future compilation attempts, remember to remove program binaries and files created with the "configuration" from previous compilations with

make distclean

• another common mistake is compiling a module against some GRASS version and then try to run it through another GRASS version. The solution is to recompile the affected module or, in case there are multiple GRASS installations, set up properly LD_LIBRARY_PATH paths.

Removal of GRASS

To get rid of a GRASS binaries installation, delete

• /usr/local/grass-6.4.4svn (directory, binaries location)
• /usr/local/bin/grass64 (file)
• /usr/local/bin/gem64 (file)
• /home/username/.grassrc6 (file)

If wanted, delete also the complete source code:

• /usr/local/src/grass64_release (directory, source code location)

To remove grass (or any other package) which was installed by checkinstall, use dpkg, e.g.

sudo dpkg -r grass64 # package name defined at installation is important

Packaging of GRASS

• See the debian/README.debian file in the GRASS source code for directions on rolling your own packages.

For details about the auto-nightly-builds and after-market supplied packages from UbuntuGIS, please refer to the Ubuntu Packaging wiki page.

See also

• GRASS GIS in Ubuntu installation: http://www.spatial-ecology.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=wiki:install_linux
• Docker: https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/javimarlop/ubuntugis-docker/dockerfile/
• Ubuntu Packaging
• GRASS in Debian

Archived Notes

Notes that concern the configuration and compilation of GRASS GIS and its dependencies for older versions of Ubuntu-Linux.

Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit

• Compiling latest GRASS source code on a 64-bit machine (with an ATI graphic card) under Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit with support for: 64-bit, SQLite, OpenGL, PYTHON, FFMPEG

(Based on "Ubuntu 6.06 LTS - GRASS 6.1 Compilation Script" by David Finlayson) Assuming it is the first time attempting to compile GRASS' source code & installing SVN, PROJ, GDAL/OGR

Preparation

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

• install dependencies for compiling (in general) and dependencies for GRASS: PROJ, GDAL/OGR

sudo apt-get install grass build-essential flex bison libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev \
libgdal1-dev libtiff4-dev libgcc1 libpng12-dev tcl8.4-dev tk8.4-dev fftw3-dev \
libfreetype6-dev libavcodec-dev libxmu-dev gdal-bin libreadline5 libreadline5-dev \
make python-dev python-wxversion

• install SQLite

sudo apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

• install SVN

sudo apt-get install subversion

• create a directory as a simple user where source code(s) are going to be stored (in our example we use a directory called src under /usr/local)

sudo mkdir /usr/local/src

• grant rwx (read-write-execute) permissions for our userid/ groupid on the directory (replace words userid and groupid with real userid):

sudo chown userid:groupid /usr/local/src

sudo chmod ug+rwx /usr/local/src

• download latest source code from GRASS SVN repository in a directory on the system (e.g. /usr/local/src)

svn checkout https://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/trunk grass_trunk

• Above command places GRASS' source code in /usr/local/src/grass_trunk. In case of a subsequent update use the command: svn up from within the grass_trunk directory

---

Before attempting to compile GRASS, READ section (C) in the INSTALL file located in the main directory of GRASS source code entitled: (C) COMPILATION NOTES for 64bit platforms

---

• installing FFTW3 if not already on system

sudo apt-get install fftw3 fftw3-dev

FFMPEG

Note: Back in Ubuntu 7.10, installing ffmpeg through the repositories wouldn't work with grass. The following steps were successfully used.

• install FFMPEG (information taken from: http://stream0.org/2008/01/install-ffmpeg-on-ubuntu-gutsy.html)
• download source code with svn

svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

• install dependencies

sudo apt-get install liblame-dev libfaad2-dev libfaac-dev libxvidcore4-dev \
     liba52-0.7.4 liba52-0.7.4-dev libx264-dev libdts-dev checkinstall \
     build-essential subversion

• guide to ffmpeg directory

cd ffmpeg

if necessary: make distclean before configuration (look at notes below)

• configuration (note: the configuration parameter "--enable-pp" does not work anymore)

# configure FFMPEG
./configure --enable-gpl --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora \
            --enable-liba52 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libgsm \
            --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac \
            --enable-libxvid --enable-pthreads --enable-libx264 \
            --enable-shared

• compilation

make

• installation on /usr/local/bin -- important to remember when configuring GRASS' source code for compilation

sudo checkinstall

Go for GRASS!

• in our example we used the /usr/local/src directory to store GRASS' source code, so:

cd /usr/local/src/grass_trunk

• configuration

 CFLAGS="-g -Wall" ./configure --enable-64bit \
       --with-libs=/usr/lib64 --with-cxx --with-freetype=yes \
       --with-postgres=no --with-sqlite=yes --enable-largefile=yes \
       --with-tcltk-includes=/usr/include/tcl8.4 \
       --with-freetype-includes=/usr/include/freetype2 \
       --with-opengl-libs=/usr/include/GL --with-readline \
       --with-python=yes --with-ffmpeg=yes \
       --with-ffmpeg-includes=/usr/local/include/ffmpeg

• if OpenGL fails then maybe it is necessary to link glxATI.h with glx.h and re-run the configuration

cd /usr/include/GL

sudo ln glxATI.h glx.h

• compilation

make

• compilation is expected to end with a statement similar to the following:

Started compilation: Wed Feb 27 00:24:36 CET 2008
--
Errors in:
No errors detected.

• installation

sudo checkinstall

• launch 64-bit GRASS.6.4.svn

grass64

Notes

• in case of errors in future compilation attempts, remember to remove program binaries with

make clean

• and the files created with the "configuration" from previous compilations with

make distclean

Ubuntu 6.06, 7.10

• makegrass.sh is script designed to automate most of the download, configuration and compilation of GRASS 6.x-CVS
  • it is advised use checkinstall (sudo apt-get install checkinstall) instead of make install to keep track of installed software
  • Think twice before using this script. Some users experienced problems such as disabled XGL etc.
• Here is another of these scripts, it's homemade so probably you'll find the above more useful for production sites.