Unable to build VisIt on cori

[markcmiller86]

from @jrobcary ...

Since the upgrade, I have not been able to build our visit-dependent software on Cori due to lack of, e.g., libxkbcommon-devel libxkbcommon-x11-devel. Is there a workaround for this? Or is there a qt installation I can build against?

[markcmiller86]

@visit-dav/visit-developers are any of us building VisIt on NERSC systems and/or Cori

[markcmiller86]

Or is there a qt installation I can build against?

@jrobcary AFAIK...build_visit builds a Qt installation for us. So, no, I don't think we'd be using a Qt installation that is there already.

BTW...your note says "since the upgrade"...what "upgrade" are you referring to? I assume a system change at NERSC?

[jrobcary]

@markmiller86 Yes.  Cori was upgraded some weeks ago, and in the upgrade, the xkb... packages were lost, and I believe these are needed for the Qt build.

…

On 4/19/2022 11:10 AM, markcmiller86 wrote: Or is there a qt installation I can build against? @jrobcary <https://github.com/jrobcary> AFAIK...|build_visit| builds a Qt installation for us. So, no, I don't think we'd be using a Qt installation that is there already. BTW...your note says "since the upgrade"...what "upgrade" are you referring to? I assume a system change at NERSC? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#17576 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAK72TEQLDGO2IX6DG6SXCTVF3SGXANCNFSM5TZMNVOA>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[markcmiller86]

Sorry I didn't think to ask but what version of VisIt were you wanting to build there?

[markcmiller86]

@jrobcary I haven't tried to build there yet but have done following...

miller86@cori11:~> module load visit/current
miller86@cori11:~> which visit
/usr/common/software/visit/bin/visit
miller86@cori11:~> visit

Do not run the VisIt GUI at NERSC. Run it on your local workstation (preferred/best performance)!

For more information about running VisIt at NERSC: http://www.nersc.gov/nusers/resources/software/apps/visualization/visit/
miller86@cori11:~> visit -cli
Running: cli3.2.2
Running: viewer3.2.2 -noint -host 127.0.0.1 -port 5600
function is no-op
function is no-op
function is no-op
function is no-op
.
.
.
function is no-op
>>> 
>>> OpenDatabase("/usr/common/software/visit/data/globe.silo") # I selected knl_interactive for the engine
Running: mdserver3.2.2 -host 127.0.0.1 -port 5600
JobSubmitter_salloc_NERSC
Running: salloc -C knl --qos=interactive --time=00:30:00 --ntasks=68 --nodes=1 --tasks-per-node=68 /global/homes/m/miller86/visit.miller86.10:54:30
salloc: Pending job allocation 57989933
salloc: job 57989933 queued and waiting for resources
salloc: job 57989933 has been allocated resources
salloc: Granted job allocation 57989933
salloc: Waiting for resource configuration
salloc: Nodes nid02398 are ready for job
1
>>> 
>>> AddPlot("Pseudocolor","dx")
1
>>> DrawPlots()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
visit.VisItException: VisIt's viewer has terminated abnormally!

Next, I tried running 3.2.2 from my laptop (macOS). I didn't have a nersc cori host profile but I went to Options->Host profiles... and hit the Remote profiles button (verticle oriented middle of widget) and selected National Energy Scientific Researc Computing Network. That gave me a NERSC Cori profile. I then opened the file /usr/common/software/visit/data/globe.silo there and was able to create a mesh plot fine. I did notice this output while doing all this...

ERROR: There was an error attempting to download hosts.
Please contact VisIt developers.

url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/visit-dav/visit/v3.2.2/src/resources/hosts/ohio/host_osc_owens.xml

Error transferring https://raw.githubusercontent.com/visit-dav/visit/v3.2.2/src/resources/hosts/ohio/host_osc_owens.xml - server replied: Not Found.

ERROR: There was an error attempting to download hosts.
Please contact VisIt developers.

url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/visit-dav/visit/v3.2.2/src/resources/hosts/ohio/host_osc_pitzer.xml

Error transferring https://raw.githubusercontent.com/visit-dav/visit/v3.2.2/src/resources/hosts/ohio/host_osc_pitzer.xml - server replied: Not Found.

MESSAGE: Running: mdserver3.2.2 -dir /usr/common/software/visit -idle-timeout 480 -noloopback -sshtunneling -host localhost -port 20418

ERROR: An invalid filter was entered.

MESSAGE: JobSubmitter_salloc_NERSC

MESSAGE: Running: salloc -C knl --qos=interactive --time=00:30:00 --ntasks=68 --nodes=1 --tasks-per-node=68 /global/homes/m/miller86/visit.miller86.10:51:02

MESSAGE: salloc: Pending job allocation 57989794

MESSAGE: salloc: job 57989794 queued and waiting for resources

MESSAGE: salloc: job 57989794 has been allocated resources
salloc: Granted job allocation 57989794

MESSAGE: salloc: Waiting for resource configuration

MESSAGE: salloc: Nodes nid02342 are ready for job

[brugger1]

There are a few ways to go at this point.

• The preferred solution would be to put in a request to NERSC to install the missing xkbcommon-devel package so that you can build qt.
• Another solution would be to try building against the system installed Qt libraries, assuming they are installed. My concern would be about the compatibility between VisIt and the version they have installed. This is probably the least preferred solution.
• The last solution would be to use spack to build VisIt. Spack will build all the X libraries needed by Qt so the lack of that package will not be an issue. The down side here is that the spack package only supports a small subset of the third party libraries that VisIt uses. If you only need hdf5 and Silo, this may be ok.

[brugger1]

I started answering the question and didn't notice the response from Mark. His response reminded me that NERSC only wants you to run client/server to NERSC. Perhaps, you could do a server only build, which wouldn't require Qt.