Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Discussion about building and installing Elmer
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mzenker
Posts: 1999
Joined: 07 Dec 2009, 11:49
Location: Germany

Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by mzenker »

Hi,

I have just upgraded from Elmer 7 to Elmer 8.1 under Windoze 7. My first test simulation involves the Static Current Solver and Heat Equation. When I start the Solver from the GUI, it says

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ELMER SOLVER (v 8.1) STARTED AT: 2015/12/08 17:06:52
ParCommInit:  Initialize #PEs:            1
MAIN: 
MAIN: =============================================================
MAIN: ElmerSolver finite element software, Welcome!
MAIN: This program is free software licensed under (L)GPL
MAIN: Copyright 1st April 1995 - , CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd.
MAIN: Webpage http://www.csc.fi/elmer, Email elmeradm@csc.fi
MAIN: Version: 8.1 (Rev: Release, Compiled: 2015-11-04)
MAIN: =============================================================
MAIN: 
MAIN: 
MAIN: -------------------------------------
MAIN: Reading Model: case.sif
Loading user function library: [HeatSolve]...[HeatSolver_Init0]
Can not find HeatSolve.
Can not find HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find .\HeatSolve.
Can not find .\HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find C\HeatSolve.
Can not find C\HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find \ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release/share/elmersolver/lib\HeatSolve.
Can not find \ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release/share/elmersolver/lib\HeatSolve.dll
When I change the priorities so that StatCurentSolve is called first, I get the same error messages concerning StatCurrentSolve.
My Solver dlls are in C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release/share/elmersolver/lib. But the error message looks like it omits the "C:".
I have verified in the Windoze system settings that ELMER_HOME, ELMERGUI_HOME and Path are set correctly, i.e. that %ELMER_HOME%\bin and %ELMER_HOME%\lib are in Path. Also, the GUIlogger starts with the messages

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ELMER_HOME=C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release
ELMERGUI_HOME=C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release\share\ElmerGUI
ELMER_POST_HOME=C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer7\share\elmerpos
Starting ElmerGUI:
C:/ProgrammePlus/Elmer 8.1-Release/bin/ElmerGUI
(Remark: I did not install ElmerPost since I don't use it.)

So everything seems to be set like it should.

Why does Elmer seem to look for the solver dlls in the wrong path?

Matthias
mzenker
Posts: 1999
Joined: 07 Dec 2009, 11:49
Location: Germany

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by mzenker »

Hi,

is there anyone out there who is running Elmer 8.1 successfully under Windows 7 ?
Do I have to anyting special (in addition to a reboot) after running the installer?

Thank you,

Matthias
mzenker
Posts: 1999
Joined: 07 Dec 2009, 11:49
Location: Germany

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by mzenker »

Hi,

I have solved the problem by downgrading to Elmer 8.0.

Remarks:
  • Setting ELMER_MODULES_HOME (mentioned in the 8.1 release notes) did not solve the problem
  • The Windows installer issues a warning (both for 8.0 and 8.1):

    Code: Select all

    Warning! PATH too long installer unable to modify PATH!
    I have run the installer exe as root and checked that it should modify the system variables for all users.
  • I have to set ELMER_HOME and ELMERGUI_HOME by hand - that may be due to the warning mentioned above
  • The instructions on how to set the system variables in the GUItester are outdated, I think.
  • I need to reboot my computer before the changes to the system variables take effect.
I consider the 8.1 problem as a bug. So unless someone reports that 8.1 does work under Windows, I would advise Windows users to stay with 8.0.

@Elmer team: It would be nice to fix that one or tell me what I do wrong...

Matthias
kataja
Posts: 74
Joined: 09 May 2014, 16:06
Antispam: Yes

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by kataja »

Hello,

Thank you for finding and reporting this bug!

A workaround to this bug might be:
  • only set ELMER_HOME to e.g. "C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release"
  • make sure that PATH variable contains %ELMER_HOME%\bin
  • unset all other elmer related environment variables such as ELMER_LIB
Anyhow, the bug is fixed in the devel version and the fix will be included in the next release.

Cheers,
Juhani
mzenker
Posts: 1999
Joined: 07 Dec 2009, 11:49
Location: Germany

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by mzenker »

Hi Juhani,

glad to hear that a fix will be available soon.

Concerning your suggestions for a workaround:
only set ELMER_HOME to e.g. "C:\ProgrammePlus\Elmer 8.1-Release"
That was the case, see my first post.
make sure that PATH variable contains %ELMER_HOME%\bin
PATH contains %ELMER_HOME%\bin and %ELMER_HOME%\lib
unset all other elmer related environment variables such as ELMER_LIB
ELMER_LIB is not set in my system. The existing variables are ELMER_HOME, ELMERGUI_HOME, ELMER_POST_HOME, and ELMER_MODULES_PATH (which I have set after the first failure of 8.1, since it is mentioned in the releae notes). Do you think the cause of the problem lies there?

Anyway, I will use 8.0 until the next release, that is fine.

Matthias

[/quote]
DonDan01
Posts: 1
Joined: 29 Jan 2016, 20:20
Antispam: Yes

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by DonDan01 »

UPDATE - solved / bug located! :)
Writing the post below I stumbled over the solution. It's not related to the slashes, but to the missing drive specifier !!
I had the project on C:\%something% and obviously Elmer changes the working directory to the project directory. That's why it is probably unable to locate the solver path from this directoy as the drive letter (in my case D:\) is missing in the Elmer path.
I did a test and copied the project to the drive that contains the elmer installation and then everything works.
Still it would be nice if this small bug would be fixed in future. Thanks!

my (now outdated) post with the error log:
It seems I'm running into the same trouble using Elmer 8.1 on Windows 10.
I have tried the environment variables and paths as suggested, but nothing helps. I always get this message:

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MAIN: Version: 8.1 (Rev: Release, Compiled: 2015-11-04)
...
Model Input:  Unlisted keyword: [calculate flux abs] in section: [solver 2]
Loading user function library: [HeatSolve]...[HeatSolver_Init0]
Can not find HeatSolve.
Can not find HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find .\HeatSolve.
Can not find .\HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find d\HeatSolve.
Can not find d\HeatSolve.dll.
Can not find \Program Files (x86)\Elmer 8.1-Release/share/elmersolver/lib\HeatSolve.
Can not find \Program Files (x86)\Elmer 8.1-Release/share/elmersolver/lib\HeatSolve.dll.
Is there a fix to this problem now? (other than installing the old version). Can this be connected to the mixed right and left slashes? (see log).
Thanks.
Hanan
Posts: 3
Joined: 07 Nov 2023, 13:17
Antispam: Yes

Re: Elmer 8.1 under Windows: Solver dlls not found

Post by Hanan »

Hi
How to add the Schrödinger equation to the Elmer FEM program
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