# Compiling NuPIC on Ubuntu 14

**URL:** <https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102>\
**Category:** NuPIC\
**Tags:** compilation, ubuntu\
**Created:** [April 5, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102 "2017-04-05T18:10:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhyolight](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/rhyolight/32/3922_2.png) [@rhyolight](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/rhyolight)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102/1 "2017-04-05T18:10:32Z")

</div>

## Update `apt-get`

```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade # optional

```

## Setup Python 2.7 Development Environment

This command requires administrator access.

```
sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev libsqlite3-dev libreadline6-dev libgdbm-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev sqlite3 zip

```

## Install required packages

These may already be installed, depending on your system. This command requires administrator access.

```
sudo apt-get install python-pip mysql-server

```

Now that `pip` is installed, install `numpy`.

```
pip install numpy

```

> **NOTE** : During this installation, you may be prompted to enter a MySQL password for the `root` user. If you provide your own root password, you will need to [update your MySQL settings in the NuPIC configuration file](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/mysql-settings/2116).

- `git`: for cloning the NuPIC repository
- `python-dev`: to get Python headers for compiling C++ with SWIG
- `python-pip`: for python package installation of required NuPIC python dependencies
- `automake`: for C++ build
- `libtool`: GNU tool for creating portable compiled binaries
- `libssl-dev`: encryption libraries
- `g++`: GNU C++ compiler
- `cmake`: cross-platform, open-source make system
- `mysql-server`: Used for swarming
- `libpcre3-dev`: Perl Compatible Regular Expressions development library (for SWIG compilation below, only required for 32b systems)
- `numpy`: Python math package

> **NOTE** : You may also need to install numpy to get your installation to work. Personally, I used `sudo apt-get install numpy` since I didn’t know exactly which package caused the install to complain.

### Install GCC 4.8

`gcc4.8` is required for C++11. You may do this however you like. But here are some instructions for one way of doing it.

\*\* gcc-4.8 is required by NuPIC now \*\* and it is also default on most Ubuntu systems (14.04 LTS +)

1. `sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test`
2. `sudo apt-get update`
3. `sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8`
4. `sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 60 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.6`
5. `sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 40 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8`
6. `sudo update-alternatives --config gcc` (Choose the option for the new 4.8 compiler)

## Clone the NuPIC repo

Change to the directory where you want to keep the nupic repo:

```
git clone https://github.com/numenta/nupic.git

```

This will create a `nupic` directory containing the NuPIC source code in the current directory.

## Set the NUPIC environment variable

```
export NUPIC=$PWD/nupic

```

## Build NuPIC

```
python setup.py install --user

```

# Troubleshooting

If you have problems with the `python setup.py install` command, try cleaning out your local checkout by running `git clean -dfx`. WARNING: This will clear out any local files that are not controlled by git.

## Not enough memory for compilation

If you run in VM (or on a system with quite low RAM), for compilation it seems the `gcc` requires atleast 2GB RAM memory, otherwise you can see errors like in [this thread](https://github.com/numenta/nupic/issues/1803#issuecomment-72925615)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vkruglikov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/vkruglikov/32/474_2.png) [@vkruglikov](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/vkruglikov)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102/2 "2017-04-05T21:33:34Z")

</div>

> [@rhyolight](#):
>
> update your MySQL settings in the NuPIC configuration file.

@matt, this text that looks like a URL doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhyolight](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/rhyolight/32/3922_2.png) [@rhyolight](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/rhyolight)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102/3 "2017-04-06T03:51:54Z")

</div>

Thanks, fixed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhyolight](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/rhyolight/32/3922_2.png) [@rhyolight](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/rhyolight)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/compiling-nupic-on-ubuntu-14/2102/4 "2017-04-06T18:49:01Z")

</div>

## Quick Install Script

If you don’t care what’s actually happening in the installation [described below](#setup), you can just [run this script](https://gist.github.com/rhyolight/15b8454780424f690d00) (with `sudo` rights!) on a freshly installed Ubuntu 14 LTS, and it should do everything you need. However, I suggest you install NuPIC by following the step-by-step directions below so you’ll know exactly what the installation process does in your environment.

## Setup

#### Install some basic depedencies

```bash
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install git g++ cmake python-dev -y

```

#### Clone nupic.core and nupic

```bash
git clone https://github.com/numenta/nupic.core.git
git clone https://github.com/numenta/nupic.git

```

#### Set some environment vars

These point to our checkout directories. We’ll need them later for running tests and scripts. (You’ll probably want this in your `.bashrc` or `.bash_profile`.)

```bash
export NUPIC=$HOME/nupic
export NUPIC_CORE=$HOME/nupic.core

```

#### Get the latest pip

Notice we are not using `apt-get` because it provides a very old version of pip that is hard to update properly.

```bash
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | sudo python

```

## NuPIC Core

#### Install nupic.core python dependencies

This takes awhile because `numpy`!

```bash
cd $NUPIC_CORE
pip install -r bindings/py/requirements.txt --user

```

#### Install `pycapnp`

This will install the python Capnproto bindings and the C++ Capnproto program.

```bash
pip install pycapnp==0.5.8 --user

```

#### Configure and generate C++ build files

See the [README](https://github.com/numenta/nupic.core#configure-and-generate-c-build-files) for details about the following commands.

```bash
mkdir -p $NUPIC_CORE/build/scripts
cd $NUPIC_CORE/build/scripts
cmake $NUPIC_CORE -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../release -DPY_EXTENSIONS_DIR=$NUPIC_CORE/bindings/py/nupic/bindings

```

#### Build

> **Note:** The `-j3` option specifies ‘3’ as the maximum number of parallel jobs/threads that Make will use during the build in order to gain speed. However, you can increase this number depending your CPU.

```bash
make -j3

```

#### Install

Stay in the `$NUPIC_CORE/build/scripts` directory.

```bash
make install

```

#### Run Tests

```bash
cd $NUPIC_CORE/build/release/bin
./cpp_region_test
./unit_tests

```

#### Install the Python Bindings

This will expose the C++ nupic.core program to python by installing the `nupic.bindings` python module.

```bash
cd $NUPIC_CORE
python setup.py install --user

```

## NuPIC

#### Install

```bash
cd $NUPIC
python setup.py install --user

```

#### Run Tests

First, make sure that `py.test` is on your path. It got installed into `~/.local/bin` in a previous step.

```bash
export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH

```

Now run unit tests.

```bash
python $NUPIC/scripts/run_nupic_tests.py -u

```

**Note** :  
If executing that last line generates an error such as “ImportError: No module named \_markerlib”, it may be caused by Ubuntu’s pre-installed pip version which seems to be outdated. Running these 3 lines should fix the problem.

```bash
sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev build-essential
sudo pip install --upgrade pip
sudo pip install --upgrade virtualenv

```

## Running swarms

To run swarms, a MySQL database is necessary. If MySQL is already installed and has already been setup with a username and password, then you will need to modify the user and password values accordingly in the file nupic-default.xml located at `$NUPIC/config/default/nupic-default.xml`. However, if it is not installed, then simply executing

```bash
sudo apt-get install mysql-server

```

will install MySQL on Ubuntu. During installation, you will be prompted to enter a password for the “root” user. Simply hit the `Enter` button to complete installation. By default, this should create a MySQL database located at “localhost” with the username “root” and an empty password. Once done, you can verify that everything was setup correctly by executing

```bash
python $NUPIC/examples/swarm/test_db.py

```

which should generate some text, with the very last line confirming that the connection test was successful.

**Note** :  
To run swarms, the script run\_swarm.py must be executed. For this to work, you must either add the script run\_swarm.py to the python path or simply invoke the entire path everytime as such

```bash
$NUPIC/scripts/run_swarm.py $NUPIC/your_folder/yoursearch_def.json --maxWorkers=4

```

More details and in-depth explanation about swarms and how to run them can be found [here](https://github.com/numenta/nupic/wiki/Running-Swarms)