VirtualBox.md

Using the sPHENIX software with an Ubuntu Virtual Box

Singularity container for sPHENIX allows collaborators to run the sPHENIX RCF/SDCC environment with the nightly builds on your local computers or on external high-performance computing clusters. It is optimized for offsite computing on Linux-based systems.

On Windows or MacOS PC/laptop though, it could be tricky to run Singularity directly on the host system. Therefore, this page provide a solution to run sPHENIX Singularity container under an Linux Ubuntu virtual box, which can run well on Windows or MacOS.

1. Install VirtualBox on your host system: Virtual Box

2. Download sPHENIX Ubuntu 18.04LTS Image. The MD5SUM is f6dc1258689504d6c928efc3b77a66c2.

This image has CVMFS and Singularity3 preinstalled, enabling direct loading all sPHENIX builds via its OSG cvmfs volume network (i.e. Option-1 of main documentation).

3. Import the above image to your virtual box (HowTs). Please ensure you have internet connection before the next step (e.g. visit www.bnl.gov from inside the VirtualBox)

Then you are good to go. Start the imported Virtual Box. The Ubuntu VM is set to do unattended-upgrades. On the first start it will pull in and install a lot of package updates. The default user is fun4all with password of fun4all. It would be good practice to change at least the password after first login. Following files are installed in the home folder:

• ~/singularity_shell.sh: execute this script to get a bash shell with the Singularity container
• ~/setup.sh: source this macro from inside the Singularity container to use the lastest build
• ~/install/: local build folder to be used for $MYINSTALL area, which is currently empty

You need to copy updated versions of these scripts:

cp /cvmfs/sphenix.opensciencegrid.org/singularity/scripts/singularity_shell.sh .
cp /cvmfs/sphenix.opensciencegrid.org/singularity/scripts/setup.sh .

Start using it with an Ubuntu terminal:

fun4all@Fun4AllSingularity:~$ ./singularity_shell.sh
entering the sPHENIX singularity container on /cvmfs/sphenix.opensciencegrid.org

Singularity> source setup.sh 
.....
Using the sPHENIX build /cvmfs/sphenix.opensciencegrid.org/default/release/release_new/new.1 (the build version number may be different, it is 1-4)
Local build will be installed at /home/fun4all/install


Singularity> git clone https://github.com/sPHENIX-Collaboration/macros.git
Cloning into 'macros'...
...

Singularity> cd macros/detectors/sPHENIX
Singularity> root Fun4All_G4_sPHENIX.C
   ------------------------------------------------------------
  | Welcome to ROOT 6.16/00                  https://root.cern |
...

Then welcome to follow the default macro tutorials: https://github.com/sPHENIX-Collaboration/macros .

Please note the first use of a day will be slow, as CVMFS caches files from BNL SDCC over the network. You are also welcome use Option-2 downloading a build and run the software without internet. In this case you have to start the singularity container via

singularity shell -B cvmfs:/cvmfs cvmfs/sphenix.opensciencegrid.org/singularity/rhic_sl7_ext

Troubleshooting

If you are having display issues then you can tell virtualbox to use a different graphics support by going to Settings->Display->Graphics Controller and selecting VboxVGA (You can also disable 3D acceleration here)