Myrinet GM-1 Software
for FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a continuation of the "Berkeley Standard Distribution" UNIX. It is robust, it is free, and it is supported on IA32 and Alpha platforms.

The Myrinet GM software for FreeBSD is maintained by Andrew Gallatin, a Myricom employee and member of the Myricom software team who is also a volunteer contributor to the FreeBSD project.

To download Myrinet software, you need a login and password.
If you don't already have these, please request them.

Binary | Source

The FreeBSD GM software is distributed in both source and binary form. The binary software is available for FreeBSD 4.1.1-RELEASE through 4.5-RELEASE on the IA32 platform; the source code can be used on all 4.x versions of FreeBSD on both IA32 and Alpha.

Recommended-version GM Binary Downloads for FreeBSD
NIC
Operating System/ Architecture PCI64B and PCI64C
(Lanai 9)		 PCI64 and PCI64A
(Lanai 7)		 PCI32C
(1MB)
(Lanai 4)
FreeBSD v4.1.1 through
FreeBSD v4.5 for IA32		 GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD

Abbreviated Binary Installation Instructions

Please be sure to read the README files for detailed installation instructions and architecture-specific troubleshooting. Unresolved questions could also be answered in the FAQ.

Current cautions and common problems:

  • GM-1 does not support the new M3-CLOS and M3-SPINE Myrinet-2000 switches.
  • If you have a mixture of hosts with Lanai4 and Lanai7 (or Lanai9) NICs that need to talk to each other, you must configure with --disable-new-features on all of the hosts (ie, use the binary tarball for PCI32C everywhere).
  • By default, GM-1.5 and higher has security features enabled. Thus, you must now be root to run the GM Mapper (or gm_simpleroute).
  • Do not use the configure flag --enable-directcopy with GM 1.5.2.3. This flag is not a valid option to GM 1.5.2.3. It will be re-enabled in a future release.
  • If the host is rebooted, you must rerun the GM Mapper.
  • The GM Mapper must be run before any communication over Myrinet can occur.
  • In most cases, the GM Mapper should not be run continuously. It is intrusive and can interfere with network traffic intensive jobs (e.g, MPI applications).

    • GM installation is performed in three easy steps:

    1. Unpacking and loading the GM driver. 

            tar zxvf gm-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD-x86-FreeBSD-4.1.1-RELEASE-new-features-8ports.tar.gz
        cd gm-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD-x86-FreeBSD-4.1.1-RELEASE/
        su root
        ./GM_INSTALL

    2. Running the GM Mapper.

            cd gm-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD-x86-FreeBSD-4.1.1-RELEASE/sbin/
        su root
        ./mapper map_once.args

    There are 3 ways in which the GM Mapper can be run. Refer to section 2 'Running the Mapper' of the README-linux for details.

    3. Testing the GM Installation.

    A variety of test scripts are available in binary/bin/ to test your GM installation. We recommend the five tests described in tests/README.

    Congratulations! You have successfully installed GM.

    Recommended-version GM Source Downloads for FreeBSD
    NIC
    Operating System/ Architecture PCI64B and PCI64C
    (Lanai 9)    		 PCI64 and PCI64A
    (Lanai 7)    		 PCI32C
    (1MB)
    (Lanai 4)    		 PCI32B
    (512KB)
    (Lanai 4)    		 PCI32A
    (256KB)
    (Lanai 4)
    FreeBSD v4.x
    IA32, Alpha    		 GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD GM-1.2.3

    Abbreviated Source Installation Instructions

    To compile GM on FreeBSD platforms, you will need GNU make which is available from the /usr/ports/devel/gmake port or the gmake package. Please be sure to read the README files for detailed installation instructions and architecture-specific troubleshooting. Unresolved questions could also be answered in the FAQ.

    Current cautions and common problems:

  • GM-1 does not support the new M3-CLOS and M3-SPINE Myrinet-2000 switches.
  • By default, GM-1.5 and higher assumes that you have Lanai9 or Lanai7 NICs. If you have Lanai4 NICs with 1MB or 512KB memory, you must configure with --disable-new-features.
  • If you have a mixture of hosts with Lanai4 and Lanai7 (or Lanai9) NICs that need to talk to each other, you must configure with --disable-new-features on all of the hosts.
  • By default, GM-1.5 and higher has security features enabled. Thus, you must now be root to run the GM Mapper (or gm_simpleroute).
  • Do not use the configure flag --enable-directcopy with GM 1.5.2.3. This flag is not a valid option to GM 1.5.2.3. It will be re-enabled in a future release.
  • If the host is rebooted, you must rerun the GM Mapper.
  • The GM Mapper must be run before any communication over Myrinet can occur.
  • In most cases, the GM Mapper should not be run continuously. It is intrusive and can interfere with network traffic intensive jobs (e.g, MPI applications).

    • GM installation is performed in three easy steps:

    1. Configuring, compiling, and loading the GM driver

    First, install GNU make from the /usr/ports/devel/gmake port or the gmake package.

            gunzip gm-1.5.2.3_FreeBSD.tar.gz | tar xvf -
        cd 
        ./configure

    By default, we also assume that you have Lanai9 or Lanai7 NICs. If you have Lanai4 NIC with 1MB of memory, you will need to configure with:

            ./configure --disable-new-features

    If you have Lanai4 NIC with 512KB, you will need to configure with:

            ./configure --disable-new-features --with-min-supported-sram=256

    and you will only have 4 GM ports available instead of 8.

            gmake
        cd binary
        su root
        ./GM_INSTALL

    2. Running the GM Mapper.

            cd binary/sbin/
        su root
        ./mapper map_once.args

    There are 3 ways in which the GM Mapper can be run. Refer to section 2 'Running the Mapper' of the README-linux for details.

    3. Testing the GM Installation.

    A variety of test scripts are available in binary/bin/ to test your GM installation. We recommend the five tests described in tests/README.

    Congratulations! You have successfully installed GM.

    Refer to the Software and Documentation Page for details of GM-based software (MPICH-GM, PVM on GM). If you encountered difficulties during any phase of this installation process, we recommend that you first consult the README-FreeBSD and FAQ, and if you still have unresolved questions, please feel free to contact technical support at help@myri.com.


    Last updated: 28 December 2005