Download a VirtualBox virtual Linux machine with Swarm installed.
It works best to right-click on the link and use "save as".
If your browser decides to change the file name (e.g., to ".zip") then just change it back to .ova.
CentOS6-SwarmUser.ova, 3.15 gigabytes.
Important information:
- The virtual machine is CentOS Linux, version 6.9, 64-bit. It uses version 4.4 of the gcc compiler.
- The download file is in .ova Open Virtualization Format. It was generated in version 5.2.0 of Oracle VirtualBox.
- Using the virtual machine in 64-bit mode (as you no doubt want to do) requires changing your computer's BIOS to allow virtualization. Search the web or the VirtualBox help for guidance.
- The virtual machine includes the Guest Additions software needed for it to access folders on the host machine. This is how you can move your Swarm code and other files between the virtual machine and the host machine. When the virtual machine is turned off, go in the VirtualBox "Settings" menu, find Shared Folders, and identify a directory on the host machine to share with the virtual machine. That directory will then be available on the virtual machine when you start it up.
- The virtual machine has a virtual hard disk. You will need at least 10 gigabytes free to install it.
- The user account is "swarmuser" and its password is "ibmabm". The root password is "swarmroot". The .bash_profile file for swarmuser includes the "export SWARMHOME=/usr/local" statement to set the SWARMHOME environment variable.
- The virtual machine has a directory, called SwarmApps, of example Swarm applications.
Download a version of MSys and MinGW compatible with Swarm.
This page of the Swarm wiki discusses use of MinGW to compile, run, and distribute Swarm models on Windows. However, current versions of MinGW use new versions of the gcc compiler that are incompatible with Swarm. While there are simple instructions on the Web for replacing gcc with an older version, they do not always work. Here is a version that has worked.
MinGW-ForSwarm.zip, 142 megabytes.
To install it, unzip the file into C:/, to create C:/MinGW. (It cannot go anywhere else.)
Then browse to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0, right-click on mysys.bat and create a shortcut to it. Right-click on the new shortcut file and change its properties to use the Msys icon that is in the same directory. Drag the shortcut to your desktop.
You can now click on the desktop icon to open MSys, a Unix-like command window that includes a version of gcc compatible with Swarm. Follow the other directions at http://www.swarm.org/wiki/Swarm_and_MinGW to install and use Swarm. The steps are:
1. Install the Swarm libraries at C:\swarm. (They must be at this location.) Download this zip file, unzip it, and place the resulting "swarm" directory at C:\.
2. Add a Windows environment variable. Search the settings for "Environment variables" and find the "System Properties" dialog and its "Advanced" tab. Select "Environment Variables". Add an environment variable with name SWARMHOME and value /c/swarm
3. Also add MinGW to the Windows path. In the same "Environment Variables" dialog, click on the "Path" variable and select "Edit". Click the "New" button (in Windows 10), and add this new location to the path: C:\MinGW\bin
Updated 07 Oct 2020