# Problem installation on Ubuntu 22.04 **URL:** \ **Category:** FreeFEM installation\ **Created:** [January 13, 2026, 12:41pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188 "2026-01-13T12:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 12:41pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/1 "2026-01-13T12:41:09Z")
I installed a virtual machine Ubuntu 22.04 on my Mac. It is bases on ARM not AMD. So I try to compile from sources following the installation guide. I met an error when ‘make petsc-slepc‘. It shows as following ![a989d9dfae2ed5b516759dfb563474b6](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/0/0a795b6cbfb014909cd5ad2fab4cc008559a731b.png) Does anyone know what’s wrong? ---
**Author:** ![fb77](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.freefem.org/fb77/32/3796_2.png) [@fb77](https://community.freefem.org/u/fb77)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/2 "2026-01-13T15:36:27Z")
as the message says, you have to type sudo apt install make to install “make” once “make” is installed, you can come back to make petsc-slepc ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/3 "2026-01-14T01:37:02Z")
I met a new problem while building/installing SLEPc. ![1dfafd176a4d126e2807881eb9812914](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/8/879cd0f6fdcf13b0f6c058327e73dd86c7667c83.png) The corresponding logs are shown as following: ![9ba7211e2741255c927cfd45bcd69da6](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/9/9c5ebbccc6abcd8d4d8e16460fdc7aae124a03c5.png) [configure.log](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/55QvbxcXdIAmNbgvJ7QYf5jUTzd.log) (32.0 KB) Does anyone know how to deal with it? ---
**Author:** ![prj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:38am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/4 "2026-01-14T06:38:47Z")
There are a couple of weird things going on on your system, e.g.: ```auto perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_US.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). ``` ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/5 "2026-01-14T13:14:01Z")
It may be because the ubuntu iso I installed is for server, let me try to install a desktop ubuntu and have a try. ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/6 "2026-01-14T21:20:09Z")
I changed my system, however, still met an issue when `make petsc-slepc`. The `slepc.build.log` shows `Checking environment… done` `Checking PETSc installation… done` `Checking LAPACK library… done` `Checking SCALAPACK… done` `Installing ARPACK version 3.9.1…` `ERROR: --download-arpack requires that the command autoreconf is available on your PATH, or alternatively that PETSc has been configured with CMake` `ERROR: See “installed-arch-linux2-c-opt/lib/slepc/conf/configure.log” file for details`. And the `configure.log` is as following [configure.log.pdf](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/jU7XOxnteVfXwjOc2kzfcjqvTtQ.pdf) (51.2 KB) Do you know how to deal with it? ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 2:50am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/7 "2026-01-15T02:50:26Z")
one more question, when I try to install using binary package. There is an error shows ![93fa8c2abdde10adc7f19e663f172e26](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/7/72ad43966614f16b183650c6ff5210c117aed25f.png) due to the package architecture dismatch. Will a ubuntu deb file based on arm64 be released later? ---
**Author:** ![prj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 4:40am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/8 "2026-01-15T04:40:57Z")
I don’t know, but it’s always best to compile from the sources. ---
**Author:** ![prj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 4:44am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/9 "2026-01-15T04:44:07Z")
> Do you know how to deal with it? Have you read the error message? Can’t be really more expressive than it currently is… `ERROR: --download-arpack requires that the command autoreconf is available on your PATH, or alternatively that PETSc has been configured with CMake` ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/10 "2026-01-15T14:45:24Z")
Thanks for your reply. Now I reach this procedure ```auto make -j ``` and meet a new problem, as following ![17f68c1a3c27876a41e0ef96db04f830](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/1/197754c0d3ecba63ec0f996a15598779b5d11e3c.png) It seems to be that the config.guess and config.sub files need to be updated. The I download the latest version manually via [http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob\_plain;f=config.guess;hb=HEAD](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.guess;hb=HEAD) and [http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob\_plain;f=config.sub;hb=HEAD](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.sub;hb=HEAD) Then I replace the old files with my new download files and ```auto make -j ``` again. However, it still fails as the same problem, and config.guess, config.sub files return to the old version. Should I do ./configure or something else to ensure that config.guess, config.sub files are the latest version? ---
**Author:** ![prj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/11 "2026-01-15T15:06:32Z")
My best guess would be to simply disable NLopt. ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/12 "2026-01-15T15:18:55Z")
Sorry, may I ask which command can disable Nlopt? ---
**Author:** ![prj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 3:20pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/13 "2026-01-15T15:20:32Z")
Try `--disable-nlopt` in FreeFEM `./configure` line. ---
**Author:** ![zxss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc8723/32.png) [@zxss](https://community.freefem.org/u/zxss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/problem-installation-on-ubuntu-22-04/4188/14 "2026-01-15T16:57:13Z")
Many thanks! It is installed successfully and I can now use ff-mpirun to run parallel examples. ![97fc81899988d505435d66eabdeead2e](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/freefem/original/2X/4/466ae1c9b673becc9550346b8951b75a84da022b.png)