# Trouble installing FreeFEM with full plugin support on HPC cluster

**URL:** <https://community.freefem.org/t/trouble-installing-freefem-with-full-plugin-support-on-hpc-cluster/3856>\
**Category:** FreeFEM installation\
**Created:** [April 11, 2025, 8:39am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/trouble-installing-freefem-with-full-plugin-support-on-hpc-cluster/3856 "2025-04-11T08:39:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GiacomoSperoni97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@GiacomoSperoni97](https://community.freefem.org/u/GiacomoSperoni97)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/trouble-installing-freefem-with-full-plugin-support-on-hpc-cluster/3856/8 "2025-04-14T16:10:30Z")

</div>

As suggested, I compiled PETSc externally (not using `make petsc-slepc`) and made sure MPI was correctly loaded before configuring FreeFEM:

```auto
./configure \
  --with-mpi-dir=$MPI_DIR \
  --with-blas-lib="${OPENBLAS_DIR}/lib/libopenblas.so" \
  --with-blas-include="${OPENBLAS_DIR}/include" \
  --with-lapack-lib="${OPENBLAS_DIR}/lib/libopenblas.so" \
  --with-fortran-bindings=0 \
  --with-scalar-type=real \
  --with-debugging=0 \
  --download-mumps \
  --download-parmetis \
  --download-metis \
  --download-hypre \
  --download-superlu \
  --download-slepc \
  --download-hpddm \
  --download-ptscotch \
  --download-suitesparse \
  --download-scalapack \
  --download-tetgen \
  --download-mmg \

```

where the variables `OPENBLAS_DIR` and `MPI_DIR` were detected before from Spack.

The PETSc configuration and compilation seem to have completed successfully, as you can see in the `configure.log` (I’ve zipped the file due to the 8MB limit).

FreeFEM also compiles correctly, and the parallel version (`ff-mpirun`) runs fine, however, it’s still missing several plugins. This is the script for the configure:

```auto
  MPICC=$(which mpicc) \
  MPICXX=$(which mpicxx) \
  --without-hdf5 \
  --with-petsc=${PETSC_VAR}/lib

```

From the `config.log`, it seems that these packages are not detected. Do I need to manually provide their paths (e.g., `--with-mshmet=...`) during configuration, or is there another recommended way to include them?

[config.log](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/xxuZU2cVpKRuMbYY2GsVVCgAtxy.log) (417.1 KB)  
[configure.zip](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/ngfhYV7NpnE5SLmA3ghm6hUQFI7.zip) (481.6 KB)

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