GAMESS on Linux platforms
Our distribution options include precompiled 32-bit binaries for Intel PC-type systems running Linux. There are so many other types of chips and Linux distributions that you must compile from source code to use them.
If your PC is running Linux (or similar Unix releases like BSD), we distribute GAMESS in source code form, just like any other Unix system. The full functionality of the program is available, including parallel execution using the Distributed Data Interface. This includes use of memory in excess of 2 GBytes, if your system has a 64-bit capable Linux distribution.
The 64 or 32 bit Linux versions use the gfortran compiler included in recent RedHat distributions. For older distributions, such as the one we use on our old PCs, the 32 bit g77 compiler can also be used. Optionally, you can use the commercially available Intel, Portland Group, or Pathscale compilers. At Iowa State we deliberately use the GNU compilers, to be sure that we are testing what we think is the the most common compiler choice at other sites. Information about the various compiler choices is stored in the compiling scripts in the GAMESS distribution, along with data about math library options.
We heartily recommend that on 32 bit systems you use at least RedHat 8, released many years ago, so you can write disk files bigger than 2 GBytes, have for parallel computing, have the necessary support for threads, and SystemV memory calls. The RedHat Fedora Core 6 distribution contains a new enough version of gfortran to reliably support 64 bit computing.
If your Linux is some other release, such as SUSE, Debian, Slackware,... it will undoubtedly work. Just be aware that we are using RedHat in our day to day usage and testing, although almost everyone with a different kind of Linux (or indeed, FreeBSD) succeeds in running GAMESS. In essence, GAMESS relies on the GNU compilers and their libraries, and very standard system calls, making GAMESS independent of the distribution's name, or its version number.
Regarding Linux on non-Intel platforms: in early 2000, it became possible to run GAMESS on AXP Linux, because Compaq chose to make their good 64 bit compilers available. Hence, since the compilers are the same, this is really the AXP version, so select target 'axp64' for either Linux or the vendor Unix, as the scripts sort this out. In 2005 a similar version was prepared for the IBM Power4 and Power5 workstations, using the IBM compiler xlf. Select 'ibm64' as the compile target, and let the scripts sort out automatically whether the machine is running Linux or AIX. For AMD or other processors, just install the GNU compiler package, and then request the appropriate compiler target 'linux32' or 'linux64'. Should you have one of the 64 bit Intel processors, whether Itanium2 or Xeon-type, use the compiling target 'linux-ia64' to utilize Intel compilers and their MKL math library fully.
Of course, Linux systems are commonly used to build clusters, for parallel computing. Indeed today it is possible to buy well prepared clusters, using Gigabit Ethernet or better yet, Infiniband networks. Be sure not to make the mistake of buying too many multicore chips and not enough RAM! See the DDI installation instructions regarding the use of the simple to use TCP/IP option for message passing, or other libraries such as MPI.
You may be interested in the history of the Linux version. This was initially created by Pedro Vazquez in Campinas, Brazil back in 1993, and modified somewhat by Klaus-Peter Gulden in Wurzburg, Germany. We acquired our first Linux machine in 1997, and since that time the RedHat versions 4.2, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.1, and Fedora Core 1 (aka RedHat 10) have all been used by us. Our success with the initial machine led to the purchase of a so-called "Beowulf cluster" in 1998 which was used in early 1999 to complete the initial Distributed Data Interface. It is no longer possible to list the various Linux machines we have tried since. The 64 bit version based on gfortran 4.1 was fully worked out on systems at Osaka Prefectural University in the summer of 2006.
The Cygwin UNIX layer for 32 bit Windows allows you to run the current source code version of GAMESS, if you wish to make your Windows PC appear to simulate Linux.