4. Linux

This chapter describes Linux-specific installation commands to install the options described in the previous chapter. The chapter is written initially with Ubuntu (Debian-based) Linux examples (Ubuntu is the most frequently used Linux distribution by ns-3 users) but should translate fairly well to derivatives (e.g. Linux Mint).

The list of packages depends on which version of ns-3 you are trying to build, and on which extensions you need; please review the previous chapter if you need more information.

4.1. Requirements

The minimum supported version of Ubuntu is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (as long as a modern compiler version such as g++ version 9 or later is added).

ns-3 Version

apt Packages

3.36 and later

g++ python3 cmake ninja-build git

3.30-3.35

g++ python3 git

3.29 and earlier

g++ python2

Note

As of July 2023 (ns-3.39 release and later), the minimum g++ version is g++-9. Older ns-3 releases may work with older versions of g++; check the RELEASE_NOTES.

4.3. Optional

Please see below subsections for Python-related package requirements.

Feature

apt Packages

Reading pcap traces

tcpdump wireshark

Database support

sqlite sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

NetAnim animator

qtbase5-dev qtchooser qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools

MPI-based distributed simulation

openmpi-bin openmpi-common openmpi-doc libopenmpi-dev

Building Doxygen

doxygen graphviz imagemagick

Sphinx documentation

python3-sphinx dia imagemagick texlive dvipng latexmk texlive-extra-utils texlive-latex-extra texlive-font-utils

Eigen3

libeigen3-dev

GNU Scientific Library

gsl-bin libgsl-dev libgslcblas0

XML config store

libxml2 libxml2-dev

GTK-based config store

libgtk-3-dev

Emulation with virtual machines and tap bridge

lxc-utils lxc-templates iproute2 iptables

Support for openflow

libxml2 libxml2-dev libboost-all-dev

Note

For Ubuntu 20.10 and earlier, the single ‘qt5-default’ package suffices for NetAnim (apt install qt5-default)

4.3.1. Python bindings

Python requires Cppyy, <https://cppyy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html> and specifically, version 3.1.2 is the latest version known to work with ns-3 at this time.

ns-3.42 and newer:

python3 -m pip install --user cppyy==3.1.2

ns-3.37-3.41:

python3 -m pip install --user cppyy==2.4.2

ns-3.30-3.36 (also requires pybindgen, found in the allinone directory):

apt install python3-dev pkg-config python3-setuptools

4.3.2. PyViz visualizer

The PyViz visualizer uses a variety of Python packages supporting GraphViz.:

apt install gir1.2-goocanvas-2.0 python3-gi python3-gi-cairo python3-pygraphviz gir1.2-gtk-3.0 ipython3

For Ubuntu 18.04 and later, python-pygoocanvas is no longer provided. The ns-3.29 release and later upgrades the support to GTK+ version 3, and requires these packages:

For ns-3.28 and earlier releases, PyViz is based on Python2, GTK+ 2, GooCanvas, and GraphViz:

apt install python-pygraphviz python-kiwi python-pygoocanvas libgoocanvas-dev ipython

4.3.3. Generating modified python bindings (ns-3.36 and earlier)

To modify the Python bindings found in release 3.36 and earlier (not needed for modern releases, or if you do not use Python).:

apt install cmake libc6-dev libc6-dev-i386 libclang-dev llvm-dev automake python3-pip
python3 -m pip install --user cxxfilt

and you will want to install castxml and pygccxml as per the instructions for python bindings (or through the bake build tool as described in the tutorial). The ‘castxml’ and ‘pygccxml’ packages provided by Ubuntu 18.04 and earlier are not recommended; a source build (coordinated via bake) is recommended. If you plan to work with bindings or rescan them for any ns-3 C++ changes you might make, please read the chapter in the manual on this topic.

4.4. Caveats and troubleshooting

When building documentation, if you get an error such as convert ... not authorized source-temp/figures/lena-dual-stripe.eps, see this post about editing ImageMagick’s security policy configuration. In brief, you will want to make this kind of change to ImageMagick security policy:

--- ImageMagick-6/policy.xml.bak 2020-04-28 21:10:08.564613444 -0700
+++ ImageMagick-6/policy.xml 2020-04-28 21:10:29.413438798 -0700
@@ -87,10 +87,10 @@
   <policy domain="path" rights="none" pattern="@*"/>
-  <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PS" />
+  <policy domain="coder" rights="read|write" pattern="PS" />
   <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PS2" />
   <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PS3" />
   <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="EPS" />
-  <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PDF" />
+  <policy domain="coder" rights="read|write" pattern="PDF" />
   <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="XPS" />
 </policymap>