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System Requirements

Select your operating system to view the specific hardware and software requirements for BioGrids.

Supported Distributions

BioGrids supports most modern 64-bit Linux distributions, including: * RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/Alma: 7, 8, 9 * Ubuntu: 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 24.04 * Debian: 10, 11, 12

Hardware Requirements

  • Processor: x86_64 (64-bit) Intel or AMD (4+ cores recommended)
  • Memory: 4GB RAM minimum (16GB+ recommended)
  • Storage: 50GB-500GB+ depending on software selection (3TB+ for site installs)
  • Network: Internet connection required for installation and updates

Required System Libraries

Many tools require OpenGL and 32-bit compatibility libraries.

Graphics & Shell

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/Alma
sudo yum install mesa-libGLU tcsh

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa tcsh
Advanced: 32-bit Compatibility (Legacy Tools)

Many legacy bioinformatics applications require 32-bit compatibility libraries.

sudo yum install glibc.i686 libgcc.i686 libX11.i686 libXaw.i686 libXext.i686 
    ncurses.i686 redhat-lsb.i686 xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi xorg-x11-fonts-100dpi 
    freetype.i686 fontconfig.i686 zlib.i686 libstdc++.i686 libnsl

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libc6-i386 lsb-core gawk libjpeg62:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxext6:i386

Supported Versions

  • macOS 14 & 15: Fully supported (Sonoma, Sequoia)
  • macOS 10.14 - 13: Supported (Mojave through Ventura)

Hardware Requirements

  • Intel Macs: Core i5+ recommended, 8GB RAM minimum.
  • Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4): 16GB unified memory recommended.
  • Compatibility: Most software runs via Rosetta 2 translation.

Required Software

  1. XQuartz (Essential): Required for X11 support. Download at xquartz.org.
  2. Command Line Tools: Run xcode-select --install in your terminal.
  3. Rosetta 2 (Apple Silicon only): Run sudo softwareupdate --install-rosetta.

System Configuration (/programs path)

BioGrids requires a symbolic link at /programs. On macOS Catalina+, this is handled automatically by the GUI installer or manually via /etc/synthetic.conf:

echo -e "programs   /opt/biogrids" | sudo tee /etc/synthetic.conf
# A reboot is required after creating this file.

Network & Connectivity

BioGrids requires outbound internet access on the following ports: * HTTPS (443): Primary downloads and API * HTTP (80): Fallback repositories * Port 873: rsync protocol for updates

Proxy Configuration

If you are behind a corporate firewall, set your proxy variables: 

export http_proxy=http://proxy.example.com:8080
export https_proxy=http://proxy.example.com:8080

Storage Recommendations

  • SSD storage is highly recommended for performance.
  • Case-sensitive filesystems are recommended for maximum compatibility.
  • Network storage (NFS, SMB, AFP) is supported for shared institutional installations.