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System Requirements

BioGrids supports modern 64-bit operating systems. Select your platform below to view specific hardware and software requirements.

Supported Distributions

BioGrids supports most modern 64-bit Linux distributions, including: - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8, 9 - Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux 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 available disk space (for selective installations); 3TB+ for full site mirrors.
  • 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

32-bit Compatibility (Legacy Tools)

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/Alma Linux 8, 9

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

Ubuntu/Debian Systems

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 26.x (Tahoe)
  • macOS 15.x (Sequoia)
  • macOS 14.x (Sonoma)
  • macOS 13.x (Ventura)
  • macOS 12.x (Monterey)
  • macOS 11.x (Big Sur)
  • macOS 10.15 (Catalina)

Hardware Requirements

  • Intel Macs: Core i5+ recommended, 8GB RAM minimum.
  • Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4): 16GB unified memory recommended.
  • Storage: 100GB available disk space minimum (SSD recommended).
  • Compatibility: Most software runs via Rosetta 2 translation.

Required Software

  1. XQuartz (Essential): Required for X11 support. Download at xquartz.org
    1. Note: Xquartz is broken under macOS 26 (Tahoe). Older versions of some GUI programs (coot, phenix) no longer work.
  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 access.
  • HTTP (80): Fallback repositories.
  • Port 873: rsync protocol for software synchronization.

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

Support

For assistance with hardware specifications, OS compatibility, or network requirements, contact our technical team:

help@biogrids.org