[Ipopt] Compiling IPOPT on Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit with ATLAS

[Andreas Waechter]

Hi David,

> I was wondering if anyone here running Ubuntu has managed to 
> successfully compile IPOPT 3.10 with the system-packaged ATLAS?
>
> I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit.

I'm running the same OS.
>
> In previous versions of Ubuntu, all I had to do was to link against 
> libblas.so.3 and liblapack.so.3 provided by the package 
> libatlas-dev-sse2. However, this package has been removed and replaced 
> with a new package called libatlas-base-dev (ATLAS 3.8.4), which 
> provides two new libraries named libf77blas.so and liblapack_atlas.so.
>
> IPOPT's configure script accepts libf77blas.so but fails for 
> liblapack_atlas.so.
>
> 1) Could it be that the new liblapack_atlas.so does not have the 
> LAPACK routines that IPOPT needs?
> 2) Are there any workarounds or do I have to compile my own ATLAS from 
> scratch?

I have the same package installed (libatlas-base-dev).  If I understand 
correctly, all you have to do is to link with -lblas and -llapack.  Your 
"alternatives configurator" should be set up automatically to pick up

/usr/lib/atlas-base/atlas/libblas.so.3gf and
/usr/lib/atlas-base/atlas/liblapack.so.3gf

If you look at the symbols in the static versions of those libraries 
(e.g., nm /usr/lib/atlas-base/atlas/libblas.a) you will see the atlas 
symbols ATL_...  I guess this setup is meant to be a very convenient way 
to link with Atlas by just using -lblas and -llapack.

Hope this is correct, and hopeful,

Andreas