WEEK-5-OPENROAD-readme.md

⏬ Installation OPENROAD on Ubuntu 24

• OpenROAD is the core application and the engine of the flow. It is a unified executable that performs the actual physical design work.
• OpenROAD (Open Rapid Object-Oriented Design) is an open-source, fully autonomous, end-to-end RTL-to-GDSII digital physical design toolchain developed primarily for ASIC implementation.
• Its objective is to enable push-button, timing-closed layout generation without proprietary software dependencies.
• OpenROAD integrates multiple components that collectively perform synthesis, floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis, routing, and signoff analysis.
• The tool leverages key open-source engines such as Yosys for logic synthesis, and OpenSTA for static timing analysis.

👿 INSTALLATION PART

• To install the openroad on Ubuntu 24 is liitle bit complex and tricky 👿.

Follow the Installation order

1️⃣ Step1 Install Necessary Build Tools and GCC-9

• The default compiler version (GCC 11+) often causes internal C++ conflicts with OpenROAD's dependencies. We force the use of GCC-9.

## Update repositories and install the build essentials
$ sudo apt update
$ apt install build-essential git cmake swig python3-dev -y

# Install the compatible compiler (GCC-9)
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test -y
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install g++-9 -y

2️⃣ Step2 Build and Install OR-Tools (Critical Dependency)

• Need to build and install OR-Tools to /usr/local so OpenROAD's final configuration can find it.

# Clone the repository. Have patience it takes almost more than an `hour`.
$ git clone [https://github.com/google/or-tools.git](https://github.com/google/or-tools.git)
$ cd or-tools
# Build and install OR-Tools
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake -DBUILD_DEPS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
$ make -j$(nproc)
$ sudo make install

2️⃣ Step3 Build and Install spdlog tool (Critical Dependency)

# installation outside openroad folder
$ cd ~
$ git clone -b v1.11.0 [https://github.com/gabime/spdlog.git](https://github.com/gabime/spdlog.git)
$ cd spdlog
$ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSPDLOG_FMT_EXTERNAL=OFF .
$ make -j$(nproc)
$ sudo make install

👿 Carefully Patch OpenROAD Source Files to Link spdlog

• Because we manually cloned spdlog (and commented out the system find_package), we must patch two files to tell CMake how to link the internal files directly
• src/CMakeLists.txt (To stop searching for system package)
• Open the file: sudo gedit src/CMakeLists.txt
• Find the line find_package(spdlog REQUIRED) (around line 235) and comment it

• 🅱️ part

• Patch Root CMakeLists.txt (To build the dependency target)
• Open the file: sudo gedit CMakeLists.txt
• Add the line add_subdirectory(third-party/spdlog) immediately after the existing add_subdirectory(third-party) line, and before add_subdirectory(src).

# --- ADD THIS LINE immediately after the existing `add_subdirectory(third-party)` ---
add_subdirectory(third-party/spdlog)

2️⃣ Step4 Build and Install gtest an dependency.

# just move to the below folder and do cmake and make that will copy gtest and gmonk in the `usr/lib`
$ cd /usr/src/gtest
$ sudo cmake .
$ sudo make
$ sudo cp lib/libgtest*.a /usr/lib/

ScreenShot: The Dependencies all met.

2️⃣ Step5 Build and Install ⚡ OpenROAD clone

✋ note- we will clone the openroad and built seperatly

• These steps ensure a complete and clean repository, resolving initial build issues like missing submodules.
• Clone OpenROAD and Fix Submodule Corruption git submodule update --init --recursive
• This ensures all required third-party libraries (like spdlog and sta) are fully downloaded.

# Clone OpenROAD repository (replace <path> with your chosen directory)
$ cd $HOME/vsdflow git clone [https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD.git](https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD.git)
$ cd OpenROAD
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
# Run CMake (using g++-9 and pointing to OR-Tools)
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Wno-error"
or
cmake .. \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Wno-error" \
-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/usr/local" \
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/g++-9

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad cmake is complete.

# 🕡 the cmake will take enough time to complete 
# Compile and Install OpenROAD
$ <Build Folder path > make -j$(nproc)
$ sudo make install

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad after Make and install.

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad after Make 100% done!!.

Successfully Installed

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad is successfully Installed.

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad is successfully Installed on Ubuntu 24 WSL.

👏after these all run command openroad and it will open like this -

ScreenShot: The picture shows that openroad test folder contains PDK and example which we will take in PART-2

Acknowledgement

1. VSD and Kunal Sir
2. General Chat VSD
3. Chat GPT and all Internet user working on OPENROAD Installation.
4. ALL friends.