Installing bioinformatics software can be notoriously difficult for the uninitiated. EPI2ME Labs aims to allow the analysis of anything, anywhere, by anyone. We have simplified the installation and use of bioinformatics tools and resources for Oxford Nanopore sequencing applications.
This page is intended to complement the documentation provided inside the app for guiding the user through the installation process.
Windows 11 support is untested, but is expected to work much the same as Windows 10.
For the workflows in EPI2ME Labs to work you will require Windows build 18362.1049 or higher. To check this: Click Start > search ‘Windows update settings’ > at the bottom select ‘OS Build info’. If your build is earlier you may have Windows updates available at the top of this settings menu which you can install.
Our Nextflow on Windows guide provides details on installing EPI2ME Labs dependencies on older Windows versions. Users having issues with the automated setup within EPI2ME Labs may wish to read these alternative instructions.
The Downloads page contains a link to the latest EPI2ME Labs installer. Download and run it to launch the app.
Note: Not all of our bioinformatics workflows are currently fully supported on Apple devices with ARM processors — we aim to resolve this in early 2023.
A link to the current version of EPI2ME Labs can be found on our downloads page.
The application is provided as a standard MacOS package (.pkg
) file and will
install into the usual /Applications
location.
A link to a .deb
package of the current version of EPI2ME Labs can be found on
our Downloads page. After the download, the application can be
installed via the GUI Software Center (on Ubuntu; simply double-click the .deb
file) or from the command line (using either sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/file
or
sudo apt install /path/to/deb/file
).
The EPI2ME Labs version 4 package is not currently available from the Oxford Nanopore Technologies Debian package repository.
EPI2ME Labs uses Nextflow and Docker to run bioinformatics workflows from a desktop application. It was designed to be as easy to install and set up as possible. Thus, it can install most of the required dependencies (Java, Nextflow) automatically and provides guided installation for other components (Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Docker).
In this section we will run through the installation of software dependencies for EPI2ME Labs version 4.0.0 and onwards. The application provides a guided installation for its dependencies and many steps are automated. In more complicated installation environments the application will provide additional notes and resources to help you resolve any issues that arise.
To start, first obtain the installer package from our Downloads page. After running the installer and opening the application, the program will look for the required dependencies and show an “Additional setup is required” panel in case one or more are missing. If you see the panel, click on it to finish the setup.
Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux via the application [Windows only]
If the app finds that WSL is not installed on your system, it will show you a dialog box with extra information and a button for installing it.
After clicking the button and granting permissions, a terminal window should pop up and download WSL for you.
Once this has finished, please restart your computer. After the restart, another terminal window will open and complete the installation. This may take some time.
At some point, the terminal will ask you to provide a username and password
for the Ubuntu distribution installed by WSL. In some
cases the terminal window running the installation might “get stuck” and
fail to ask for the username. If it is still reading Installing, this may
take a few minutes...
after 5+ minutes, click into the window and press
Enter
to update the display.
After providing username and password, you can close this window. Note that the credentials you choose here do not need to be the same as you Windows username and password, but you may use these if desired.
In EPI2ME Labs the WSL check should now pass and we can continue with the other dependencies.
Installing Java and Nextflow via the application
These two need no intervention by the user and can be installed by simply
clicking the Install via Labs
button. They should install quickly. On
Windows (and depending on your particular networking setup), however,
WSL might not be able to reach the internet. If this is the case, please go back to the
WSL install dialogue box and read the section on networking and
wsl-vpnkit.
After Java is installed and the check passes, carry on to Nextflow and again click the button to install it.
Installing Docker
Docker is preinstalled on GridION and PromethION devices. If you find that Docker is missing when installing EPI2ME Labs on one of these machines, please contact customer support.
Unfortunately, EPI2ME Labs cannot fully automate the install of Docker The easiest way of installing Docker is via Docker Desktop. Follow the instructions on the dialog box in EPI2ME Labs in order to set it up correctly.
If you are on Linux and want to install Docker without Docker Desktop, please refer to the instructions at the bottom of this page.
Once all checks pass, the “Additional setup” dialog boxes will disappear and the EPI2ME Labs application will be ready for running bioinformatics analyses!
After installing Docker Desktop, we need to make sure that it makes Docker available to all WSL distros and that it starts automatically whenever you reboot your machine.
To this end, open the Settings page in Docker Desktop and navigate to “Resources” and “WSL Integration”. Tick all WSL distros as shown below.
Then, in the General settings tab, tick “Start Docker Desktop when you log in”. You can also scroll down and untick “Open Docker Dashboard at startup” if you want the app to start in the background. Click “Apply & restart” so that the changes take effect.
Computational resources available to Docker are restricted. You can change these limits in order to fully utilise your computer.
Resource limits on Windows will be equivalent to the limits for
WSL. You need to create a new
file at C:\Users\<USERNAME>\.wslconfig
(or edit it if it already exists).
Copy and paste the following and adjust. We recommend setting the Memory limit to at least 8G and the CPUs to one or two less than the maximum value for your system
[wsl2]memory=8GBprocessors=4localhostForwarding=true
In MacOS and Linux, resources can be managed in the Preferences section of Docker Desktop directly. We recommend setting the memory limit to at least 8Gb if more RAM is available and the CPUs to one or two less than the maximum value for your system.
The use of EPI2ME Labs on Linux does not require the installation of the Docker Desktop application, only docker. For a more minimal Docker installation, follow the instructions below. We recommend this method only for users comfortable with managing a docker installation from the command line.
A terminal window will open:
wheresudo apt updatesudo apt install docker.iosudo usermod -aG docker <username>
<username>
should be replaced with your computer username.docker run hello-world
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