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This page takes you through all the steps necessary for downloading & installing !FreeSurfer but lacks the detail and options presented throughout the DownloadAndInstall wiki.
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RAM: 4GB at least (8GB recommended)<<BR>>
Graphics card: 3D with its own graphics memory & accelerated OpenGL drivers<<BR>>
Install's Disk space usage: 8.5GB<<BR>>
Typical subject size: 370MB<<BR>>
RAM: 8GB recommended<<BR>>
Graphics card: 3D graphics card with its own graphics memory & accelerated OpenGL drivers<<BR>>
Size of installation package: 8.5GB<<BR>>
Typical size of a processed subject: 370MB<<BR>>
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'''Important:''' It is essential to process all your subjects with the same version of !FreeSurfer, on the same OS platform and vendor, and to be completely safe, even the same version of the OS. '''Freesurfer 5.3 stable release''' (ReleaseNotes)
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'''Freesurfer 5.3 stable release'''
<<BR>>Please refer to the ReleaseNotes page for per-release information.
'''Important Note:''' It is essential to process all your subjects with the same version of !FreeSurfer, on the same OS platform and vendor, and to be completely safe, even the same version of the OS.
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'''Development Version:'''
<<BR>>The most recent build of !FreeSurfer can be download from [[ftp://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/pub/dist/freesurfer/dev|here]].
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Please select the instructions for the type you downloaded:
 * [[LinuxInstall|Linux Installation]]
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 * [[MacOsInstall|Mac OS X Installation]] '''Linux:'''
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 * [[Installation/FreeSurferVirtualImage|FreeSurfer Virtual Image Installation using VirtualBox]] Installing freesurfer on Linux systems involves simply extracting the contents of the .tar.gz file somewhere on your machine. Installing into the directory {{{/usr/local}}} is recommended. For example:
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== Set Up & Configuration ==
Set the default shell to be permanently switched to tcsh by typing the following in a terminal window and then pressing enter:
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chsh -s /bin/tcsh $> tar -C /usr/local -xzvf freesurfer-Linux-centos6_x86_64-stable-pub-v5.3.0.tar.gz
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Set up your shell's configuration file ('''.tcshrc''') so that !FreeSurfer is sourced every time you open a new terminal window. You can do this by adding the two commands in the box below to any part of the .tcshrc file. Use pico or any other text editor to create a .tcshrc file or to open the .tcshrc file and make this change (i.e. type "pico .tcshrc" on the command-line). '''Mac:'''
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Installing freesurfer on Mac systems involves simply double clicking the .dmg file and clicking thru the steps. The default installation location is in the {{{/Applications}}} directory. For more detailed instructions, please see the following [[MacOsInstall#SetupandConfiguration|step-by-step]].


== Setup & Configuration ==

To begin using !FreeSurfer, you must define and evironment variable called '''{{{FREESURFER_HOME}}}''' which is set to the location !FreeSurfer was installed, and then source the setup script:

'''Linux:'''
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setenv FREESURFER_HOME <freesurfer_installation_directory>/freesurfer
source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.csh
## bash
$> export FREESURFER_HOME=/usr/local/freesurfer
$> source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.sh

## tcsh
$> setenv FREESURFER_HOME /usr/local/freesurfer
$> source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.csh
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**Where <freesurfer_installation_directory> is replaced with the location you installed !FreeSurfer (e.g., /Applications/freesurfer).
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To save your changes in pico, hit Ctrl+x to exit and then type 'y' and press enter to save the changes. '''Mac:'''
{{{
export FREESURFER_HOME=/Applications/freesurfer
source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.sh
}}}
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To check that you have done everything correctly, open a new terminal window. You should see output similar to this: Is done correctly, you should see output similar to this:
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If you see the above, it means the !SetUpFreeSurfer.csh script was sourced successfully. == License ==
A license key must be obtained to make the !FreeSurfer tools operational. Obtaining a license is free and comes in the form of a license.txt file. Once you obtain the license.txt key file, copy it to your !FreeSurfer installation directory. This is also the location defined by the '''{{{FREESURFER_HOME}}}''' environment variable.
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If any warnings appear, it's usually safe to ignore them, but make sure that they are not stating that a file or directory that should exist cannot be found. If any error messages appear, check that the installation process was successfully completed.

== License ==
You must register to obtain a license key [[https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/registration.html|here]]. The license is free but your !FreeSurfer installation will not work without it.

Once you register, you will be emailed the license key. This license key needs to be saved in a text file in the location where you installed !FreeSurfer. To do this, open a new terminal window and type each line of command below (hit enter after each line):
{{{
cd $FREESURFER_HOME
pico .license
}}}

Copy and paste the text between the "CUT HERE" lines in the license email onto the blank screen (which is the text file called .license). To save your changes in pico, hit Ctrl+x to exit and then type 'y' and press enter to save the changes.
[[https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/registration.html|Follow this link to obtain a license key.]]
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If you encounter problems with your installation or have any questions about !FreeSurfer, you can post those questions to the listserv after you sign up [[http://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer|here]]. If you encounter problems with your installation or have any questions about !FreeSurfer, you can

This page takes you through all the steps necessary for downloading & installing FreeSurfer but lacks the detail and options presented throughout the DownloadAndInstall wiki.

FreeSurfer System Requirements

Summary of Requirements:
Operating System: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows (via VirtualBox)
Processor Speed: 2GHz at least
RAM: 8GB recommended
Graphics card: 3D graphics card with its own graphics memory & accelerated OpenGL drivers
Size of installation package: 8.5GB
Typical size of a processed subject: 370MB
Tutorial dataset size: 18GB
Other requirements: Matlab (only needed to run FS-FAST, the fMRI analysis stream)

Download

Freesurfer 5.3 stable release (ReleaseNotes)

Important Note: It is essential to process all your subjects with the same version of FreeSurfer, on the same OS platform and vendor, and to be completely safe, even the same version of the OS.

OS

Platform

Version

Release Date

Download

Size

Linux

CentOS 6 x86_64 (64b)

stable v5.3.0

15 May 2013

freesurfer-Linux-centos6_x86_64-stable-pub-v5.3.0.tar.gz

4.2G

Linux

CentOS 4 x86_64 (64b)

stable v5.3.0

15 May 2013

freesurfer-Linux-centos4_x86_64-stable-pub-v5.3.0.tar.gz

4.0G

Linux

CentOS 4 (32b)

stable v5.3.0

15 May 2013

freesurfer-Linux-centos4-stable-pub-v5.3.0.tar.gz

3.8G

Mac

Lion OX X 10.7 (64b Intel)

stable v5.3.0

15 May 2013

freesurfer-Darwin-lion-stable-pub-v5.3.0.dmg

3.5G

Mac

SnowLeopard OS X 10.6 (32b Intel)

stable v5.3.0

15 May 2013

freesurfer-Darwin-snowleopard-i686-stable-pub-v5.3.0.dmg

3.2G

Virtualbox

Xubuntu 12.04

stable v5.3.0

15 Aug 2013

freesurfer-Virtualbox-linux-x86-stable-pub-v5.3-full.vdi.gz

9.0G

Development Version:
The most recent build of FreeSurfer can be download from here.

Installation

Linux:

Installing freesurfer on Linux systems involves simply extracting the contents of the .tar.gz file somewhere on your machine. Installing into the directory /usr/local is recommended. For example:

$> tar -C /usr/local -xzvf freesurfer-Linux-centos6_x86_64-stable-pub-v5.3.0.tar.gz

Mac:

Installing freesurfer on Mac systems involves simply double clicking the .dmg file and clicking thru the steps. The default installation location is in the /Applications directory. For more detailed instructions, please see the following step-by-step.

Setup & Configuration

To begin using FreeSurfer, you must define and evironment variable called FREESURFER_HOME which is set to the location FreeSurfer was installed, and then source the setup script:

Linux:

## bash
$> export FREESURFER_HOME=/usr/local/freesurfer
$> source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.sh

## tcsh
$> setenv FREESURFER_HOME /usr/local/freesurfer
$> source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.csh

Mac:

export FREESURFER_HOME=/Applications/freesurfer
source $FREESURFER_HOME/SetUpFreeSurfer.sh

Is done correctly, you should see output similar to this:

Setting up environment for FreeSurfer/FS-FAST (and FSL)
FREESURFER_HOME /usr/local/freesurfer
FSFAST_HOME     /usr/local/freesurfer/fsfast
FSF_OUTPUT_FORMAT nii
SUBJECTS_DIR    /usr/local/freesurfer/subjects
MNI_DIR         /usr/local/freesurfer/mni

License

A license key must be obtained to make the FreeSurfer tools operational. Obtaining a license is free and comes in the form of a license.txt file. Once you obtain the license.txt key file, copy it to your FreeSurfer installation directory. This is also the location defined by the FREESURFER_HOME environment variable.

Follow this link to obtain a license key.

Test your FreeSurfer Installation

Close any terminal windows you have open and then open a new one.

Copy and paste this command into the terminal window:

freeview -v $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/mri/brainmask.mgz \
-v $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/mri/aseg.mgz:colormap=lut:opacity=0.2 \
-f $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/surf/lh.white:edgecolor=yellow \
-f $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/surf/rh.white:edgecolor=yellow \
-f $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/surf/lh.pial:annot=aparc:edgecolor=red \
-f $SUBJECTS_DIR/bert/surf/rh.pial:annot=aparc:edgecolor=red

The above command will open the freeview GUI and the subject named 'bert' which comes with your FreeSurfer installation and can be used as an example for what FreeSurfer output should look like.

Sign up for the Mailing List

If you encounter problems with your installation or have any questions about FreeSurfer, you can

DownloadAndInstall (last edited 2026-06-26 09:36:23 by buildqa)