title: # error "Threading support unavaliable: it has been explicitly disabled with BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS
body: <p>I've been wrecking my brain as to why I can't get a certain version of boost to install. I get the error: </p>
  
  <pre><code>failed gcc.compile.c++
  bin.v2/libs/thread/build/gcc-4.8/release/debug-symbols-on/threading-multi/pt
  hread/thread.o...
  gcc.compile.c++
  bin.v2/libs/thread/build/gcc-4.8/release/debug-symbols-on/threading-multi/pt
  hread/once.o
  In file included from ./boost/thread/detail/platform.hpp:17:0,
                   from ./boost/thread/once.hpp:12,
                   from libs/thread/src/pthread/once.cpp:7:
  ./boost/config/requires_threads.hpp:29:4: error: #error "Threading support
  unavaliable: it has been explicitly disabled with BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS"
  #  error "Threading support unavaliable: it has been explicitly disabled
  with BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS"
      ^
  
      "g++"  -ftemplate-depth-128 -O3 -finline-functions -Wno-inline -Wall
  -pedantic -g -pthread -fPIC -Wno-long-long -DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB=1
  -DBOOST_THREAD_BUILD_DLL=1 -DBOOST_THREAD_POSIX -DNDEBUG  -I"." -c -o
  "bin.v2/libs/thread/build/gcc-4.8/release/debug-symbols-on/threading-multi/p
  thread/once.o" "libs/thread/src/pthread/once.cpp"
  
  ...failed gcc.compile.c++
  bin.v2/libs/thread/build/gcc-4.8/release/debug-symbols-on/threading-multi/pt
  hread/once.o...
  ...skipped
  
  libboost_thread.so.1.48.0 for lack of
  
  pthread/thread.o...
  ...skipped
  libboost_thre
  ad.so.1.48.0 for lack of
  
  libboost_thread.so.1.48.0...
  ...skipped
  libboost_thre
  ad.so for lack of
  libboost_thre
  ad.so.1.48.0...
  ...failed updating 2 targets...
  ...skipped 3 targets...
  ++ '[' 1 -ne 0 ']'
  ++ errexit 'boost build operation failed'
  ++ echo 'Error building boost: boost build operation failed'
  Error building boost: boost build operation failed
  ++ exit 1
  ubuntu@ip-172-31-4-82:~/TCGA_software/GeneTorrent-3.8.5a$ cd ..
  ubuntu@ip-172-31-4-82:~/TCGA_software$ /usr/local/bin/cghub/bin/gtdownload
  --version
  /usr/local/bin/cghub/libexec/gtdownload: error while loading shared
  libraries: libboost_system.so.1.49.0: cannot open shared object file: No
  such file or directory
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm trying to install V 1.48 - I want to install this version because the CGHub bioinformatics package, GeneTorrent, has its own install Boost (1.48) script that has some added libraries like regex. Installing the most recent version of Boost on my own, as opposed to using the build scripts and packaged boost version in the GeneTorrent code, resulted in this software not compiling.</p>
  
  <p>I found online at the boost website what appears to be the file that's outputting the error:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/boost/config/requires_threads.hpp" rel="nofollow">http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/boost/config/requires_threads.hpp</a></p>
  
  <p>The Boost_1_48_0 package does have this file (requires_threads.hpp) in boost_1_48_0/boost/config</p>
  
  <p>Has anyone else ever experienced this issue? I am trying to install the software (via the source code, as there is not a version for the latest Ubuntu yet. I did try the Ubuntu version 13 one and no dice) on an Amazon ec2 Ubuntu 14 instance. </p>
  
  <p>It's been driving me mildly crazy...I see the error message I'm getting (#  error "Threading support unavaliable: it has been explicitly disabled with BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS") in the first few lines of this .hpp file - I pasted them below. But how do I then NOT explicitly disable this? It looks like someone wrote a ptach a while back (<a href="https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/6165" rel="nofollow">https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/6165</a>) but I'm not even sure how to run that patch/have boost take it into account (or if I should trust a random patch from someone!)</p>
  
  <p>The file also states it's only checked up to GCC 3.3 - not sure if that makes a difference. </p>
  
  <pre><code>#ifndef BOOST_CONFIG_REQUIRES_THREADS_HPP
  #define BOOST_CONFIG_REQUIRES_THREADS_HPP
  
  #ifndef BOOST_CONFIG_HPP
  #  include &lt;boost/config.hpp&gt;
  #endif
  
  #if defined(BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS)
  
  //
  // special case to handle versions of gcc which don't currently support threads:
  //
  #if defined(__GNUC__) &amp;&amp; ((__GNUC__ &lt; 3) || (__GNUC_MINOR__ &lt;= 3) || !defined(BOOST_STRICT_CONFIG))
  //
  // this is checked up to gcc 3.3:
  //
  #if defined(__sgi) || defined(__hpux)
  #  error "Multi-threaded programs are not supported by gcc on HPUX or Irix (last checked with gcc 3.3)"
  #endif
  
  #endif
  
  #  error "Threading support unavaliable: it has been explicitly disabled with BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS" 
  </code></pre>