Computing facilities in the Department of Mathematics primarily utilize the Linux operating system for workstation, server and cluster computing. This page contains resources for new students who are less familiar with the Linux operating system.

In-depth tutorial on linux computing.

Server Access

Instructions on accessing linux servers from personal computers: Windows, Mac

Virtual Machine

For students wishing to try linux locally on their personal computers without performing a full install, we have set up virtual machines (VM) of the standard department Ubuntu Linux installation. Users wishing to use this approach should first download and install the freely-available VirtualBox software on their computer. In addition, users should download one of the two following VMs:

• SMUMath_32bit.vdi.zip (1.6 GB) -- for computers with 32-bit CPUs or below 2 GB of RAM,
• SMUMath_64bit.vdi.zip (1.6 GB) -- for computers with 64-bit CPUs and above 2 GB of RAM.

Note: these files are quite large, and should be downloaded from on-campus to shorten the download time.

System requirements:   The VM is around 6.1 GB in size, uncompressed and with the full stack of software installed. Depending on how much data you store in your VM, this can of course grow larger. You can set how much of your RAM is available to the VM when configuring it, but it is recommended to use at least 512 MB. Since the VM runs within your existing operating system, it is recommended that your computer have at least 1 GB of RAM.

Setting up the VM in VirtualBox:   Once you have downloaded and unzipped the VM disk image, follow these steps to set it up in VirtualBox:

1. Start VirtualBox
2. Click the "New" button in the upper-left corner
3. Click "Continue" at the starting page
4. Enter a name for the VM (put in whatever you like); for OS Type, select "Linux", and for Version, select "Ubuntu". Click "Continue"
5. Enter the amount of memory to give the VM, in megabytes. Give it as much as you can spare; 512 MB is the recommended minimum. Click "Continue"
6. Click "Use existing hard disk," then click the folder icon next to the disk list. In the file system browser that appears, select the VM disk image you downloaded above. Leave the box labeled "Start-up Disk" checked. Once you have selected the disk image, click "Continue"
7. Review the summary VirtualBox gives you, then click "Create." Your new virtual machine should appear on the left side of the VirtualBox window.

Starting the VM:   Once you have configured the VM in VirtualBox, boot it by double-clicking on it's name in the list of available VMs. The VM will take a little while to start, and VirtualBox will display explanation messages about keyboard and mouse capturing. Once the VM has finished booting, it will log you in automatically under the username "smumath" and the corresponding password is "peruna" -- these will be necessary for system administration tasks.

On your first login, open a terminal (in the panel at left) and type

./ubuntu_packages.sh

You will be prompted to enter your password (peruna). After that, it will display a long list of packages to install -- answer "Y" at the prompt and press return. It will then proceed to download and install the remaining packages to emulate the SMU Math computing environment. Once this installation finishes, the VM should occupy 6.1 GB of disk space.

Shutting down:   When you are done using the VM, you can shut it down by clicking the sprocket in the top right of the window. Once the VM has shut down, the enclosing VirtualBox window will close.