Introduction To The Statslab Computer Systems

The Computers

Most of the Statslab's computers are PCs running Scientific Linux. We also have some Windows 7 machines. As a general rule, the Linux machines are named after card games and the Windows machines are named after Yorkshire villages beginning with the same letter as the pavilion. A complete list of Maths Linux computers is available online. As a Statslab user you can use the machines in group STATS. Enter your login name to see a list of the machines you are allowed to use.

Please run jobs on the workstations rather than the servers, to avoid overloading them and causing problems for other users. It is also a good idea to check a computer's specs with the commands ``cat /proc/cpuinfo'' and ``cat /proc/meminfo'' before starting a long job. Jobs with large memory requirements are best run on apollo or juno.

Logging into the servers remotely is also unwise as the software you wish to use may not be installed. If you have an office it's probably best to connect to the machine on your desk where possible. If you can't connect, it may have been automatically switched off to save energy. You can wake it up via the web or with the "wake" command, or connect to martha or primrose which are always on.

Your account

Most new users will have been given both Linux and Windows accounts, but if you do not have a Windows account and want one, please email help@maths.cam.ac.uk.

You automatically have the same username, password and home directory on all the Linux machines. Windows users can access their Linux home directory as drive N:, and the Windows desktop and My Documents folder are also redirected to subdirectories of drive N:. N.B. Files stored on drive C: will not be backed up unless you do it yourself.

To change your Windows password, log into a Windows machine, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete (all three keys simultaneously), click on the ``Change Password'' button and follow the instructions. To change your Linux password, type ``passwd'' at a Linux prompt. For security reasons, your passwords will never be displayed on the screen. The University Computing Service have some advice on choosing a password.

If you want to keep your account after leaving the Statslab, please let me know before you leave, preferably giving an estimate of how long you will be needing it for. Please note that keeping your account indefinitely is strongly discouraged, because we do not have the resources, but we can continue forwarding your email indefinitely.

Your quota

All users have a ``quota'' or limit on how much disk space they can use in their home directory. For new users this will be 2GB. Both Linux and Windows machines run a small applet to display how much of your quota you are using.

Large files which don't need to be backed up can be stored in a subdirectory of /data/mrsmop (accessible from all Statslab computers) or /local/scratch/public (only accessible from one computer). If you are running out of quota, check that you have emptied the Wastebasket (aka Trash, Recycle Bin). This page has detailed information on quotas and disk space.

Printing

The Statslab has a number of black-and-white laser printers. The four publicly available ones are ps2 in the computer room, ps12 in the reading room, ps8 in D0.02, and ps5 in D0.21. There are also three colour laser printers: ps7 in the computer room, ps10 in the photocopier room and ps_trans (single-sided) in D0.21. If you need to print colour transparencies, it is best to use ps_trans. You can also use the colour inkjet printer attached to the Windows 7 PC darley outside my office. More information on printing is available.

Email

Your official email address is A.B.Smith@statslab.cam.ac.uk, replacing ``A.B.Smith'' with your own initials and surname. If your username is abs99, then abs99@statslab.cam.ac.uk will also work. The easiest way to read or send email is to use our webmail service. Pine, Mutt and Thunderbird are also available. If you want to read your Statslab email from home and don't want to use the webmail service, the Statslab SMTP and IMAP servers are both mail.statslab. More info on configuring email clients is available.

You may already have an email account elsewhere e.g. many people choose to read their email on Hermes. If you want to forward your Statslab email to another system, create a file named .forward (including the full stop) in your home directory. The .forward file must contain your preferred email address. N.B. If there is a mistake in this file, email sent to your Statslab account will be returned to the sender.

Software

The latest versions of R, Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, Scilab and Libreoffice (a free "clone" of Microsoft Office) are all available on the Linux machines. The Windows machines all have Adobe Acrobat Professional, MikTeX/TexnicCenter and Microsoft Office 2010 installed.

If there is any software you need for your work which isn't installed, please email help@maths.cam.ac.uk. Linux users wishing to install software themselves should use the user-maintained software area.

Responsible Use Of Statslab Systems

Here are a few points to remember in order to avoid inconveniencing other users of the Statslab computers. This page has more details on responsible use of our network.

If you try to print something and it doesn't come out, don't just send it again. If the printer is busy, wait for it to get through its queue of jobs. If the printer seems to be idle but your job still doesn't come out, cancel it.
Turning off monitors and office printers (not public printers) is fine, but PCs prefer to be shut down properly. On Linux PCs you should use the ``safeshutdown'' and ``safereboot'' commands because they will automatically check whether anyone else is using the PC.
When submitting number-crunching jobs, be careful not to overload the computers. Try to be aware of the memory requirements of your jobs, ``nice'' your processes to avoid using all the CPU, and use ``top'' to check how many jobs are already running.

Sources Of Further Information

The most common computer questions and problems are dealt with in this mini-FAQ. If that doesn't help, try my longer list of Frequently Asked Questions or email help@maths.cam.ac.uk.
Information about connecting your own computer to our network.
Some more local computing information is available on the World Wide Web.
The Computing Service offer free training courses on a range of computing topics including LaTeX, Unix and Windows.