Abstract

A very significant upgrade will soon be made to all managed Linux desktop computers in DAMTP and DPMMS (from Scientific Linux 5 to SL6 ).

Even if you only make very occasional use of the Linux computers this upgrade is very likely to affect you.

There is an Open Meeting (with nibbles and feel free to bring your lunch with you) this Friday (24/05/2013) at 3pm. The new Scientific Linux 6 (SL6) desktop will be briefly demonstrated and then the floor opened to questions, followed by social mingling and Maths Computer Officers being available to discuss anything computing and IT.

Computing and IT Open Meeting : SL6 Upgrade Pav B Common room (B1.19) 12:00pm Tuesday 28th May

Some of the significant changes are:

- power saving: Linux computers that are idle and not exporting storage will shut-down if no-one is logged in

- up-to-date texlive LaTeX installation: provides many more packages and requires a different TEXINPUTS and PATH which are set centrally. If your login does not use the central login scripts please consult the documentation: http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/tex/

- login shell: the default PATH is changing (adding /alt/bin for some central software), default aliases for commands such as “ls” are changing http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/sl6/63.html

- email for mutt and pine users: for local email users (not the University email service called Hermes) local nfs is no longer supported. Thunderbird and webmail users should not be affected. For most users of pine and mutt you will either need to type your password each time you use your mail client or make a small configuration change: http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/sl6/63.html

- printing: all printers in DPMMS and DAMTP will be listed

- dropbox will not install centrally (bug reported), but there is a user maintained version available. http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/sl6/63.html

- software such as the Google Chrome browser, VLC media player, Skype, and the latest R are included with the Maths SL6 system

There is more information about the above points and other parts of the new SL6 at: http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/sl6/63.html

There are test computers in each pavilion and if you would like your computer upgraded sooner rather than later please contact sl63@maths.cam.ac.uk

If you are unable to attend this Open Meeting but are interested to learn more then please first consult: http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/computing/sl6/63.html and then request further information from sl63@maths.cam.ac.uk