INDEX
LINUX
You can borrow DVDs, from the TAs or myself, containing a distribution
of Mandriva
2009.1 that you can install on
laptops and/or home PCs running Windows. The installation process
use to be straightforward with Windows
XP, but is a little more involved for WIndows Vista. Nonetheless, we have
the needed software that should allow you to install Linux so that your
machine will be dual-boot (Vista and Linux). The TAs and I will be
happy to help you with the installation process.
See HERE for instructions on how to
prepare your Windows machine for a Linux installation (chkdsk, disk
clean-up and defragmentation)
MAPLE
Maple
12 (the same version that is running on Thanks to the
Mathematics Dept., UBC has a site license for Maple. As part of this deal
you can borrow an installation CD for hyper)
for Windows, Linux or Mac OS.
If you want to do this, see one of the PHAS department's system
administrators who work in Hennings 203 (Ron Parachoniak or Tom
Azana). Be
prepared to leave
something of value (driver's license, credit card, student ID etc.) as
collateral to ensure prompt return of the CD.
MATLAB
Unfortunately, UBC does not
have a site license or other general agreement for MATLAB. Individual licenses
for the same version of MATLAB running
on hyper, with all of the same
features, can be purchased through UBC IT, but the cost is $300 per
machine, per year!
A cheaper option, should you want your own copy of the software, would
be to make an online purchase of the Student
Version
of MATLAB via this site.
The Student Version is missing some of the packages included in the
full version installed on hyper,
but includes:
- MATLAB
- Simulink
- Control System Toolbox
- Image Processing Toolbox
- Optimization Toolbox
- Signal Processing Blockset
- Signal Processing Toolbox
- Statistics Toolbox
- Symbolic Math Toolbox
and will certainly suffice for the purposes of this course.
The cost is $99 US for all
platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac). If you want to install on
a Mac, it must have an Intel processor and be running OS X 10.5 Leopard.
Note that I have not personally purchased a Student Version online, and
conceivably you could run into "issues" trying to buy it this way: if
you do, let me know, and I will try to help out as I can.
Finally, the UBC Bookstore also has a few copies of the Student Version
in stock, but its price is $150 CAN, so I'm assuming that even with the
exchange rate, and possible shipping fees, the online purchase option
should be less expensive.
PuTTY
(ssh client for Windows)
If you don't have a ssh client installed on your Windows
machine(s), you can download and install the free package, PuTTY HERE. I recommend that you click
the "A Windows installer for
everything except PuTTYtel" link in the "latest release version (beta 0.60)"
section, save the file to disk, then double click
on the file icon to
inititate the installation. Once installed, you will be able to
use PuTTY to open terminal
windows to remote machines such as hyper.
This in turn will allow you to do basic command-line work on hyper, and other machines that
accept ssh connections, from
within Windows.
XMing: (X Server for Windows)
Installation of this free software on your PC/laptop running Windows
will allow you to run an X server on your system (without installing
Linux). In particular, your will then be able to ssh into hyper.phas.ubc.ca
and start up graphical applications such as kate, gedit, xmaple, matlab
etc., and the applications will appear on your Windows screen.
The performance generally won't be as good as it would be if you had
Linux installed and were running applications locally, but provided
that your network connection is sufficiently fast, it should suffice
for you to do at least some of your homework and term project work
outside of the Computer Lab.
The software can be downloaded from HERE, and there is additional
documentation about installing and using it HERE.
IMPORTANT! Before
you install XMing you should
install the PuTTY ssh-client
(see above), which you will use to establish connections between your
Windows machine and hyper (for
example). During the process of installting Xming you willl be presented with a Select Components dialog: choose the
Normal PuTYY Link SSH client
option.
Once you have installed Xming,
and assuming you have placed an Xming
icon on your desktop, you start the server simply by clicking on the
icon (alternately, you can start Xming
from the All Programs
menu). Once the server starts, you won't see any specific windows
etc. associated with Xming,
but an "X" icon should appear
on the panel, indicating that it is running. Right clikcing on
the icon will give you a pull-down menu that includes an option to exit
the server.
Also, when using PuTTY in
conjunction with Xming, you
should ensure that any connections that you establish to hyper, or other machines on which
you wish to run graphical applications, have X forwarding enabled;
otherwise those applications (like kate),
will not be able to display on your Windows system. Note that PuTTY has a facility for saving and
loading sessions (with the configuration settings saved as well), that
you should learn how to use.
(You way notice in some of the on-line information about Xming that you are supposed to be
able to download Xming's own
ssh-client, XMing-portablePuTTY,
for free, but, at least at this time, that does not seem to be the
case.)
As always, you can contact myself, Ben or Jason should you have any
questions/problems with the installation or use of Xming.
NOTE: Send Matt e-mail should you have any
problems installing any of the following utilities on one or your own
Linux / Mac systems.
- Download: xfpp3d.tar.gz
- Software prerequisites (depending on your flavour of
Linux/Unix, not all will be required)
- OpenGL headers
and libraries (runtime and development)
- GLU headers and
libraries (runtime and development)
- GLUT headers and
libraries (runtime and development)
- XForms headers
and libraries (runtime and development)
- JPEG headers and
libraries
- X11 Miscellaneous
extensions library (libxext)
- X11 libxi development
files (libxi-devel)
- mpeg_encode (if
you want to be able to geenerate MPEG animations)
- Installation instructions: Login as root or become
superuser on your machine, then execute the following
% mkdir -p /root/install
% cd /root/install
% wget
ftp://laplace.phas.ubc.ca/pub/xfpp3d/xfpp3d.tar.gz
% tar zxf xfpp3d.tar.gz
% cd xfpp3d
% ./configure
% make install
Assuming that all of the prerequisites are installed on your system,
this should build xfpp3d and
install it in /usr/local/bin
- Download: xflat2d.tar.gz
| xflat2d_rgb.tar.gz
- Software prerequisites: As for xfpp3d above
- Installation instructions: As for xfpp3d above, but replace all
occurrences of xfpp3d with xflat2d or xflat2d_rgb.
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