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Webots on self-managed machines

Webots is a Robotics simulator used for teaching and research in the School.

The software is freely downloadable from the Cyberbotics website and has been released as open-source software. For the purposes of teaching make sure you download a version appropriate to your platform from the archive matching the version currently installed on DICE (you can check this by typing

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Theon: Informatics School Database

Theon is the School's primary information management system. It is a central database holding local data on taught students, research students, staff and visitors. The service consists of a PostgreSQL database and local data processing tools, tightly integrated with data held upstream in Registry through EUCLID and HR.

Data pulled from Theon drives a number of system processes such as account creation and authorisation. Normally users will access the system through other systems, or through its web interfaces:

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Teaching

This is a non-exhaustive list of services supporting teaching:

Also try the "teaching" topic in the "Choose a topic" menu to the right of this window.

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MSc Project Submission

Creating your PROJECT directory

Please only follow these instructions if directed by student services or computing support.

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DICE software

How do I find out what software packages and versions are installed on DICE?

On DICE Ubuntu: The command dpkg -l gives a complete list of all the software packages installed on any particular system, along with summary information about the package (most lines should start with "ii" - those are the ones actually installed), and dpkg -s package will tell you more about a particular software package.

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How does the DICE bash start-up mechanism work?

We've modified bash slightly on DICE. If you want to personalise it you should use the startup files described below.
For full details type this at a shell prompt: 

man bashdefenv

This is how the startup files behave on DICE Ubuntu:

~/.brc is executed every time a new shell starts. Use it for aliases.

~/.benv is executed every time a shell starts in a new environment. Use this to set environmental variables or functions, for example - things which can be exported to subshells.

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Requested software

Overview

The DICE software page explains how (and when) to request extra software for DICE. This page describes how these software requests are prioritised and dealt with.

Software requests - made using the Computing Support Form - are initially scanned by front line support staff.

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GPU and cluster computing

This page lists the GPU and other compute clusters which are available to the School of Informatics.

Why use GPUs for computing? See the GPGPU Computing page. To learn how to do it right, see the GPU cluster tips page.

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PostgreSQL teaching and research databases

PostgreSQL is a database service. This page explains our PostgreSQL software, accounts, extensions and using the database with your own code. To find out more, click one of those keywords. If you are a member of computing staff you might wish to look at the PostgreSQL service overview which incorporates account management procedures.

PostgreSQL software

What PostgreSQL resources are available?

The school maintains two PostgreSQL servers, one for teaching and one for research. Staff and students can be granted access to either server as appropriate.

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VirtualBox on DICE

DICE desktops can run virtual machines. This is done with VirtualBox. (See also virtualisation.)

When running a VM on your desktop, ask computing support to enable CPU Virtualisation Extensions (VT-X). Unfortunately our desktops ship with this BIOS setting turned off by default, but it's crucial for good performance of host and guest that they're turned on.

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