DAMTP News: Search idl

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a bug and critical security update. To get the benefit of the security fixes you should restart all browsers, LibreOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_38) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_37) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010 - though Java still lists Sun as the Vendor.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_38
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_38
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_38
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_38
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox java plugin, LibreOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at the centrally installed Oracle Java Runtime in one of /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre places. Hence they should automatically pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_38

or you can point the browser at:

which should display the Java version detected as "Java SE 6 Update 38" or "Version 6 Update 38".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older Java 1.6.0_30 (jre and jdk) has now been removed, other old java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to help@maths.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a bug and critical security update. To get the benefit of the security fixes you should restart all browsers, LibreOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_38) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_31) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010 - though Java still lists Sun as the Vendor.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_33
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_33
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_33
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_33
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox java plugin, LibreOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at the centrally installed Oracle Java Runtime in one of /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre places. Hence they should automatically pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_33

or you can point the browser at:

which should display the Java version detected as "Java SE 6 Update 33" or "Version 6 Update 33".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older Java 1.6.0_30 (jre and jdk) has now been removed, other old java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a bug and security fix update. To get the benefit of the security fixes you should restart all browsers, LibreOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_31) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_30) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010 - though Java still mentions Sun as the Vendor.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_31
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_31
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_31
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_31
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox java plugin, LibreOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at the centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in one of /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre places. Hence they should automatically pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_31

or you can point the browser at:

which should display the Java version detected as "Java SE 6 Update 31" or "Version 6 Update 31".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older Java 1.6.0_29 (jre and jdk) has now been removed, other old java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is just a bug-fix update. To get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, LibreOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_30) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_29) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010 - though Java still mentions Sun as the Vendor.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_30
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_30
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_30
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_30
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox java plugin, LibreOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at the centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in one of /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre places. Hence they should automatically pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_30

or you can point the browser at:

which should display the Java version detected as "Java SE 6 Update 30" or "Version 6 Update 30".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older Java 1.6.0_27 (jre and jdk) has now been removed, other old java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, LibreOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_29) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_27) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various security problems and other bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010 - though Java still mentions Sun as the Vendor.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_29
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_29
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_29
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_29
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox java plugin, LibreOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at the centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in one of /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre places. Hence they should automatically pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_29

or you can point the browser at:

which should display the Java version detected as "Java SE 6 Update 29" or "Version 6 Update 29".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

Older java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is only a bugfix update though to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_27) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_26) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_27
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_27
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_27
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_27
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they ought to pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_27

or you can point the browser at:

which will display as "Version 6 Update 27" or "Java SE 6 Update 27".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

Older java versions will be removed in a few weeks unless problems are found in the new version and reported to us - email help@maths.cam.ac.uk if you discover a problem.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get any bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java. Oracle regard this as a critical update.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_26) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_25) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes various security problems as well as some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_26
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_26
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_26
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_26
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they ought to pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_26

or you can point the browser at:

which will display as "Version 6 Update 26" or "Java SE 6 Update 26".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older java 1.6.0_24 versions have now been removed - somewhat later than suggested in news item 1579, but we got there eventually.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is only a bugfix update though to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_25) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_24) which may be removed after a few weeks. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the improvements please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_25
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_25
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_25
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_25
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they ought to pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_25

or you can point the browser at:

which will display as "Version 6 Update 25" or "Java SE 6 Update 25".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older java 1.6.0_23 versions have now been removed - somewhat later than suggested in news item 1542, but we got there eventually.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was once Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Oracle/Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_24) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_23) which may be removed in few weeks. The new version also fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle in 2010.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_24
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_24
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_24
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_24
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@maths.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they ought to pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_24

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 24" or "Java 6 Update 24".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@maths.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older java 1.6.0_22 versions have now been removed - somewhat later than suggested in news item 1531, but we got there eventually.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Oracle (was Sun) Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_23) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_22) which will be removed in few weeks. The new version also fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

Don't be surprised that the links above are to Oracle rather than Sun - Sun were bought by Oracle several months ago.

Those wanting to use the latest Oracle (Sun) JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_23
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_23
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_23
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_23
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_23-b05

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 23" or "Java 6 Update 23".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

The older java 1.6.0_20 versions have now been removed - somewhat later than suggested in news item 1500, but we got there eventually.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: IDL 8.0 is now the default version on Linux (x86, x86_64) and MacOSX (intel) platforms.

Back in news item 1476 we announced IDL 8.0 was available for testing, and intended to make it the default version fairly soon, but I forgot to do that until today. In any case running idl, idlde, etc should now launch the IDL 8.0 versions.

Apologies for the rather excessive delay in making this the default, complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_22) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_20) which will be removed in a couple of weeks. The new version also fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

[ Don't be surprised that the links above say Oracle rather than Sun at the top of every page - Sun were bought by Oracle several months ago. ]

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_22
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_22
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_22
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_22
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_22-b04

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 22" or "Java 6 Update 22".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: some setting were altered on the Linux thunderbird preferences on the morning of the 10th, and may have caused problems for some users. These will be undone very early this morning, but the removal may also cause problems for some users.

In an attempt to make the thunderbird setup for new users easier I added some extra default preferences (defaultPref) in one of the config files which was pushed out at the same time as the new version of thunderbird on the morning of the 10th.

These defaultPref settings altered the default values for some settings including those for 'mail.server.server2...', 'mail.identity.id1...' and 'mail.account.account1...'. These often form part of the first mail account created by the thunderbird account-setup wizard.

I had foolishly assumed that changing these defaultPref values would not affect any users who already had accounts set up since it seemed reasonable to assume that the user_pref values in the prefs.js would still remain in force.

However I failed to realize that thunderbird doesn't store any value which it believes matches the 'default' value so a number of settings were changed.

Anyone with a thunderbird profile set to use the old default settings found that they were unable to connect to the imap server, and in at least one case it refused to allow them to manually change the setting to the 'old default'.

On the evening of the 13th I changed the lines which set these default values (in our central config files) so they should no longer clash with any settings created by the thunderbird account-manager. These changed settings will be pushed out to all Linux machines before 3am on the 14th.

However, anyone who was already using the settings that I added on the 10th and has started up thunderbird between the 2am on the 10th and 3am on the 14th may have had those values removed from the prefs.js file. This will almost certainly mean that thunderbird is now unable to connect to that imap server.

A check of the ages of prefs.js files in user thunderbird profiles suggests that this may affect about 40 users, although some of these profiles may not be using the values which are affected and so may not have any problems.

If any of you find that thunderbird does not work properly please let us know by sending email to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk (if you can), or call extension 66100 if you can't.

We can arrange to restore a copy of the relevant prefs.js from before the 10th which will fix things for you. You will need to quit from thunderbird or the restored version will be ignored.

For most of these profiles (where it seemed that thunderbird was not running or seemed to be idle - in which case I killed the thunderbird first), I've already put back older versions of the prefs.js

Complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk, I'll try very hard not to break things so badly in future.

SUMMARY: the licinfo script should one again be showing useful information.

We recently moved several of our floating licence servers to a newer machine, but I forgot to update the licinfo script to make it query the newer server.

I've now done this and also removed some of the licence-servers it queries (since we essentially have infinite licences so should never run out).

Currently it will report on the usage of Matlab, IDL, and the newer versions of the Intel compilers. If anyone feels the need to query the information about Maple, Mathematica or NAg licences please let me know.

Many apologies for not noticing this oversight earlier, complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

SUMMARY: IDL 8.0 is now available for testing on Linux (x86, x86_64) and MacOSX (intel) platforms.

IDL version 8.0 has been installed for the Linux (sl5) and MacOSX (OSX 10.5) machines, and so far those who have been testing it have reported no significant problems.

The new commands are: idl80 idlde80 idlhelp80 and idlrpc80

Commands without the 80 suffix still run the default IDL version 7.1. Please try the new version and notify help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you encounter any problems.

Unless serious problems are discovered and reported IDL 8.0 will become the default version of IDL in a couple of weeks - and older versions may be removed a short time later.

IDL 8.0 is not available for Power-PC MacOSX so those machines will only be able to run IDL 7.1, and not at all once that is removed.

Note that you can check from inside IDL which platform is being used and whether it is running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode, by running:

     print,!version

at the IDL> prompt.

Our IDL licences are partly funded for by us paying the suppliers directly but mostly by a deal provided by STFC to support IDL use by STFC funded researchers.

Our current understanding of the arrangement suggests that we can also obtain a small number of IDL licences to STFC funded researchers for use on their own machines (e.g. laptops for use offsite, home machines etc).

If you are funded by STFC and would be interested in an IDL licence for such a machine please let us know. A similar arrangement is apparently available with some of the other funding bodies but so far we have only spoken to the suppliers about the STFC arrangement (this was PPARC before of course).

SUMMARY: The licence servers for a number of commercial applications were accidentally shut down just before 1am. They were all restarted again before 2.30am.

The FLEXlm licence servers for matlab, maple, idl, nag and intel (compilers) were all accidentally shut down at about 00:52 this morning, which would have prevented licences from being obtained.

This would have caused the relevant commands to fail when launched and may have caused problems for running instances; some of which check back with the server at various times.

The licence servers were restarted at about 01:39 but killed a few minutes later and finally restarted just after 02:23. The logs show that they are all still running properly. Apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced by this.

The problem was caused by a flaw common to all the lmgrd startup scripts (that I wrote) which could kill the wrong lmgrd iff the lmgrd binary had been renamed/removed. The relevant scripts have now been altered to be far more careful and hopefully this will not happen again.

Complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

SUMMARY: some older versions of applications have been removed.

Over the weekend and today we have been removing some older versions of various applications (mostly commercial) to avoid them taking up so much space. If you were still using any of the versions we have removed please let us know by sending a message to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk

The more significant applications removed were:

Maple 8, 9, 9.5 - leaving 10, 11, 12, 13
Mathematica 4, 5.0, 6.0.1 - leaving 6.0.2.1, 7.0.1
Matlab 4.2, 5.0, 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 - leaving 7.1, r14.3, r2006b, r2007a, r2007b, r2008b (and soon r2010a)
IDL 5.0, 5.3, 5.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 - leaving 7.0, 7.1
Sun Java 1.6.0_19 - leaving 1.6.0_20
Acroread 9.3.1 - leaving 9.3.2

In addition we removed the old gcc 3.4.3 and gcc 4.0.0 compilers as well as all the SGI Irix binaries (the last Irix machine here was finally turned off last week) and some other old apps which hadn't been on any default paths for very many months (e.g the remaining parts of our tex3 builds from 1992/1993 and the old HP-UX, and SunOS4 binaries for reduce-3.5 etc).

Please send complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_20) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_19) which will be removed in a couple of weeks. The new version also fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

[ Don't be surprised that the links above say Oracle rather than Sun at the top of every page - Sun were bought by Oracle some time ago. ]

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_20
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_20
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_20
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_20
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_20-b02

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 20" or "Java 6 Update 20".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_19) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_18) which will be removed in a couple of weeks. The new version also fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

[ Don't be surprised that the links above say Oracle rather than Sun at the top of every page - Sun were bought by Oracle some time ago. ]

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_19
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_19
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_19
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_19
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_19-b04

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 19" or "Java 6 Update 19".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is for web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest Java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_18) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_17) which will be removed in a couple of weeks. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

[ Don't be surprised that the links above now say Oracle at the top of every page - Sun have now been bought by Oracle. ]

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_18
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_18
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_18
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_18
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment, but may be removed at some point in the future.

e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_18-b07

or you can point the browser at:

which will display the version as "Version 6 Update 18" or "Java 6 Update 18".

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is from web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest java version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_17) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_15) which will be removed at some point in the future. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_17
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_17
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_17
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_17
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment. e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

The older java versions 1.6.0_13 1.6.0_14 have now (finally) been removed and 1.6.0_15 will be removed at some point in the next few weeks.

We never bothered to install 1.6.0_16 since it did not contain security fixes.

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_17-b04

or you can point the browser at:

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: The idl 7.1 startup scripts have been tweaked to only use one thread by default to prevent problems on machines with many CPUs.

The default idl 7.1 behaviour is to start as many threads as the machine has CPUs. This may be expected and normal on single-user machines but on servers (or even high end workstations) with many CPUs this leads to it attempting to take all the resources of the machine and causes problems for anyone else running code on the machine.

The startup scripts have been tweaked so that idl will now default to only using a single thread/CPU. To force it to use more threads you can set an environment variable to a suitable number. After some discussion we have been advised that the most common variable-name for this action is OMP_NUM_THREADS.

Therefore to launch idl with 2 threads one could use:

     OMP_NUM_THREADS=2 idl

The "HELP, /STRUCTURE, !CPU" command can report the number of available CPUs and how many threads have been selected. e.g. on an x86_64 machine which reports 16 CPUs:

     $ OMP_NUM_THREADS=3 idl
     IDL Version 7.1 (linux x86_64 m64). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...     
     IDL> HELP, /STRUCTURE, !CPU
     ** Structure !CPU, 6 tags, length=32, data length=32:
        HW_VECTOR       LONG                 0
        VECTOR_ENABLE   LONG                 0
        HW_NCPU         LONG                16
        TPOOL_NTHREADS  LONG                 3
        TPOOL_MIN_ELTS  LONG64                    100000
        TPOOL_MAX_ELTS  LONG64                         0
     IDL>

the HW_NCPU line shows 16 CPUs and TPOOL_NTHREADS shows we have chosen 3 threads. Complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk etc.

SUMMARY: IDL 7.1 is now (finally) the default version on the Linux and MacOSX machines.

Back in May we installed IDL version 7.1 for people to test, and intended to make it the default within a few weeks (see news item 1317), but I (jp107) forgot about it and so the change wasn't made.

As part of testing changes to some licence server scripts I happened to notice that the default version was still 7.0. Oops.

For a while you will still be able to run the old versions as (say) idl70 etc, but eventually we will probably need to remove most of these older versions.

Many apologies for taking so long to switch to the new version.

Requests for assistance should be sent to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk and complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is from web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest version.

NOTE: this is a security update and to have a useful effect and to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_15) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_14) which will be removed at some point in the future. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_15
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_15
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_15
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_15
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment. e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Older java versions such as 1.6.0_13 1.6.0_14 and will be removed at some point in the next few weeks.

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL, Maple and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_15-b03

or you can point the browser at:

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: An updated Sun Java system has been installed for the Linux machines. A common use of this is from web browser plugins. You should restart any Linux web browser to ensure that you are using the latest version.

NOTE: this is a just a bug fix update (no security fixed). To get the benefits of the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab or any other apps which may be using our centrally installed java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) has been install on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines. The new version (1.6.0_14) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_13) which will be removed at some point in the future. The new version fixes some bugs and should improve performance and reliability.

For more details of the fixes please read:

Those wanting to use the latest Sun JRE or JDK tools can now locate them under various paths.

For the 32-bit version even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines:

/opt/sunjava-32bit/
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre1.6.0_14
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_14
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jre
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk

For the native version on the platform in question (32 or 64 bit):

/opt/sunjava-native/
/opt/sunjava-native/jre1.6.0_14
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_14
/opt/sunjava-native/jre
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk

The old paths e.g. /opt/sunjava/jre/ will also still work - referring to the 32bit version at the moment. e.g. to run the native appletviewer the following path will work:

/opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer

Various older java versions have now been removed, and 1.6.0_13 will be removed at some point in the future. See news item 1293 and news item 1263 for information about the previous versions and 64-bit support.

Anyone who believes that they need any of the older versions should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk so we can find out why/if the latest version is not suitable.

The Firefox (and Seamonkey) java plugins, OpenOffice, and recent versions of Matlab, IDL and Scilab setups all point at this centrally installed Sun Java Runtime in /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre names. Hence they should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists all the installed plugins - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_14-b08

or you can point the browser at:

Those who use other or locally installed browsers using java plugins should ensure that the plugin links are pointed at the new version. If you don't know what that means then feel free to ask help@damtp.cam.ac.uk for advice.

If any of these changes cause problems please let us know as soon as possible. Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk

SUMMARY: IDL 7.1 is now available for testing on Linux (x86, x86_64) and MacOSX (ppc and intel) platforms.

IDL version 7.1 has been installed for the Linux (sl5) and MacOSX (OSX 10.4/10.5) machines, and so far those who have been testing it have reported no significant problems.

The new commands are: idl71 idlde71 idldemo71 idlhelp71 idlman71 and idlrpc71

Commands without the 71 suffix still run the default IDL version 7.0.3. Please try the new version and notify help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you encounter any problems.

Unless serious problems are discovered and reported IDL 7.1 will become the default version of IDL in a couple of weeks - and older versions may be removed a short time later.

Note that you can check from inside idl which platform is being used and whether it is running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode, e.g.

On an x86_64 MacOSX machine:

     $ idl71
     IDL Version 7.1, Mac OS X (darwin x86_64 m64). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...
     IDL> print,!version
     { x86_64 darwin unix Mac OS X 7.1 Apr 21 2009      64      64}

On an x86_64 Linux machine:

     $ idl71 
     IDL Version 7.1 (linux x86_64 m64). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...     
     IDL> print,!version
     { x86_64 linux unix linux 7.1 Apr 21 2009      64      64}

On a PPC (Power-PC) MacOSX machine:

     $ idl71
     IDL Version 7.1, Mac OS X (darwin ppc m32). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...     
     IDL> print,!version
     { ppc darwin unix Mac OS X 7.1 Apr 21 2009      32      64}

On an x86 (32-bit) MacOSX machine:

     $ idl71
     IDL Version 7.1, Mac OS X (darwin i386 m32). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...     
     IDL> print,!version
     { i386 darwin unix Mac OS X 7.1 Apr 21 2009      32      64}

On an x86 (32-bit) Linux machine:

     $ idl71
     IDL Version 7.1 (linux x86 m32). (c) 2009, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     ...     
     IDL> print,!version
     { x86 linux unix linux 7.1 Apr 21 2009      32      64}

Our IDL licences are partly funded for by us paying the suppliers directly but mostly by a deal provided by STFC to support IDL use by STFC funded researchers.

Our current understanding of the arrangement suggests that we can also obtain a small number of IDL licences to STFC funded researchers for use on their own machines (e.g. laptops for use offsite, home machines etc).

If you are funded by STFC and would be interested in an IDL licence for such a machine please let us know. A similar arrangement is apparently available with some of the other funding bodies but so far we have only spoken to the suppliers about the STFC arrangement (this was PPARC before of course).

SUMMARY: As announced in news item 1270 and since no error reports for IDL 7 have been seen we have now made 7.0.3 the default version.

IDL 7.0.3 is now the default for Linux (x86 and x86_64), a bit later than originally planned. Therefore running any of the commands:

     idl idlde idldemo idlhelp idlman idlrpc

should launch the 7.0.3 versions, e.g. on an x86_64 Linux machine we now see:

     $ idl
     IDL Version 7.0 (linux x86_64 m64). (c) 2007, ITT Visual Information Solutions
     Installation number: 403409.
     Licensed for use by: University of Cambridge
     IDL> print,!version
     { x86_64 linux unix linux 7.0 Oct 25 2007      64      64}
     IDL>

Because the new version has a significantly different graphical environment (e.g. idlde uses the Eclipse framework), we will not be removing IDL 6.3 in the very near future - to allow time for people to convert to the new setup.

However all the earlier versions will probably be removed within the next 2 weeks. Please let us know (by e-mail to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk) if you are still using an earlier version of IDL or think you may be affected.

We have arranged things so that on COSMOS idl 6.3 will still be the default. This is because the graphical interface of the newer versions does not work properly in the x86 emulation mode there - and there is no native IA64 version of IDL.

SUMMARY: IDL 7.0.3 is now available for testing on Linux-x86, Linux-x86_64 platforms.

IDL version 7.0.3 has been installed for the Linux (sl5) machines, and so far those who have been testing it have reported no significant problems. The new commands are: idl70 idlde70 idldemo70 idlhelp70 idlman70 and idlrpc70

Commands without the 70 suffix still run the default IDL version 6.3. Please try the new version and notify help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you encounter any problems. Unless serious problems are discovered and reported IDL 7.0.3 will become the default version of IDL in a couple of weeks - and older versions may be removed some time after that.

IDL is licenced partly by us paying the suppliers directly but mostly by a deal provided by STFC to support IDL use by STFC funded researchers.

Our current understanding of the arrangement suggests that we can also obtain a small number of IDL licences to STFC funded researchers for use on their own machines (e.g. laptops for use offsite, home machines etc).

If you are funded by STFC and would be interested in an IDL licence for such a machine please let us know. A similar arrangement is apparently available with some other funding bodies but so far we have only spoken to the suppliers about the STFC arrangement (was PPARC before of course).

SUMMARY: Central parts of the new VOIP system will be having maintenance work this evening (roughly 18:00-19:00) and phones on the entire CMS site may not work during this time.

This morning we received notification of this phone system maintenance work from the UCS/Telecoms Office. Please note that on the CMS site even the phones which are presented as traditional analog lines will be affected since they are all connected via VOIP gateway devices.

Here is the text of the announcement:

     Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:46:09
     
     Tonight (Monday 19th January) between approximately 18:00 and 19:00, we
     will be undertaking some maintenance work on the new Cisco phone system.
     
     Calls in progress will not be affected by this maintenance work. However
     during this time, some idle phones will restart several times - and may
     take a significant amount of time to restart (maybe 10-15 minutes), but
     until the phones have completed their restart, it will not be possible to
     make or receive calls.
     
     This work will not affect those phones still on the old University phone
     system.

You should not rely on being able to make calls from any phone on the CMS site during this work.

SUMMARY: previously on the SL50 machines OpenOffice would print a warning during startup. This should no longer happen.

Like Mathematica and IDL this seems to be triggered by new X visuals which the code does not understand, resulting in a warning:

     libGL warning: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x4b

The startup now sets the same environment variable as we added to IDL to force indirect (non-accelerated) 3D rendering. Since OpenOffice does little or no 3D drawing this should make no difference to the performance and hides the warning message.

If in fact it does cause any problems please let us know so we can undo the change asap.

SUMMARY: IDL would crash on startup when displaying to SL50 machines. A fix has been added to the startup script to prevent this.

Because of features of the newer X server and libraries on the SL50 machines, existing versions of IDL would crash during startup unless the environment variable LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT was set.

In April ittvis (who make IDL) said that this would be fixed in idl-6.4 (released in May) but we don't have that here (yet). Hopefully we will get it fairly soon.

We have arranged that IDL (6.3, 6.2, 6.1) sets the variable itself in the short term although this may result in somewhat slower 3d rendering. Older versions (IDL-5.4 and earlier) appear not to need the fix so have not been changed.

While looking at this we noticed that the default IDL was still 6.2 despite the announcement that 6.3 would be the default in January (news item 983). This promised change has now happened so you will need to use idl_6.2 (etc) to run the older versions. Many apologies for taking so long to do this.

IDL 6.3 is now available for testing on Linux-x86, Linux-x86_64, SGI IRIX64 and Solaris 32+64-bit platforms.

The new commands are: idl_6.3, idlde_6.3, idldemo_6.3, idlhelp_6.3, idlman_6.3 and idlrpc_6.3.

Commands without the _6.3 suffix still run version 6.2. Please try the new version and notify help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you encounter any problems. All being well, version 6.3 will become the default during January, 2007.

The new version is licenced partly by us paying the suppliers directly but mostly by a deal provided by PPARC to support IDL use by PPARC funded researchers.

Our current understanding of the arrangement suggests that we can also obtain a small number of IDL licences to PPARC funded researchers for use on their own machines (e.g. laptops for use offsite, home machines etc).

If you are funded by PPARC and would be interested in an IDL licence for such a machine please let us know.

Last year we installed IDL 6.2 intending to make it the default version after brief testing (see news item 857). Similarly when Maple 10 was installed we expected to make it the default fairly quickly (see news item 873).

Having been reminded the change will happen asap. Anyone who still needs the old versions can still use them by using e.g.

     idl_6.1

etc. Note that IDL 6.2 is only supported on Linux (SL3) and MacOSX 10.4. Maple 10 seems to only be installed for Linux (SL3), though some MacOSX machines may also have it installed locally.

Later releases of both will probably only be installed for Linux (and MacOSX iff there is demand).

At some point the really old versions of IDL and Maple will probably be removed.

IDL 6.2 for Linux-x86, MacOSX, SGI IRIX 32+64-bit and Solaris 32+64-bit is now available for testing.

The new commands are: idl_6.2, idlde_6.2, idldemo_6.2, idlhelp_6.2, idlman_6.2 and idlrpc_6.2. Commands without the _6.2 suffix still run version 6.1. Please try the new version and notify help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you encounter any problems. All being well, version 6.2 will become the default early in January, 2006.

As part of a recent order for standalone matlab licences (for laptops), we added a couple of extra licences to our floating network licence. That is we now have 18 rather than 16, which will hopefully reduce the likelyhood of being unable to run matlab at busy times. We havn't changed the number of licences for any of the toolboxes.

We have configured the licence server (lmgrd) to take back licences from idle matlab sessions. Initially this is set to take back a licence after just over 2 days of idleness (180000 seconds). This is intended to avoid problems caused when people forget about a matlab session, and so hold licences for excessive periods (and so prevent others from working). If an idled matlab is later used again it will attempt to obtain a licence (just like a new matlab would). The timeout value may have to be tweaked once we see how things are working and if there are any problems.

Please let us know if this causes any problems (or you think it might cause you problems).

A few days ago Adobe announced that all versions of Acrobat Reader (acroread) for unix before version 7.0 had a serious security flaw which could cause arbitrary code to be executed when viewing carfully constructed pdf files.

See http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329083.html for details of the advisory, in particular they suggest upgrading to 7.0:

     If you use Adobe Reader 5.0.9 or 5.0.10 on Linux or Solaris, download
     Adobe Reader 7.0 at www.adobe.com/products/...

We already had acroread 7.0beta (installed as acroread700) for Linux, but it sems that Adobe quietly made a real release a few weeks after that came out and the Solaris version a month later (and we didn't notice).

Eagle-eyed people may have noticed that since Sunday command acroread70 was available on Linux and Solaris (while it was tested).

Since this is a fairly serious security update, I've chosen to make acroread70 the default version (run by just using acroread), right away. For a few days the older (insecure) versions acroread509 and acroread5010 will stay so people can verify any problems against the old version. However I do plan to remove ALL the older versions (including the 7.0beta) within 7 days, unless really bad new problems are found.

Issues we already know about are:

     Users of IDL (6.1 at least) may get warnings on startup about
     rsiidl_linux_x86.api, which is something IDL puts in ~/plug_ins/ and
     acroread objects to.  You can simply remove the ~/plug_ins/... file as IDL
     will re-create it, but this means that the warning will come back...
     On Solaris acroread 7.0 is linked against gtk+, pango, libext etc which
     are not installed by default (or provided as part of Solaris8).  Overnight
     we will be creating symlinks to a central copy of the libs (from
     sunfreeware).  Until those links are all made acroread may give very
     strange errors.
     Only a Linux/x86 binary is provided, so on Linux/ia64 machines, it runs in
     i386 emulation mode (which is very slow).  On at least some systems the
     i386 pango libs are not installed properly, so acroread ends up not being
     able to render some fonts (e.g. for menus etc).  Linux/ia64 users probably
     should run acroread on a different platform anyway!

Please let us know if you find any other (new) flaws.

Further to info item 721 and in the absence of any reported problems, IDL 6.1 (actually 6.1.1) is now the default version of IDL on Linux/Intel, Solaris and IRIX.

The commands are:

idl, idlde, idldemo, idlhelp, idlman, idlrpc

which are equivalent to idl_6.1 etc. Note that the old 5.4 versions remain available as:

idl_5.4, idlde_5.4, idldemo_5.4, idlhelp_5.4, idlrpc_5.4

Please let me (sjr20) and help know if any late problems are discovered with the new version.

IDL 6.1 (actually 6.1.1) is now available for testing. Please note that this version is currently available for Linux/Intel, Solaris2 and Irix. A MacOSX version will become available after the site upgrades to 10.3.

The commands are:

idl_6.1, idlde_6.1, idldemo_6.1, idlhelp_6.1, idlman_6.1, idlrpc_6.1

The default idl commands (without a suffix) are still equivalent to idl_5.4 etc. Unless problems are found with 6.1 (in which case please contact help) this version will at some future point become the default (so please try it).

We recently recieved an updated matlab licence file which we plan to put in place tonight (at about 19:30).

In order to install the licence information we might need to re-start our central flexlm licence manager which also controls access to IDL, the Intel C++ and Fortran compilers. Currently the script which stop/starts this also controls the Mathematica licence manager so it may also need to be restarted.

Users might notice a short period of not being able to launch Matlab (etc). Sorry if this causes any problems for anyone.

IDL 5.4 (which was installed in December 2000), has now been made the default version of IDL on those machines where it is available (Solaris-2, DEC OSF1/Tru64, Linux/Intel, Irix-6 and HP-UX 10 machines). The commands are:

idl, idlde, idldemo, idlhelp, idlrpc, insight

The older idl 5.3 programs are still available (with the 5.3 suffix (idl5.3 etc)).

IDL 5.4 has now been installed (with a 20 user floating licence as for the previous version). It should be available on Solaris-2, DEC OSF1/Tru64, Linux/Intel, Irix-6 and HP-UX 10 machines. There is currently no version for Linux/Alpha machines. The commands are:

idl_5.4, idlde_5.4, idldemo_5.4, idlhelp_5.4, idlrpc_5.4, insight_5.4

The older idl 5.3 programs are still the default available (and with the 5.3 suffix (idl5.3 etc)). At some point idl 5.4 will become the default version of idl.

IDL 5.3 has now been installed (with a 20 user floating licence as for the previous version). It should be available on Solaris-2, DEC OSF1/Tru64, Linux/Intel, Irix-6 and HP-UX 10 machines. The idl commands should now appear on the default PATH. There is no version for Linux/Alpha machines and SunOS is no longer supported.

The commands are: idl, idlde, idldemo, idlhelp, idlrpc, insight

each of these is also available with 5.3 on the end e.g. idl5.3 for idl itself. The older idl programs are still available with the 5 suffix (idl5 etc).

Some of our Linux/Intel machines will need updating to use the new idl and they should print a message to that effect if idl is run on them. Please report machines where you want to run idl and need updating.

As some of you may have already noticed, we have 3 new public machines:

electra, mandate which are in the Dungeon

  pilate              which is in S1b

All are Compusys Alpha machines (53Mhz 21164 (EV56) processors with 128M ram), running Linux. For many purposes (e.g. floating point) they will be considerably faster than the Intel based machines, and ought to be slightly faster then the public DEC Alphas (e.g. decor/decoy).

They don't have fortran compilers but code compiled -static on a DEC Alpha system seems to work perfectly well. Most of the standard commercial stuff (Matlab, Maple, IDL, Netscape is NOT available on these machines (at least not yet).

If you have any problems using them please let me know.

IDL 5.0.2 has now been installed with a 20 user floating licence. It should be available on all Sun, DEC, Linux and SGI machines (HPs running hp-ux 9.x are not supported). The idl commands should now appear on the default PATH.

The commands are: idl, idlde, idldemo, idlhelp, idlrpc, insight

each of these is also available with 5 on the end e.g. idl5 which is mainly for those of you who have IDL of some previous version installed on your own machines.

A copy of the IDL 5.0 documentation will appear shortly in the Library. Please mail help if there are any problems.

We only have a limited number of matlab licences so please be careful to shut down matlab before you log out, or when you no longer need it.

In the past few days there have been a number of occasions when all the licences have been checked out, not because of genuine demand, but because of idle or dead copies of matlab.

If this continues we may be forced to either buy more matlab licences or manually check in currently used licences. The former would cost us money which could be better spend elsewhere, and the latter may result in accidental closure of active matlab sessions.

So the message is, please shut down matlab when it isn't needed and certainly before logging out, it won't always be killed cleanly otherwise.

DAMTP Computing News

1719) 18/12/12 New Java for Linux

1702) 14/06/12 New Java for Linux

1677) 16/02/12 New Java for Linux

1666) 21/12/11 New Java for Linux

1651) 19/10/11 New Java for Linux

1622) 29/08/11 New Java for Linux

1596) 08/06/11 New Java for Linux

1579) 28/04/11 New Java for Linux

1542) 21/02/11 New Java for Linux

1531) 29/12/10 New Java for Linux

1522) 10/12/10 IDL 8.0 now the default

1500) 14/10/10 New Sun Java for Linux

1488) 14/09/10 Thunderbird settings [IMPORTANT]

1478) 23/08/10 Fix for licinfo script

1476) 14/08/10 IDL 8.0 now available

1470) 07/08/10 Licence server problems

1438) 04/05/10 Some old applications removed

1433) 16/04/10 Another New Sun Java for Linux

1432) 05/04/10 Newer Sun Java for Linux

1408) 08/02/10 Newer Sun Java for Linux

1382) 27/11/09 Newer Sun Java for Linux

1370) 25/09/09 Tweak for IDL 7.1

1368) 23/09/09 IDL 7.1 now the default

1348) 07/08/09 Newer Sun Java for Linux

1326) 19/06/09 Newer Sun Java for Linux

1317) 25/05/09 IDL 7.1 now available

1280) 04/03/09 IDL 7.0.3 now the default

1270) 13/02/09 IDL 7.0 now available

1258) 19/01/09 Phone outage tonight [IMPORTANT]

1084) 05/09/07 Minor OpenOffice tweak

1076) 09/08/07 IDL fixup for SL50

983) 05/12/06 IDL 6.3 now available

948) 16/09/06 IDL and Maple default versions

857) 14/12/05 IDL 6.2 now available

846) 31/10/05 Changes to matlab licences

797) 14/07/05 acroread 7.0 for Linux, Solaris

731) 15/01/05 IDL 6.1.1 now the default [S.J.Rankin]

721) 21/12/04 IDL 6.1.1 available [S.J.Rankin]

708) 21/10/04 Matlab licence file update

495) 26/03/02 IDL 5.4 now the default [J.S.Peatfield]

462) 18/12/00 IDL 5.4 available [J.S.Peatfield]

457) 31/08/00 IDL 5.3 installed (for most platforms) [J.S.Peatfield]

434) 27/06/99 New public Linux/Alpha machines [J.S.Peatfield]

395) 21/01/98 IDL installed for Sun, DEC, Linux, SGI [J.S.Peatfield]

377) 09/06/97 Matlab licences [J.S.Peatfield]