DAMTP Computing News

We found 90 items matching: matlab

1719) 18/12/12 New Java for Linux

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

1713) 04/09/12 Restart Thunderbird and web applications [IMPORTANT]

SUMMARY: A request to anyone using the department linux system to restart Thunderbird and Firefox on Wednesday morning (5 September).

Also if you have any of the following running since last Friday please restart them - LibreOffice, Matlab or Maple.

DETAILS: Some security updates have been applied. To benefit from them the applications need to be restarted.

Ideally Thunderbird would be closed down tonight Tuesday 4 September and reopened on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately by the time I tested and got this message out most people will have already read Tuesday's message of the day and not see this message until tomorrow morning (Wednesday).

1702) 14/06/12 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1691) 05/04/12 Default Matlab now R2011b

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2011b version on Linux (SL5 x86 and x86_64) - sorry this is later than intended.

REMINDER: the Matlab mcc command name clashes with the Mathematica command of the same name, so mcc refers to the latest version of the Mathematica mcc command and you need to invoke the name mcc-r2011b to use the Matlab command.

As announced in news item 1671 and since no-one has reported any problems with R2011b the default Matlab has now been switched to the new version. This was originally going to happen in February - sorry for the delay.

ie those running matlab from the command line or launching from the Linux Gnome/KDE menus will now get the R2011b version. You can still run some of the older versions (only from the command line) by explicitly specifying the version e.g.

Command	Revision	Version
matlab-r2006b	R2006b	7.3.0.298
matlab-r2007a	R2007a	7.4.0.336
matlab-r2007b	R2007b	7.5.0.338
matlab-r2008b	R2008b	7.7.0.471
matlab-r2010a	R2010a	7.10.0.499
matlab-r2010b	R2010b	7.11.0.584
matlab-r2011b	R2011b	7.13.0.564

Some of these may no longer run properly on newer machines, and the older ones may be removed in a few months.

Mathworks no longer support MacOSX 10.5 on any hardware, or 10.6 with 32-bit Intel hardware. We will therefore no longer be able to install Matlab on the centrally managed MacOSX machines.

Please report any new problems you find by e-mail to help@maths.cam.ac.uk as usual.

1677) 16/02/12 New Java for Linux

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".

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

1671) 27/01/12 Matlab 7.13 (r2011b) available for testing

SUMMARY: New matlab available for testing

We have installed a new version of Matlab (R2011b) on our Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) machines. A few people have been testing it for a couple of weeks and none have reported any problems so far.

Mathworks have dropped support for MacOSX versions less than 10.6.7 so since we don't have any machines running anything so recent we can't install it for MacOSX at the moment.

This version has all the same toolboxes as r2010b with the addition of the mapping toolbox - a group paid for a pair of licences for this a few months ago.

The NAg toolbox is the same one we installed for r2010b which claims to support only r2010b/2011a but a trivial test shows that it will (at least) let us run such NAg routines as a00aa() to report the NAg library version.

Please test your code with this new version especially if you use the Matlab compiler.

Assuming that no major problems are found, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks. Some really old versions of matlab may be removed at the same time.

The command to start the new version is:

     matlab-r2011b

Here is some trivial test output (from console session on 64-bit linux):

     $ matlab-r2011b -nosplash -nodesktop
     
                                < M A T L A B (R) >
                      Copyright 1984-2011 The MathWorks, Inc.
                        R2011b (7.13.0.564) 64-bit (glnxa64)
                                  August 13, 2011
     
     To get started, type one of these: helpwin, helpdesk, or demo.
     For product information, visit www.mathworks.com.
     
     >> ver
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     MATLAB Version 7.13.0.564 (R2011b)
     MATLAB License Number: 666637
     Operating System: Linux 2.6.18-274.12.1.el5 #1 SMP Tue Nov 29 11:14:39 EST 2011 x86_64
     Java VM Version: Java 1.6.0_30-b12 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     MATLAB                                  Version 7.13  (R2011b)
     Simulink                                Version 7.8   (R2011b)
     Bioinformatics Toolbox                  Version 4.0   (R2011b)
     Control System Toolbox                  Version 9.2   (R2011b)
     Curve Fitting Toolbox                   Version 3.2   (R2011b)
     DSP System Toolbox                      Version 8.1   (R2011b)
     Fixed-Point Toolbox                     Version 3.4   (R2011b)
     Image Processing Toolbox                Version 7.3   (R2011b)
     Instrument Control Toolbox              Version 3.0   (R2011b)
     MATLAB Compiler                         Version 4.16  (R2011b)
     Mapping Toolbox                         Version 3.4   (R2011b)
     NAG Toolbox                             Version 22    Release 1 (64 bit)
     Optimization Toolbox                    Version 6.1   (R2011b)
     Parallel Computing Toolbox              Version 5.2   (R2011b)
     Partial Differential Equation Toolbox   Version 1.0.19 (R2011b)
     Signal Processing Toolbox               Version 6.16  (R2011b)
     SimMechanics                            Version 3.2.3 (R2011b)
     Simscape                                Version 3.6   (R2011b)
     Stateflow                               Version 7.8   (R2011b)
     Statistics Toolbox                      Version 7.6   (R2011b)
     Symbolic Math Toolbox                   Version 5.7   (R2011b)
     >>

and you should get similar things on 32-bit linux.

Note that Mathworks say that they plan to drop support for 32-bit linux in 2012, so this may be the last version we install to support that. http://www.mathworks.co.uk/support/sysreq/roadmap.html

1666) 21/12/11 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1651) 19/10/11 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1622) 29/08/11 New Java for Linux

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".

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

1596) 08/06/11 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1588) 13/05/11 Default Matlab now R2010b

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2010b version on Linux (SL5 x86 and x86_64) and Intel based MacOSX 10.5 machines.

As announced in news item 1578 and since no-one has reported any problems with R2010b the default Matlab has now been switched to the new version.

ie those running matlab from the command line or launching from the Linux Gnome/KDE menus will now get the R2010b version. You can still run some of the older versions (only from the command line) by explicitly specifying the version e.g.

Command	Revision	Version
matlab-r2006b	R2006b	7.3.0.298
matlab-r2007a	R2007a	7.4.0.336
matlab-r2007b	R2007b	7.5.0.338
matlab-r2008b	R2008b	7.7.0.471
matlab-r2010a	R2010a	7.10.0.499
matlab-r2010b	R2010b	7.11.0.584

Some of these may no longer run properly on newer machines, and the older ones may be removed in a few months.

Those using Intel MacOSX 10.5 machines who want to launch Matlab from the /Applications folder should shortly find the following apps listed:

Matlab-r2010b
Matlab (which currently launches r2010b)

You may find that if you previously dragged 'Matlab' to the Dock it will still refer to the older R2010a version, this is caused by the Finder resolving things to their final version in cases where we would not expect it.

See also news item 1587 about the NAg toolbox in this version of Matlab.

Please report any new problems you find by e-mail to help@maths.cam.ac.uk as usual.

1587) 13/05/11 NAg toolbox for Matlab R2010b

SUMMARY: The NAg toolbox for Matlab is available in our R2010b installation

Those running the test version of Matlab R2010b since 30th April may have noticed that we quietly added the NAg toolbox for matlab. This should work on all supported platforms (sl5 linux 32-bit/64-bit and Intel OSX 64-bit).

Running 'ver' will now list the 'NAG Toolbox' though which one you see will depend on the version. We have mbl6a22dml mblux22dml mbmi622ddl installed to support our platforms.

You can test that it works by (for example) running a simple test routine like a00aa. e.g. that might report:

     >> a00aa
      *** Start of NAG Toolbox for MATLAB implementation details ***
     
      Implementation title: Linux/gfortran 64-bit
                 Precision: FORTRAN double precision
              Product Code: MBL6A22DML
                      Mark: 22.4
     
      *** End of NAG Toolbox for MATLAB implementation details ***

when run on a 64-bit linux machine.

As well as calling the NAg routines directly the matlab toolbox also provides comprehensive documentation about the NAg MK22 functions, which you can browse through, and a number of examples and demos.

Because of a clash between how NAg expect the toolboxes to be installed and how we actually install things, functions which manipulate the matlab path may not have the effect you want.

In particular restoredefaultpath will not set it to include the NAg toolbox, and if you use savepath the value saved will not work properly if loaded on a matlab running on a different platform.

If this defect causes problems for anyone please let us know. We do have a different solution which should avoid these problems but it is somewhat complex and so I would rather avoid it if it turns out not to be needed.

Please send any civil questions to help@maths.cam.ac.uk or complaints/abuse etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

1585) 11/05/11 Network Downtime this Thursday 12th May 8:00am to 9:00am

SUMMARY:        Thu 12 May, 08.00 - 09.00: External Data Network unavailable

The University Computing Service plan to upgrade a network router that provides the external network connection for the Maths Departments.

Managed networked computers on site (in the Maths Departments) should continue to function. There will be no Internet connection.

IT services that will not work:
* Internet web browsing
* Sending and receiving of most email
* Most laptop network use
* CATAM and Part III room computers

IT services that should continue to function: * printing
* managed desktops (Scientific Linux, Windows, etc.) * software applications (e.g. Matlab, Mathematica) * web-browsing to local websites such as www.maths.cam.ac.uk

1579) 28/04/11 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1578) 27/04/11 Matlab 7.11 (r2010b) available for testing

SUMMARY: New matlab available for testing

We have installed a new version of Matlab (R2010b) on our Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) and the (64-bit) Intel based OSX machines. A few people have been testing it for a few weeks and none have reported any problems so far.

Please test your code with this new version especially if you use the Matlab compiler.

Assuming that no major problems are found, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks. Some really old versions of matlab may be removed at the same time.

The command to start the new version is:

     matlab-r2010b

This is the first installation here with the set of toolboxes included in the University licence as well as those that were bought by the department/groups - and hence a much larger set of toolboxes are available.

On MacOSX you can launch the Graphical version (if you are logged into on the console) by running 'matlab-r2010b' or by using:

open /opt/matlab-r2010b/MATLAB_R2010b.app

This .app name is what we will link to to let the OSX finder see it as an application - on OSX open does what the GUI would do to 'launch' a pathname.

Here is some trivial test output (from console session on 64-bit linux):

     $ matlab-r2010b -nosplash -nodesktop; stty sane
     
                                     < M A T L A B (R) >
                           Copyright 1984-2010 The MathWorks, Inc.
                        Version 7.11.0.584 (R2010b) 64-bit (glnxa64)
                                       August 16, 2010
     
        To get started, type one of these: helpwin, helpdesk, or demo.
        For product information, visit www.mathworks.com.
     >> ver
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     MATLAB Version 7.11.0.584 (R2010b)
     MATLAB License Number: 666637
     Operating System: Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5 #1 SMP Tue Mar 1 18:58:43 EST 2011 x86_64
     Java VM Version: Java 1.6.0_24-b07 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     MATLAB                                      Version 7.11 (R2010b)
     Simulink                                    Version 7.6  (R2010b)
     Bioinformatics Toolbox                      Version 3.6  (R2010b)
     Control System Toolbox                      Version 9.0  (R2010b)
     Curve Fitting Toolbox                       Version 3.0  (R2010b)
     Image Processing Toolbox                    Version 7.1  (R2010b)
     Instrument Control Toolbox                  Version 2.11 (R2010b)
     MATLAB Compiler                             Version 4.14 (R2010b)
     Optimization Toolbox                        Version 5.1  (R2010b)
     Parallel Computing Toolbox                  Version 5.0  (R2010b)
     Parallel Computing Toolbox                  Version 5.0  (R2010b)
     Partial Differential Equation Toolbox       Version 1.0.17 (R2010b)
     Signal Processing Blockset                  Version 7.1  (R2010b)
     Signal Processing Toolbox                   Version 6.14 (R2010b)
     SimMechanics                                Version 3.2.1 (R2010b)
     Simscape                                    Version 3.4  (R2010b)
     Stateflow                                   Version 7.6  (R2010b)
     Statistics Toolbox                          Version 7.4  (R2010b)
     Symbolic Math Toolbox                       Version 5.5  (R2010b)
     >>

and similar things on 32-bit linux or 64-bit Intel OSX.

Note that this version no longer supports the 32-bit only Intel OSX machines, the previous release dropped support for PPC OSX machines. This is the last version of matlab which will support our (current) OSX 10.5 setup. Mathworks say that matlab R2011a will drop support for OSX 10.5

1544) 23/02/11 NAG toolbox available for Matlab

SUMMARY: the NAG toolbox for Matlab is now available for installing on your own computer.

To use this toolbox you first need to install Matlab on your own computer: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/internal/computing/software/matlab/

Then the NAG toolbox:
www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/internal/computing/software/matlab-personal/nag_toolbox_matlab.html

Do feedback to help@maths.cam.ac.uk about the NAG toolbox for Matlab so a decision can be taken wether or not to install the toolbox on managed DAMTP computer.

1543) 23/02/11 Matlab 1/2 Day Seminar

SUMMARY: Mathworks are offering a free 1/2 day seminar at the University of Cambridge on Tuesday 29th March 2011.

The seminar is part of the MATLAB Academic Tour: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/company/events/conferences/matlab-academic-tour/index.html and will feature a keynote presentation by the lead developer of MATLAB, Loren Shure, followed by master class sessions and a presentation from University of Cambridge about how they use MATLAB.

The url for the event is: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/mat2011

1542) 21/02/11 New Java for Linux

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.

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".

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

1535) 26/01/11 Matlab licence server change

SUMMARY: The departmental Matlab licence server has been updated to be able to use the new 'site licence'.

As described in news item 1524 the university has a new 'site licence' for Matlab. We have now updated the licence server to be able to make use of this which should remove most of the restrictions on the number of matlab sessions which are allowed.

The licence server now supports Matlab R2010b, though we currently only have versions up to R2010a installed.

The new 'site licence' includes a number of toolboxes (and similar add-on features), some of which we previously did not have licences for. We have not yet arranged to install any of the extra packages, but we will do so when R2010b is installed (hopefully soon).

A couple of the toolboxes which we were already licenced for are not covered by the 'site licence', these will continue to be available with the same limits on the number of users:

Toolbox	Number of licences
PDE_Toolbox	6
Matlab Compiler	2

The licinfo command will continue to report on Matlab usage, even though the site licence means we are unlikely to run out - except for the toolboxes listed above.

1531) 29/12/10 New Java for Linux

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".

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

1524) 14/12/10 Matlab available for Staff and PhD student computers

SUMMARY: University staff and PhD students can install Matlab on their own computers for non-commercial University use only.

Under the recently completed (15/11/2010) site licence agreement with MathWorks (which extends until 30th September 2011), if you are a member of staff or PhD student at the University you are entitled to install MATLAB on your personally-owned computer, for non-commercial University use only.

However, we are required to keep track of who has installed MATLAB under this licence agreement and so the page (below) which describes how to do this is password protected. To gain access, please make a request to:

        help@damtp.cam.ac.uk

and we will add your CRSID to the list of those allowed to access the page, which is:

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/internal/computing/software/matlab/

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

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".

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

1482) 30/08/10 Figure size on Matlab

SUMMARY: the default figure paper size for Matlab R2010a has been changed from US-Letter to ISO-A4.

While investigating a Matlab printing problem on MacOSX it was observed that the default figure size was set to US-Letter (on all platforms). In fact it has always been this way but it does mean that those printing from inside Matlab have needed to manually select A4 from the paper selection or set the default figure paper size in a startup.m file.

We have now set the default figure paper size (to A4) in a central config - before the user startup.m is read so you can still override this if you prefer figures to default to some other paper size.

1478) 23/08/10 Fix for licinfo script

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.

1470) 07/08/10 Licence server problems

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.

1469) 06/08/10 Default Matlab now R2010a

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2010a version on Linux (SL5 x86 and x86_64) and Intel based MacOSX 10.5 machines.

As announced in news item 1456 and since no-one has reported any problems with R2010a the default Matlab has now been switched to the new version.

ie those running matlab from the command line or launching from the Linux Gnome/KDE menus will now get the R2010a version. You can still run some of the older versions (only from the command line) by explicitly specifying the version e.g.

Command	Revision	Version
matlab-r2006b	R2006b	7.3.0.298
matlab-r2007a	R2007a	7.4.0.336
matlab-r2007b	R2007b	7.5.0.338
matlab-r2008b	R2008b	7.7.0.471
matlab-r2010a	R2010a	7.10.0.499

Some of these may no longer run properly on newer machines, and the older ones may be removed in a few months.

Those using Intel MacOSX 10.5 machines who want to launch Matlab from the /Applications folder should shortly find the following apps listed:

Matlab-r2010a
Matlab (which currently launches r2010a)

Please report any new problems you find by e-mail to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

1456) 01/07/10 Matlab 7.10 (r2010a) available for testing

We've installed a new version of Matlab and would appreciate it if you could please test your code with this new version especially if you use the Matlab compiler.

The command to start Matlab Version 7.10 (R2010a) is

     matlab-r2010a

The new version of Matlab is available on Linux and the Intel based Macs. At the moment it must be started by typing the above command. When it goes live we will add it to the appropiate graphical Menus and Applications.

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk as should those who have their own licences for laptops etc.

1438) 04/05/10 Some old applications removed

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

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

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".

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

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

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".

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

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

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".

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

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

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:

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

1364) 21/09/09 IT Training Programme is now Live

SUMMARY: The Mich 09 UCS IT Training Programme is now live and offering a wide variety of training. The courses are free to University staff and students and some of the courses will be at the CMS.

The timetable:
http://training.csx.cam.ac.uk/event-timetable

Courses at the CMS:
Unix: Introduction to the Command Line Interface Unix: Building, Installing and Running Software (highly recommended) MATLAB: Basics

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

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:

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

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

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:

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

1316) 25/05/09 Scilab for Linux

SUMMARY: Scilab 5.1.1 is now available on the Linux (sl5) machines.

Version 5.1.1 of Scilab (see http://www.scilab.org/) is now available on the Linux (sl5) machines. This is another scientific computation package which is intended mostly for numerical computation, e.g. from http://www.scilab.org/platform/

     Scilab is a scientific software package for numerical computations
     providing a powerful open computing environment for engineering and
     scientific applications.

It was impired by a very early version of Matlab and although the syntax is not the same as current Matlab versions it provides a mechanism for converting many existing matlab (or octave) programs to run in scilab.

The scilab package is available on both x86 and x86_64 Linux (sl5) machines and may be invoked as either scilab511 or scilab. Shortly we will be updating the Gnome (etc) menus to make it available from there as well.

1307) 04/05/09 Reboots for Solaris servers

SUMMARY: this will affect access to the DAMTP mail (smtp, imap etc) servers as well as DNS and YP services.

UPDATE: As of 18:17 cortex and axon have been updated/rebooted and are back.

UPDATE: As of 19:10 medulla has been updated/rebooted and is also back. Please report any machines which show any problems which may be related to the restarts of these servers.

The servers which run Solaris (cortex, axon, medulla) will be rebooted on the evening of Monday 4th May (after about 6pm). This is to apply a set of security updates, and perform a few housekeeping tasks.

The affected services include:

imap.damtp.cam.ac.uk - note most users now use Hermes not this mail server
pop.damtp.cam.ac.uk
smtp.damtp.cam.ac.uk - outgoing mail and local mail handling
NFS access to mail spool
NTP servers - but not all servers will be going down
DNS servers - not all will be down at any time, but it may cause short delays in name lookups
YP servers - not all will be down at any time, but clients may take a while to switch from one server to another
some flexlm, mathlm, kusari licence servers

While axon is down no password changes will be possible, and it won't be possible to talk to the flexlm (etc) licence servers - so for example Matlab will not start up.

With luck each update and reboot should only take about 3 minutes and I plan to leave medulla (the mail server) 'til last.

Please send compaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk in the first instance.

1295) 08/04/09 MATLAB and Simulink in Academia [SEMINAR]

SUMMARY: We have been advised of this free seminar which may interest some people in DAMTP.

Take a Fresh Look at MATLAB - MATLAB & Simulink in Academia

     21 Apr 2009 09:00-16:30
     Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel, London, United Kingdom

     22 Apr 2009 09:00-16:30
     Burlington Hotel, Birmingham, United Kingdom

This free one-day seminar aims to look at how the MATLAB and Simulink product families can be used within academia to address key challenges in:

Algorithm development
Data analysis and visualisation
Signal and image processing
Statistics and optimisation
Modelling multi-domain mechatronic systems

MathWorks engineers will be available throughout the day to answer your questions.

Who Should Attend

The seminar is designed for lecturers, researchers and post graduate staff who use MATLAB or other products from The MathWorks or who are new to our products and want to see how they can benefit from them. * This event is not suitable for undergraduate students.

Remember, places are limited so register today!

Kind regards

Jennie Evans
Marketing Programs
The MathWorks, Ltd.

1293) 29/03/09 Newer Sun Java for Linux

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 or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines has been installed. The new version (1.6.0_13) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_12) which will be removed at some point in the future. The new version fixes some security problems, bugs and adds some new functionality.

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_13
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_13
/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_13
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_13
/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 are still present for now but will be removed at some point in the future. See news item 1265 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 Matlab setups all point at the /opt/sunjava-32bit/jre, /opt/sunjava-native/jre or the older /opt/sunjava/jre name so should pick up the latest version next time they are started.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists what plugins are being used - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_13-b03

or point the browser at:

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

1265) 05/02/09 Newer Sun Java for Linux

NOTE: this is NOT a security update, but to get the bug fixes you should restart all browsers, OpenOffice, Matlab or any other apps which may be using java.

An updated Sun Java Runtime Environment (jre) and Java Development Kit (jdk) on the Linux (x86 and x86_64) machines has been installed. The new version (1.6.0_12) is currently the latest release and replaces the previous version (1.6.0_11) which will be removed at some point in the future. The new version fixes some bugs and adds some new functionality. Please see:

for more details of the fixes.

Those wanting to use the latest 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_12
/opt/sunjava-32bit/jdk1.6.0_12
/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_12
/opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_12
/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 are still present for now but will be removed at some point in the future. See news item 1243 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.

Browsers can be checked by looking the special URL about:plugins which lists what plugins are being used - now is should include the following for java:

     Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_12-b04

or point the browser at:

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

1264) 30/01/09 Matlab Java changes

SUMMARY: Matlab R2008b will now use our locally installed Sun Java to work round a bug in the Mathworks provided version.

In Matlab R2008b the Sun Java (jre) included has a bug which prevents printing from working when talking to any modern CUPS server. Therefore any attempt to print from the matlab graphical environment will generate errors a bit like:

     Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException: \
       null attribute
        at sun.print.IPPPrintService.isAttributeValueSupported(Unknown Source)
        at sun.print.ServiceDialog$OrientationPanel.updateInfo(Unknown Source)
        at sun.print.ServiceDialog$PageSetupPanel.updateInfo(Unknown Source)
        at sun.print.ServiceDialog.updatePanels(Unknown Source)
        at sun.print.ServiceDialog.initPrintDialog(Unknown Source)
        at sun.print.ServiceDialog.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at javax.print.ServiceUI.printDialog(Unknown Source)
        at com.mathworks.widgets.text.print.PrintSettings.
        showPrintDialog(PrintSettings#java:665)
        at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.print(XCmdWndView#java:1519)
     ...<and many more lines>

This is a known bug in the Sun Java 6 which Sun fixed several months ago, but Mathworks shipped a version (1.6.0_4) released before the fix.

We have reported the problem to Mathworks and until they are able to provide a patch or workaround that we can use we have tweaked the centrally installed matlab to use our install of the Sun Java - which is new enough not to be affected.

However, using a different version of Java is not supported by Mathworks so please do not report any problems to them without checking with us first.

To make it easier to check if any problem is related to the Java, a new option has been added to disable our change and use the Matlab Java. Invoke matlab with the -matlabjre option to revert to using the Mathworks provided Java.

Note that you can tell which Java is in use by running the matlab command version -java, for example now you would expect to get something like:

     >> version -java
     ans =
     Java 1.6.0_11 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) \
       Client VM mixed mode, sharing

while with -matlabjre you will see:

     >> version -java           
     ans =
     Java 1.6.0_04 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) \
       Client VM mixed mode

Those who install Matlab on their own laptops may want to consider if the supplied Java is best for them. Mathworks have a support page about changing the Java that matlab will use. This includes information for Unix, Windows and MacOSX - see http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-1812J.html

On Unix/Linux just setting the MATLAB_JAVA environment variable is sufficient, so those who first reported the matlab printing problem were asked to try:

     (export MATLAB_JAVA=/opt/sunjava-native/jre; matlab)

In case you are wondering the /opt/sunjava-native/ paths (as in news item 1263) were added for this purpose otherwise Matlab could not use our installation of Java on Linux 64-bit (x86_64) machines.

1262) 26/01/09 Default Matlab now R2008b

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2008b version on Linux (SL5 x86 and x86_64).

NOTE: Matlab 2007b is the last/latest version which will run on the PowerPC MacOSX 10.4 machines, so they will not be updated.

As announced in news item 1254 and since no-one has reported any problems with R2008b the default Matlab has now been switched to the new version - for the Linux (sl5) machines.

ie those running matlab from the command line or launching from the Linux Gnome/KDE menus will now get the R2008b version. You can still run some of the older versions from the command line by explicitly specifying the version e.g.

Command	Revision	Version
matlab65	R13	6.5.0.180913a
matlab701	R14 sp 1	7.0.1.24704
matlab-r143	R14 sp 3	7.1.0.183
matlab-r2006b	R2006b	7.3.0.298
matlab-r2007a	R2007a	7.4.0.336
matlab-r2007b	R2007b	7.5.0.338
matlab-r2008b	R2008b	7.7.0.471

Many of these may no longer run properly on newer machines, and may be removed in a few months. For x86_64 Linux machines we only installed versions starting with R2006b.

Those using ppc MacOSX 10.4 machines who launch Matlab from the /Applications will still find the same entries as before ie:

StartMATLAB-r2006b
StartMATLAB-r2007a
StartMATLAB-r2007b
StartMATLAB (which currently launches r2007b)

Please report any new problems you find by e-mail to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual. Complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk etc.

1260) 22/01/09 FREE Computing Courses at CMS

SUMMARY: FREE Computing courses this term at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (courses run 9.30-13.00 in GL.04/MR16/CATAM room)

Mathematica: Basics Jan 29-30
Fortran: Intro to Modern Fortran Feb 16-20
Unix: Simple Shell Scripting for Scientists Mar 2,3,4
Unix: Building, Installing and Running Software Mar 18-20

All of the above courses contain practical (hands-on) sessions with demonstrator(s) available for you.

I particularly, highly, recommend the "Building, Installing and Running Software" course which, for me, was fun and entertaining as well as a good learning experience.

Booking is done on-line. Go to this URL and click on the course you are interested in:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/timetable.html

There also courses on Matlab and Python that may be of interest.

We do have an unlimited site licence for Mathematica. Version 7 is available at:
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/internal/computing/software/mathematica/

1254) 29/12/08 New Matlab on Linux [For testing]

A few days ago we installed the latest update to Matlab for testing on the Linux (sl5) machines. It can be run as:

     matlab-r2008b

It is available for Linux (x86 and x86_64 - sl5 only) -- we also have the MacOSX (intel, OSX 10.5) version but don't yet have any public machines of that kind.

The naming scheme is the same as for the last release (R2007b) in any case this version of Matlab reports itself as - using ver:

     MATLAB Version 7.7 (R2008b)

Assuming that no major problems are found with the new version, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks. The old versions probably won't be removed for a very long time.

Please note that this version contains a replacement for the old Extended Symbolic Maths toolbox based on a different internal implementation (Mathworks switch from using the Maple core to the Mupad core) and it now calls itself the Symbolic Maths toolbox - though this is not related to the old Symbolic Maths toolbox (which was very limited).

Also note that Mathworks dropped support for the Apple PPC based hardware - the last version to support that was R2007b so we cannot update the matlab on most of our existing MacOSX machines.

Anyone using (or planning to use) the Matlab compiler should contact us for details of the MCR (Matlab Compiler Runtime) path changes.

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk to arrange to borrow the install DVDs (and get the relevant licence info). The handful of people who have their own licences for laptops etc should also contact us.

1182) 09/06/08 Reboots for Solaris servers

SUMMARY: this will affect access to the DAMTP mail (smtp, imap etc) servers as well as DNS and YP services.

The servers which run Solaris (cortex, axon, medulla) will be rebooted on the evening (after about 8.30pm) of Wednesday 11th June. This is to apply a set of updates, and perform a few housekeeping tasks.

The affected services include:

imap.damtp.cam.ac.uk - note most users now use Hermes not this mail server
pop.damtp.cam.ac.uk
smtp.damtp.cam.ac.uk - outgoing mail and local mail handling
NFS access to mail spool
NTP servers - but not all servers will be going down
DNS servers - not all will be down at any time, but it may cause short delays in name lookups
YP servers - not all will be down at any time, but clients may take a while to switch from one server to another
flexlm, mathlm, kusari licence servers

While axon is down no password changes will be possible, and it won't be possible to talk to the flexlm (etc) licence servers - so for example matlab will not start up.

With luck each update and reboot should only take about 5 minutes and I plan to leave medulla (the mail server) 'til last.

Please send compaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk in the first instance.

1122) 07/02/08 Talk on NAG Toolbox for MATLAB

SUMMARY: A talk on the NAG Toolbox for MATLAB has been organised by the University Computing Service (UCS) and be held on Wednesday 13th February. Those who use NAG routines and may want to do so from MATLAB may well be interested in attending.

From the uscnews announcement:

http://ucsnews.csx.cam.ac.uk/articles/2008/02/04

     14:15 Weds 13 Feb: NAG Toolbox for MATLAB (Cockcroft Lecture Theatre, New
     Museums Site, Pembroke St)
     This talk by John Holden of NAG will be useful for anyone wanting to write
     mathematical and statistical applications, and appeal to those wanting to
     acquire a more in-depth understanding of NAG's libraries and how to use
     them via MATLAB. Open to all but please email the Training Services
     Manager mzc1@cam.ac.uk & Seminar Organiser djh1@cam.ac.uk.
     The talk has been organised because the University will be adding the NAG
     Toolbox for MATLAB to its site licence, so it will be available in the
     near future free of charge (until July 2010) to members of the University
     who register with Computing Service Sales.
     ...

Please note the requirement to send an e-mail message to the UCS if you plan on attending.

If you are not sure where the venue is, once you are on the New Museums Site, look for the blue signs put up by the University Computing Service, and follow the directions of the appropriate arrows. A map of the New Museums Site can be viewed at:

http://www.cam.ac.uk/localusersonly/cs/nmus.gif (detail)
http://www.cam.ac.uk/map/v4/drawmap.cgi?mp=nmus;tl=New%20Museums%20Site (official map)

Announcements about UCS organised talks/seminars/courses can be found in the ucsnews catagory 'cs-courses' e.g.

http://ucsnews.csx.cam.ac.uk/articles/category/cs-courses

In general information about UCS organised courses can be found at:

http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/ (UCS courses)
http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/coursedesc/scicomp.html (scientific computing)
http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/coursedesc/stat.html (statistical and mathematical)

as well as many other categories which may be of interest to people here.

1118) 18/01/08 Default Matlab now R2007b

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2007b version on Linux (SL5 x86 and x86_64) and MacOSX (10.4 ppc).

NOTE: Like Matlab 2007a this version of Matlab does NOT work on the SL3 Linux machines - the new Matlab versions need newer core libraries.

As announced in news item 1112 and since no-one has reported any problems with R2007b the default Matlab has now been switched to the new version.

ie those running matlab from the command line or launching from the Linux Gnome/KDE menus will now get the R2007b version. You can still run the older versions from the command line by explicitly specifying the version e.g.

     Command          Revision      Version
     matlab65         R13           6.5.0.180913a
     matlab701        R14 sp 1      7.0.1.24704
     matlab-r143      R14 sp 3      7.1.0.183
     matlab-r2006b    R2006b        7.3.0.298
     matlab-r2007a    R2007a        7.4.0.336
     matlab-r2007b    R2007b        7.5.0.338

Those using MacOSX 10.4 machines who launch Matlab from the /Applications should now (or tomorrow) find a number of entries:

     StartMATLAB-r2006b
     StartMATLAB-r2007a
     StartMATLAB-r2007b
     StartMATLAB (which currently launches r2007b)

Please report any new problems you find by e-mail to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual. Complaints to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk etc.

1112) 28/12/07 New Matlab [For testing]

NOTE: This version of Matlab does NOT work on any of the remaining SL3 Linux machines - the new Matlab needs newer versions of several core libraries.

A few weeks ago we installed the latest update to Matlab for testing but I (jp107) forgot to announce it. It can be run as:

     matlab-r2007b

It is available for Linux (x86 - SL5 only!), and MacOSX (ppc) -- we also have the Linux/x86_64 and MacOSX (intel) versions but don't yet have any public machines of those kinds.

The naming scheme is the same as for the last release (R2007a) in any case this version of Matlab reports itself as - using ver

     MATLAB Version 7.5.0.338 (R2007b)

Assuming that no major problems are found with the new version, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks. The old versions probably won't be removed for a very long time.

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk to arrange to borrow the install DVDs (and get the relevant PLP/license.dat info). The handful of people who have their own licences should also contact us.

1093) 27/09/07 Default Matlab updated

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2007a version.

NOTE: This version of Matlab does NOT work on the SL3 Linux machines - the new Matlab needs newer versions of several core libraries.

As announced in news item 1063 and since almost all the Linux machines have now been updated to SL50 the default version of Matlab has now been updated.

Those who still have SL3 machines should complain loudly to make sure we haven't missed them and use the matlab-r2006b command for now.

We expect to have Matlab release R2007b available for testing really soon.

1063) 12/07/07 New Matlab [For testing]

NOTE: This version of Matlab does NOT work on the SL3 Linux machines - the new Matlab needs newer versions of several core libraries.

Mathworks recently sent us the latest update to Matlab which is now installed for testing -- the flexlm licence-manager setup has been updated to support the new version. It can be run as:

     matlab-r2007a

It is available for Linux (x86 - SL5 only!), and MacOSX (ppc) -- we also have the Linux/x86_64 and MacOSX (intel) versions but don't yet have any public machines of those kinds.

The naming scheme is the same as for the last release (R2006b) in any case this version of Matlab reports itself as - using ver

     MATLAB Version 7.4.0.287 (R2007a)

Assuming that no major problems are found with the new version, it will become the default matlab though at least on Linux not until SL50 is installed almost everywhere. The old versions probably won't be removed for a very long time.

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk to arrange to borrow the install DVDs (and get the relevant PLP/license.dat info). The handful of people who have their own licences should also contact us.

1047) 30/05/07 Default Matlab updated

SUMMARY: Running matlab will now default to the newer R2006b version.

Back in October 2006 we installed the updated Matlab R2006b for people to test, see news item 966 for details. I had intended to make this the default unless there were complaints or people reported problems, but forgot to do so.

In any case on the platforms where it is available (Linux (x86, x86_64), and OSX (ppc)) running matlab will now launch the newer version.

Those who find problems with this version can continue to run the old version by using:

     matlab-r143

etc. Note that R2006b fixes the longstanding problem with the NPTL threading and the symbolic toolbox (see news item 789), as well as containing many other improvements and bug fixes.

A newer version R2007a will probably be available fairly soon. Please contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk if you want to be one of the early people testing it.

1030) 17/04/07 Licence info script

SUMMARY: now you can find out who is hogging the Matlab or Mathematica (etc) licences.

Users have always been able to use the lmstat/monitorlm programs to query the state of the various licence servers (lmstat for flexlm, monitorlm for the mathlm server). However the output is a bit verbose and tedious. Now you can use the licinfo script which runs these and presents the information in a simple form.

See the man page for a little extra info, but basically the usage is:

     licinfo         -- show all the licences (total and in-use)
     licinfo  type   -- show just those matching 'type'

In addition adding -users will show who is using the licences. By default it shows just the totals and any licences the current user has.

e.g.

     $ licinfo       
     Lic Type     Component                    Total In Use
     Maple        Maple10                       5000     2
     Maple        Maple10Excel                  5000     0
     Maple        Maple10WithExcel              5000     2
     <snip the very long list>

or just to see Matlab (and Toolbox) licences:

     $ licinfo matlab
     Lic Type     Component                    Total In Use
     Matlab       MATLAB                          18     8
     Matlab       PDE_Toolbox                      6     0
     Matlab       Extend_Symbolic_Toolbox          2     0
     Matlab       Symbolic_Toolbox                 2     0
     Matlab       Image_Toolbox                    1     1
     Matlab       Optimization_Toolbox             1     0
     Matlab       Signal_Toolbox                   1     0
     Matlab       Statistics_Toolbox               1     0

Please send reports of problems etc to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk as usual.

986) 14/12/06 Evolution of MATLAB with Cleve Moler

We have been asked by Mathworks to circulate the following advertisement for a talk next January:

     We are pleased to announce that Cleve Moler, original author of MATLAB and
     co-founder of The MathWorks will be visiting University of Cambridge on
     Thursday 11th January 2007 to deliver a personal talk on the Evolution of
     MATLAB.
     
     Cleve will be discussing the evolution of MATLAB over the past 25 years
     from a simple matrix calculator to the powerful technical computing
     environment it is today. He will also be demonstrating several examples of
     MATLAB applications and will provide an overview of future developments
     including parallel computing with MATLAB.
     
     This is a unique opportunity to share Cleve's personal insight on the
     Evolution of MATLAB and participate in an informal Question & Answer
     session at the end of the presentation.
     
     To view full agenda and register for this free event please visit:
     http://www.mathworks.co.uk/cambridge
     
     We hope that you will be able to join us on 11th January. 
     
     Kind Regards
     Pauline Fox
     Marketing Manager
     The MathWorks Ltd

The agenda they sent us is:

     Thursday 11th January 2007
     Lecture Room 4 , Department of Engineering,
     University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge
     
     Agenda
     10.00 Evolution of MATLAB
     10.45 Coffee with Dr. Moler
     11.00 Parallel MATLAB
     11:45 Question & Answer Session

966) 11/10/06 New Matlab for testing

Mathworks recently sent us the latest update to Matlab which is now installed for testing -- the flexlm licence-manager setup has been updated to support the new version. It can be run as:

     matlab-r2006b

It is available for Linux (x86), and OSX (ppc) -- we also have the Linux/x86_64 version but don't yet have any public machines of that kind. Note that for the first time we are NOT installing the Solaris (sparc) version of Matlab. Anyone who thinks they need the Solaris version should let us know asap.

The naming scheme has changed (yet) again but in any case this version of Matlab identifies itself as version "7.3.0.298 (R2006b)".

Assuming that no major problems are found with the new version, it will become the default matlab in due course (though the old ones probably won't be removed for a very long time).

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk to arrange to borrow the CDs (and get the relevant PLP/license.dat info). The handful of people who have their own licences should also contact us.

886) 01/03/06 emacs accident on Linux

While tidying a system script I (jp107) cause it to overwrite one of the emacs startup files (site-start.el). A number of the SL3 Linux machines will have run this before I corrected the error; they will be fixed next time the script is run (overnight), but in the meantime the startup code for:

     lang-coding-systems
     php-mode
     po-mode
     psgml
     python-mode
     rpm-spec-mode

will be missing and so emacs might not behave as you would expect. Please report problems to help who will be able to fix them (if we arn't swamped by hundereds of requests).

A positive thing however is that while looking for the error I spotted a (very long-standing) typo in the code to auto-load matlab-mode. The fixed version will be pushed out tomorrow.

874) 13/02/06 Matlab GUI fix for OSX

I forgot to change the link for the GUI Matlab (available from /Applications/) on the OSX machines. As a result it was still using the older Matlab R14 sp 1 version. I've now changed that to use the newer R14 sp3 version. Sorry about the delay in spotting this.

868) 23/01/06 New matlab to be the default

Since no-one has reported problems with the newer Matlab (R14 SP 3) as announced in news item 845, this will now become the default for Linux (SL3), Solaris2 and MacOSX (10.4).

The older versions will still be available as e.g.

     matlab701
     matlab65

etc etc. Please report any (new) problems to help as normal. The very old versions of Matlab (including the last versions for some platforms (e.g. Irix and Tru64), will probably be removed in a few weeks unless people really need them (and they tell us!)

854) 21/11/05 MATLAB for Distributed Computing in e-Science

The MathWorks, in conjunction with The Reading e-Science Centre, will be holding a seminar on the use of MATLAB in the e-Science community at the University of Reading on 24th November 2005. MATLAB is widely used in science, engineering and technical computing and as such there is considerable interest in using it within GRID/CampusGrid and Virtual Research environments.

The seminar will consider the general use of MATLAB in e-science as well as the specific use of the MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine. It will also provide a forum for users of MATLAB within the UK e-Science community to meet and discuss projects.

Speakers will include Prof. Simon Cox, technical director of the Southampton e-Science centre and leader of the GEODISE project, Dr Jos Martin from The MathWorks, and Dr Glen White from Queen Mary, University of London.

For further information and registration, please visit the following link.

     http://www.mathworks.co.uk/company/events/seminars/ml_distrib_computing.html

846) 31/10/05 Changes to matlab licences

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).

845) 31/10/05 Newer matlab for testing

Those feeling brave might want to try the recently installed new version of matlab, which can be run as:

     matlab-r143

It is available for Linux (x86), Solaris (sparc), and OSX (ppc).

Note that this naming is somewhat different that previous versions, which were always based on the matlab version (6.5, 7.0.1 etc). The r143 indicates that it is from the "R14 Service-Pack 3" release, and actually includes matlab 7.1 which I thought was probably too easy to confuse with 7.0.1 (R14 SP1).

The new version seems to work in our tests though some aspects may be missing (only 1/3 of the doc appears to be on the CD sets). Hopefully we will find the missing pieces soon.

Assuming that no major problems are found with this version, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks.

789) 03/06/05 Matlab -notls option

The new SL3 setup provides a new posix thread implementation (called tls), which requires kernel and library support.

Parts of the existing matlab installations don't work with the tls libraries because they were compiled against previous versions of libraries. In particular the "Symbolic Toolbox" contains a version of the Maple-8 kernel which Mathworks can't easily fix themselves.

Attempting to use that component, will result in odd errors like:

     Invalid MEX-file ....
     .../glnx86/libmaple.so: symbol ... libc.so.6 with link time reference.

Older versions of Matlab are also more likely to have other components which fail to work (or work properly) with the newer libraries.

Users can disable tls by setting LD_ASSUME_KERNEL to an appropriate level (I find that 2.4.19 is fine), but to make things slightly easier we have modified the matlab wrapper scripts to allow a new command-line option "-notls".

The scripts for Matlab versions 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 and 7.0.1 have been modified, so you can start up matlab as (for example):

     matlab701 -nojvm -nosplash -notls
     matlab65  -nojvm -nosplash -notls
     matlab    -nojvm -nosplash -notls

The -notls option will have no effect (other than printing a warning) on RH8 machines (which don't have tls). See the mathworks technical support/solutions page at http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-1BDU5.html more info.

729) 14/01/05 Matlab 7.0.1 now the default

As mentioned in info item 717 the new matlab 7.0.1 has now become the default version -- since we have had no significant bug reports during testing.

ie if you simply run "matlab" (on those platforms which support it -- Linux/x86 and Solaris2) it will now run version 7.0.1

Other platforms will continue to have matlab 6.5 as their default for now.

Note that we don't plan to remove matlab 6.5 (or other previous working versions). Currently the available versions on Linux/x86 are:

     matlab              runs Matlab 7.0.1
     matlab701           Matlab 7.0.1
     matlab65            runs Matlab 6.5
     matlab61            runs Matlab 6.1
     matlab6             runs Matlab 6.0
     matlab5             runs Matlab 5.0 (not on RH8 -- missing libs)

Other platforms generally have a subset of these, run "ls /server1/bin/matlab*" for a list on any particular platform.

Please remember that the default matlab startup now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own Java system for this. To get the traditional matlab text command interface run one of:

     matlab -nosplash -nodesktop
     matlab -nosplash -nojvm

specifying -nojvm saves memory (useful if you don't need Java) and it imples -nodesktop). Run matlab -help for a longer list of command line options.

717) 29/11/04 Matlab 7.0.1 available for testing

Matlab version 7.0.1 (the version string is "7.0.1.24704 (R14) Service Pack 1") is now installed for the following platforms:

Sun Solaris2, Linux/x86

The command matlab701 will start up the new matlab. The older matlab versions are still available on those machines which had them before.

In due course (in 30 days or so) version 7.0.1 will become the default matlab unless major problems are reported. At that point older versions may be removed. Please test the new matlab and report any problems (especially repeatable ones).

Matlab version 7.0.1 is NOT available on Irix or Tru64 machines, and probably never will be. A version for OSX will be available but only after we upgrade to 10.3 (matlab 6.5 doesn't support OSX 10.3 but 7.x requires it).

Please remember that the default matlab startup now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own JVM (yet another one!). To get the traditional matlab text interface run:

matlab701 -nosplash -nodesktop

or use -nojvm to save memory if you don't need it (this imples -nodesktop). Run matlab701 -help for a list of command line switches.

708) 21/10/04 Matlab licence file update

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.

635) 03/05/04 newer octave for RH8 machines [J.S.Peatfield]

Octave is a free high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It is largely compatible with matlab.

We currently have octave version 2.1.36 on our RH8 machines, but this version has some problems (especially for code doing certain types of file IO).

The latest version from http://www.octave.org/ is 2.1.57 and a build of this seems to fix the IO problems. It also contains numerous bug-fixes and enhancements.

See http://www.octave.org/docs.html for current documentation, or you can run the command "help -i" from inside octave to view the info pages.

I plan to upgrade all the RH8 machines to this version in a few days, but since the parser seems to be somewhat more pedantic in this version (it seems to object to variables named after keywords), I want to give people a chance to test their existing code on it before it becomes the default.

Therefore the version of octave installed on the following machines has been upgraded to 2.1.57:

     peg
     pea
     ilisu

but the rest have not (yet at least). Unless people report problems with the new octave I plan to upgrade all the machines on the 10th May (next Monday).

596) 03/12/03 More matlab licences [J.S.Peatfield]

Taking the oportunity of few matlab licences being out (most of the machines having just been rebooted). I've installed and activated the updated matlab licence file which we obtained last week.

We now have 16 floating matlab licences instead of 11 so hopefully we won't run out even at busy times (for a while at least).

Please remember that unused matlab sessions should be closed so that the licence can be returned to the pool for others to use. If you find that you still can't obtain a matlab licence please e-mail help@damtp.cam.ac.uk and we will see who is hogging the licences.

Please also check if your matlab code works in octave (a free matlab like system), which is installed on all of our newer Linux setups.

587) 05/11/03 Matlab 6.5 now the default [J.S.Peatfield]

Matlab version 6.5 was installed on 21/09/03 (into item 582), for the following platforms:

Sun Solaris2, SGI Irix65, Linux/x86, DEC Tru64, Apple OSX

Rather later than originally planned this now becomes the default version of matlab for these platforms. The older matlab versions are still available on those machines which had them before.

582) 21/09/03 Matlab 6.5 available for testing [J.S.Peatfield]

Matlab version 6.5 is now installed for the following platforms:

Sun Solaris2, SGI Irix65, Linux/x86, DEC Tru64, Apple OSX

The command matlab65 will start up the new matlab. The older matlab versions are still available on those machines which had them before.

In due course (in 10 days or so) version 6.5 will become the default matlab unless major problems are reported. At that point older versions may be removed. Please test matlab65 and report any problems (especially repeatable ones).

Matlab version 6.5 is NOT available on Linux/Alpha machines, and probably never will be.

Please remember that the default matlab startup now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own JVM (yet another one!). To get the traditional matlab text interface run:

matlab65 -nosplash -nodesktop

or use -nojvm to save memory if you don't need it (this imples -nodesktop). Run matlab65 -help for a list of command line switches.

546) 14/04/03 Patch/updates and machine reboots [J.S.Peatfield]

For some time we have had automated scripts to install security (and other) patches on many of the unix machines. However, these scripts have been very conservative wrt rebooting machines in order for some updates to take full effect.

Previously if any user processes were running when the patches were applied no reboot occurred and we needed to arrange with the users in question to arrange a convinient time to reboot the machines. As some machines were always running jobs (or had logged in users) the proportion of machines needing special action ended up the majority. In most cases in fact the users told us that their jobs could be re-started but we still had to ask each time.

Following discussions with the CITC about the time/effort taken to do this I propose a different way to arrange things. All updates/patches will be classified by the severity of the impact of not rebooting the machine after application:

      severity 0: no reboot needed
      severity 1: reboot needed at some point
      severity 2: reboot needed within a few hours
      severity 3: reboot needed within a few mins

I expect a vanishingly small number of severity 2/3 updates. If we apply a severity 3 patch the machine will be rebooted within a few minutes (REGARDLESS OF WHAT IS RUNNING). Similarly after applying a severity 2 patch the machine will be rebooted at a time between 05:15 and 05:45 the next morning (again even if user jobs are running).

After a severity 1 patch has been applied we will check (each night) if there are no user jobs. If there are none we will reboot within a few minutes. If there are user jobs we will still reboot at a time between 05:15 and 05:45 if it is a Wednesday morning.

Initially only some machines will use the new procedures but over time all systems will be switched to automatically reboot this way after patching.

Anyone running long jobs MUST ensure that they can be re-started if they plan to run them overnight (and especially over Wednesday mornings).

Perhaps this might also be a good time to remind people that they should log out before going home. Since machines may need to be rebooted you should not leave files unsaved in editors etc, or licences locked out for matlab etc unless you are actually using them (such things may annoy others who want to use them). Also remember that someone could follow a cleaner into your office and do nasty things to your files/account if you are still logged in.

521) 22/10/02 Matlab-42 withdrawn [J.S.Peatfield]

It has come to my attention that the current matlab licences hasn't supported matlab-4.2 for some considerable time. Matlab-42 was only available on HP-UX and SunOS4 anyway and neither got much use running matlab. It seems that this stopped being supported when we installed the new licence server for matlab-5 in 1999.

I've removed the matlab4 command and unless anyone screams very loudly in the next few days will remove the old installation as well.

Currently we have matlab-5, matlab-6 and matlab-6.1 installed. We will probably have 6.5 when we have time to install it.

510) 08/08/02 Matlab 6.1 the default [J.S.Peatfield]

As announced last month (info item 509) matlab version 6.1 was installed for most common platforms:

Dec Unix, Solaris-2, Irix 6, Linux/ix86, HP-UX

I've now made matlab 6.1 (callable explicitly as matlab61) the default matlab on those platforms where it is available (SunOS4 will keep matlab5 as the default since matlab6/matlab61 are not available for it).

The older matlab versions are still available on those machines which had them before, and can be started as matlab5 or matlab6. Unless there are problems with matlab61 the older matlab6 may be removed next year.

Please note that since matlab-6.0 the default matlab startup (on most platforms) now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own Java Virtual Machine (jvm). To get the traditional matlab plain text interface run:

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop

or you can run it as:

matlab -nosplash -nojvm

to save memory if you don't need the jvm functionality (imples -nodesktop). Run matlab -help for a list of valid command line switches.

509) 04/07/02 Matlab 6.1 installed for testing [D.Finucane]

I've installed Matlab 6.1 for testing on most platforms ie Dec Unix, Solaris-2, Irix 6, Linux/ix86. This installation includes a license for the optimization toolbox and image processing toolbox. The command to run matlab 6.1 is

        /opt/matlab-61/bin/matlab

498) 18/04/02 Matlab 6.0 the default [J.S.Peatfield]

As announced some time ago (info item 461) matlab version 6.0 was installed for most common platforms:

Dec Unix, Solaris-2, Irix 6, Linux/ix86, HP-UX

I've now finally made matlab 6.0 the default matlab on those platforms where it is available (SunOS4 will continue to have matlab5 as the default since matlab6 is not available for it).

The older matlab version 5 is still available on those machines which had it before, and can also be called as matlab5 (as before).

Please note that the default matlab startup (on most platforms) now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own Java Virtual Machine (jvm). To get the traditional matlab plain text interface run:

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop

or you can run it as:

matlab -nosplash -nojvm

to save memory if you don't need the jvm functionality (imples -nodesktop). Run matlab -help for a list of command line switches.

461) 14/12/00 Matlab 6.0 available [J.S.Peatfield]

Matlab version 6.0 is now installed for the following platforms:

Dec Unix, Solaris-2, Irix 6, Linux/ix86, HP-UX

The command matlab6 will start up the new matlab. The older matlab version 5 is still available on those machines which had it before, and can also be called as matlab5 (as before). In due course version 6.0 will become the default matlab (and any older versions will be finally removed).

Matlab version 6.0 is NOT available on our Linux/Alpha machines (yet).

Please note that the default matlab startup now brings up a "desktop" and starts it's own JVM (yet another one!). To get the traditional matlab text interface run:

matlab6 -nosplash -nodesktop

or use -nojvm to save memory if you don't need it (imples -nodesktop). Run matlab6 -help for a list of command line switches.

Some machines may report problems with access to PTMX (pseudo-tty master) on startup, although this appears to cause no significant problems. Other machines may report that they have too old a kernel version in which case please let us know so we can update them.

450) 12/01/00 Matlab 5 now the default [J.S.Peatfield]

Since the old Matlab 4.x is no longer working (the last licence expired at the end of 1999), I have made matlab5 the default matlab on all platforms. In addition I've made matlab 5 available for our HPs (it was not available under HP-UX 9.x but is under 10.x). Please report any problems to me.

448) 27/11/99 New Matlab licence installed [J.S.Peatfield]

The new Matlab license has been installed and seems to be working for matlab version 5, however the older matlab 4.2 does not undertstand the new licence file and so I've left the old one in place (which expires at the end of the year). If anyone is still relying on matlab 4.2 can they please contact me asap so we know whether to complain to Mathworks or just uninstall the older version.

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

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.

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

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.

375) 14/05/97 Matlab 5.0 available [J.S.Peatfield]

Matlab version 5.0 is now installed for the following platforms:

Dec Unix, SunOS4, Solaris-2, Irix 6.2, Linux

The command matlab5 will start up the new matlab. The older matlab version 4.2 is still available on those machines which had it before, and can now also be called as matlab4. In due course version 5.0 will become the default matlab. We have also purchased some extra toolboxes -- the PDE toolbox, and the Extended Symbolic toolbox are installed with one-user licences.

Note that version 5.0 is NOT available on our HP machines at this time.

Please note that running the matlab demo, takes toolkit licences which will stop anyone else using the toolkit (or demo) until that session ends (just stopping the demos is not enough). The doc (helpdesk) command now starts up netscape rather than Mosaic, and will fail silently if you already have a netscape running.

Any reports of other problems should be directed to me.

323) 18/08/95 Matlab survey [J.S.Peatfield]

Don't worry we arn't planning to remove it.

However it would be useful to find out what proportion of Matlab users use the Signal-processing toolbox (DSP etc), and whether there are any other toolboxes which you know about which we might look at getting from Mathworks.

A one liner mail message to help, saying if you use the Signal-processing toolbox features (or if you arn't sure) would be most helpful.

If you would like matlab installing on any of the machine types which we currently don't have installed please also let us know.

278) 01/12/94 Matlab v4.2a now available for HPs [J.S.Peatfield]

Matlab-4.2a (as announced in info item 272) is now also available on our HP machines as well as on our Sun4s. This version should perform just the same as the sun4 version except that it will be faster on the more powerful HP machines.

The HP and Sun4 versions share the same floating licences so we can still only run the same number of matlabs accross our machines.

Please report any problems to me in the first instance.

272) 10/11/94 Matlab version 4.2a now available [J.S.Peatfield]

Our existing version of Matlab 4.0a (for Sun4 only) have now been upgraded to Matlab 4.2. The matlab command now refers to the latest version with matlab40 running the old one. I've now removed the last vestages of matlab 3.5j (which didn't run anyway as the licence had expired.) The matlab 4.0a and 4.2a are now sharing the same set of licences so be aware that if you start up both to check for differences you may cause us to run out of licences.

A new feature of 4.2a is that online documentation is available in html format, run the command "doc" within matlab to start up a Mosaic browser pointing at the table of contents. Outside matlab (and from machines were we arn't licenced to run it) you can read the documentation by running:

Mosaic file://localhost/opt/matlab-42/toolbox/matlab/doc/ReferenceTOC.html

This will be linked to fromn our WWW server in due course.

263) 22/09/94 CUED Computer Seminar Programme 1994-95

The Engineering Department is holding a series of computing seminars aimed mostly at new CUED post-graduates but CUED undergraduates and people from other departments are welcome. 3.15pm is the usual start time. Contact Tim Love (tpl@eng.cam.ac.uk) for more information.

Michaelmas Term Seminars
Fri 7th Oct -- LaTeX
Fri 14th Oct -- The Teaching System and Unix Fri 21st Oct -- Matlab by Example
Fri 28th Oct -- Internet Resources
Wed 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd Nov -- Fortran Fri 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th Nov -- ANSI C for programmers

Lent Term Seminars
Fri 20th Jan -- X concepts and customisation Fri 27th Jan -- Graphics libraries at CUED Fri 3rd Feb -- Motif programming
Fri 10th Feb -- Numerical data processing Fri 17th Feb -- Efficient Programming
Fri 24th Feb -- Hints and Tips
Fri 3rd Feb -- Shell Scripts
Fri 10th Mar -- Unix System Management

238) 17/05/94 Octave (Matlab users Please Read) [J.E.J.Bottomley]

Revised 17/05/94 [D.N.Harris]

Octave version 1.0 has been installed and can be invoked by typing `octave'. Octave is a public domain (free) program with many similarities to matlab, but it does not have all the features of matlab 4.0. In particular, it lacks object-oriented graphics (it plots using gnuplot), and some matlab m-files run very slowly or not at all. The Numerical Group report that octave's ODE software is better.

Octave may be of use for some problems as an alternative to matlab. If so, it can save the Department money by reducing the demand for additional matlab licences (we currently have eleven Sun licences). Note that octave is available on the speedy HPs as well as the Suns. Would current users of matlab please try octave and let us have your comments (e-mail to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk). We intend to make a decision on changing the number of Matlab licences in October when the licences are due for renewal.

Octave contains its own help system. To run it just type `octave' and then `help' at the `octave:1>' prompt. A copy of the octave manual (150 pages) is available for inspection/copying from my office (G12).

157) 25/05/93 Matlab mode for emacs [jp107]

A matlab mode for emacs is now entered automatically for files ending in .m . Please report any problems with it.

151) 03/05/93 Asp upgrade to hp-ux 9.01 [jp107]

Asp is not going to be available for much of the evening of 3/5/93 (from 11pm onwards) and part of the morning of 4/5/93, as it will be being upgraded to HP-UX 9.01. After this there will be no compilers on asp, 'til HP provide new ones. Most programs compiled on another HP running HP-UX 8.07 should run on HP-UX 9.01 afterwards.

Applications such as matlab, SM, (parts of) X11 and much GNU software will be unavailable during the upgrade. (Which will hopefully be completed before 9am tomorrow.)

(The upgrade will allow the connection of the new Exa-Byte Autochanger to asp, which will provide backups in due course.)

I apologise for any inconvenience.

145) 30/03/93 Matlab 4.0a available for Sun4 [jp107]

As promised long ago the new version of Matlab is now available for Sun4 machines. Mathworks no longer support Sun3 machines, so we can't provide a version for these machines. The new version is greatly enhanced, and should be much better than the old 3.5h version which we have had for some time. The new matlab doesn't support suntools, so now might be a good time to switch to X11 if you already haven't.

The old version is still around as matlab35 for some time, but our licence for this expires on 1st April so it won't be useful for long. There have also been some clashes noticed between the 2 licence managers so 3.5 may be withdrawn if it causes problems for Matlab 4.0a. Please report any problems you notice with the new Matlab.

The new version correctly understands MIT-MAGIC-COOKIES, so no xhost is required when using it from an Xterminal.

144) 30/03/93 Matlab 4.0a documentation [dnh1]

We have 11 copies of the new Matlab 4.0 documentation consisting of:

        User's Guide
        Reference Guide
        New Features Guide
        Release Notes
        External Interface Guide

Two copies are held in the library. The remainder will be placed where they will benefit the Matlab community best, i.e. where clusters of Matlab users are often found. Please email me (dnh1@damtp.cam.ac.uk) with details of where you would like copies of manuals to be kept.

119) 05/11/92 Matlab problem with Xterminals [jp107]

There is a problem with the current version of Matlab under X, in that it doesn't understand .Xauthority files. This means that if you log on via an Xterminal which uses these for permission to display on the screen (as do all the public XDM terminals and machines), Matlab will be refused access to the display.

A workround 'til we get the new version of Matlab (which is supposed to be arriving soon), is to issue the command 'xhost +' from the machine that the Xterminal first connects you to, to turn off access checking. This will allow anyone to connect to the display, and is not recommended except to get round this problem. Please report any problems.

13) 27/02/91 MATLAB newsletter

Daphne Sulston, the librarian, has two copies of a newsletter for MATLAB users we've received from the manufacturers; you are welcome to borrow them if you wish.