Linux

The information on this page is for internal use only in the Physics Department.

Interactive Data Language (IDL): a powerful tool for data analysis, visualisation and application development.

Please see also:

IDL in Astrophysics, for usage on Astrophysics desktop systems.

To access copies of software distribution kits on our local server from a Linux system you may do the following.

Data acquisition and control, data analysis, and data presentation.

Physics no longer purchases a LabVIEW site license this is due to the significant increase in license costs and National Instruments move to a annual subscription service. If you need to purchase a subscription license please contact NI directly.

Alternatively a number of groups have already moved to Python as a alternative, we would recommend installing Anaconda distribution, this allows for multiple virtual environments.

Centrally managed machines and sharp printers

Centrally managed machines can connect to printers using lpd, which we have found to be more reliable than Samba for all printers except SharpHold.

Note: For SharpHold, please use the "Samba" instructions below.

The department's electricity bill is one of the largest single items of expenditure and as part of a campaign to reduce this we want to encourage everyone to adopt power saving practices with their IT equipment. Here are some general rules.

VPN settings for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and Debian 12

These are settings for vpn4.physics.ox.ac.uk

Executive summary

Connect to your machine from anywhere by using the SSH gateway server bastion.physics.ox.ac.uk as an SSH jump proxy. Use your Physics username (without the preceding "PHYSICS\".) In the same way, you can log into most systems inside our network that support ssh access.