Posts on ISG Blog · D-MATH

Mutt with OAuth2 configuration

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:30:00 +0200

For instance this works for outlook.com accounts and also for ethz.ch accounts which are already in “Exchange Online”.

Prerequisites

Install GnuPG

OAuth works with secret tokens and these need to be encripted with GnuPG; install it as follow:

# Fedora Linux
sudo dnf install gnupg2
# Ubuntu Linux
sudo apt-get install gnupg
# macOS with MacPorts
sudo port install gnupg2
# macOS with Homebrew
sudo brew install gnupg

Generate a key pair

gpg --full-generate-key

Please select what kind of key you want:
 (9) ECC (sign and encrypt) *default*
your selection? <--------------------------------------- ENTER

Please select which elliptic curve you want:
 (1) Curve 25519 *default*
Your selection? <--------------------------------------- ENTER

Please specify how long the key should be valid.
 0 = key does not expire
Key is valid for? (0) <--------------------------------- ENTER
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y <------------------------------ y + ENTER

GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.

Real name: Michele Marcionelli <------------------------ Your name + ENTER
Email address: mima-test@ethz.ch <---------------------- Your email + ENTER
Comment: <---------------------------------------------- ENTER

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? <--- O + ENTER

Enter a passphare to protect you new key: ********* <--- Password + ENTER (twice)

IMPORTANT: do not forget this password; you are going to use it every time that you start mutt!

Client backup

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:25:02 +0200

Create a backup account

Each member of D-MATH is provided with 100 GB of storage for backing up client data (laptop and/or desktop). The backup storage must be requested via:

https://backup.math.ethz.ch (use VPN if you are not on the ETH network)

After logging in, set a label for your backup account and click “Create” :

You will then see your backup account details. Save this information carefully, as you will need it to configure your backup client.

Euler for D-MATH users

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:03:22 +0200

The D-MATH is a shareholder of the HPC cluster Euler. All our resources are in the single share “ls_math” (which is also the default for our members).

Important: all users need to request the access supported by a member (Professor, Senior Scientist) of D-MATH.

Note: On 7 January 2026, the resources of “es_math” have been transferred to “ls_math”. This will lead to a more efficient Euler usage for our department.

Computing resources

The “ls_math” share provides access to 1’504 CPU cores, 5’248 GB of system RAM, 108 GPUs, and 3’968 GB of VRAM. These resources consist of:

Password manager

Wed, 13 May 2026 14:53:36 +0200

This is a short guide for safely storing and (optionally) synchronising your passwords across your devices using KeePassXC (free, open source, cross-platform) and your Polybox account for synchronisation.

Why use a password manager?

Every service should have a unique, strong password — you cannot remember dozens of them, so let software do it.
You only have to remember one strong master password.
Auto-fill in the browser is faster and safer than typing.
You keep an encrypted backup of all your credentials.

Why KeePassXC?

Open source and runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Your passwords are stored in a single encrypted file (.kdbx) that you fully control — no third-party cloud, no subscription.
Compatible clients exist for Android (KeePassDX) and iOS (KeePassium, Strongbox).

Install KeePassXC

On our Linux devices KeePassXC is preinstalled and on our macOS devices it can be installed via the ETH Self Service App if it is not already present.

Writing a Letter with the ETH LaTeX Template

Wed, 13 May 2026 11:31:46 +0200

The ethletter class provides an ETH Corporate Design–compliant letter layout for LaTeX. Below is a quick start; the full macro reference lives in the project README.

Install the package

D-MATH managed devices (Linux & macOS): Already installed system-wide — no action needed.
Sources / updates: https://gitlab.ethz.ch/mmarcio/ethletter

Minimal letter skeleton

Create a file letter.tex with the structure below, filling in the fields with your own details. Refer to the repository README for the full list of macros (sender, recipient, subject, classification, signature, etc.).

Central Clients of D-MATH

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:52:39 +0200

Central Clients are powerful computers in the server room, running Fedora. The software available is the same as on the Linux desktops at the D-MATH. We distinguish between two types of Central Clients: Compute Clients and Load Clients.

Compute Clients

Note: The central IT services have a very powerful HPC-cluster called Euler.

Application area: compute jobs (!) like R, Python or Matlab which produce heavy load or use a lot of memory.

Important: Run your compute jobs with scheduling priority 7.

ETH software

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:26:26 +0200

Please read the following two articles if you plan to install ETH licensed software on a private device and/or if you plan to use ETH licensed software for private purposes (like writing a cancellation letter for your flat with Microsoft Office ;-):

Information for ETH employees concerning home use of ETH software
Home use software list Note: in the table of this second page, the “Research Institute Staff” are members of EAWAG, EMPA, PSI and WSL.

How to get a licence for ETH software

All licences can be ordered in the IT Shop

Personal homepage with ETH Layout

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:35:57 +0100

One possible way to have a personal homepage at the Department of Mathematics with a corporate design is described below.

Configuration

Open a terminal (for MacOS: Menu > Finder > Go > Utilities > Terminal) on a computer of D-MATH or on your private computer connected with VPN and login for instance on ion-4 i.e.:

$ ssh ion-4
# or
$ ssh your-eth-username@ion-4

Afterwards execute the following command:

$ create-personal-homepage

Now you should have the following files in your www-folder:

Wi-Fi and VPN configuration

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 15:55:38 +0100

Below you find the recommended configuration for Wi-Fi (WiFi / Wireless / WLAN) and VPN (Virtual Private Network) for members of the D-MATH.

Wi-Fi

General information

The following settings are valid for all members of D-MATH (incl. PhD-Students).
The username to be used is: < your-eth-username>@math-guest.ethz.ch.
The Wi-Fi SSIDs to be used are eduroam , eth or eth-5.
You have to use the Wi-Fi/VPN password and not the LDAP or Active Directory (AD) password.

IMPORTANT: if you are not in the main building (HG) you may also need to start the VPN (see below) to access some D-MATH resources.

External AI and Cloud Services

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:51:17 +0100

Please be careful when using external AI and cloud services such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Overleaf, Dropbox, DeepL, Slack, GitHub, … and try to make regular backups on your local device (laptop) or, even better, on the departmental file server.

The usage of some external cloud services has been approved (at least partially) by the CISO and the central IT services.

Here you’ll find more information: https://ethz.ch/staffnet/en/service/information-security/usage-external-cloud-services.html

Laptop order

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:29:18 +0100

This form is primarily intended for new postdoctoral researchers and new doctoral students of D-MATH, that wish a laptop instead of a desktop (see also Standard IT equipment).

Order a laptop here: https://lot.math.ethz.ch

The operating system can be chosen between Fedora Linux (with a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 2-in-1) or macOS (with a MacBook Pro). The standard keyboard is a US keyboard (possibly US International), and requests for a CH keyboard will be fulfilled where possible.

Printing at D-MATH

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:05:50 +0100

General Information

The main features of the ETH Print Service are print from WLAN, VPN and “file upload”, secure printing using the “follow me” printer queue card-hp , comfortable copying and scan to email or USB stick.

To release print-jobs (sent for instance to card-hp), use the copier or scan a document you will have to authenticate to the printer, either

with the ETH-Card (*) or
with your ETH account and password for e-mail (Active Directory)

*) Note: the very first time you have to “activate the ETH-Card” by logging in to www.print.ethz.ch.

Jupyter Notebook

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:00:58 +0100

Euler Cluster

https://jupyter.euler.hpc.ethz.ch/

This service is made for developing and debugging your code , not to run your code on the cluster. If you wish to run it, please use the SLURM queue system. Please only request multiple cores if you are planning to run some code that can make use of multiple cores.

For more information go to the following website:

https://docs.hpc.ethz.ch/services/jupyterhub

~/.config/euler/jupyterhub

I want to load a cluster module / I want to activate a virtualenv / Jupyterlab is missing some features

This script will be sourced (. ~/.config/euler/jupyterhub/jupyterlabrc) before starting any service.

Torch

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:33:30 +0100

https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/blob/main/RELEASE.md#release-compatibility-matrix

It is necessary that the required CUDA library is installed in the system, normally this is under ls -lad /usr/local/cuda*.

…in a python project

https://docs.astral.sh/uv/guides/integration/pytorch/

First create a new uv project:

export UV_CACHE_DIR=/scratch/userdata/${USER}/CACHE
export UV_NO_CACHE=1

cd /scratch/userdata/${USER}

# uv will create a virtual env for each project
uv init new-uv-project
cd new-uv-project

Customise the file pyproject.toml:

[project]
# the following supports CUDA 12.8 w/ CUDNN 9.10.2.21
requires-python = ">=3.10,<=3.15"
dependencies = [
 "torch>=2.9,<=2.10",
 "torchvision",
 "torchaudio",
]

[tool.uv.sources]
torch = { index = "pytorch" }

[[tool.uv.index]]
name = "pytorch"
# experimental with 2.9 + 2.10
#url = "https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu130"
# stable support
url = "https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu128"
explicit = true

Now add packages defined in the pyproject.toml to the new project, the packages will be installed inside a virtual environment:

Tensorflow

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:52:32 +0200

Resources:

To be able to use tensorflow you need to install it for your project. We recommend to use uv for creating your tensorflow python project.

Setup your project

uv will create and use a python virtual environment transparently so there is no need to create one separately. Use the storage on /scratch/userdata/$USER for your project, this is on the local disk of the ada-Xs as not all have the same python versions so the virtual environment must be recreated for every ada-X.

New Mailserver – Exchange Online (EXO)

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0200

All the accounts of D-MATH members are going to be migrated to the Microsoft cloud in the week of October 21 – 25, 2024.

This means that all the mail accounts will have to be reconfigured, i.e. the old mail account has to be deleted from your mail application and then the new account has to be added. You’ll find links on how to do that below.

The new address for webmail is: https://outlook.office.com

Give Permissions to Calendar

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:48:06 +0200

If you would like to give someone else at the ETHZ access to your calendar, you can do the following:

Login to https://outlook.office.com
Right click on the calendar you want to share and hit “Sharing permissions”

3. Search for the person and click on them

4. Send/Save the given permission to make it active

Mail Certificate

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:46:54 +0200

The following official ETH documentation describes how to order and configure a new mail certificate:

https://unlimited.ethz.ch/en/help/certen/mail-certificate

If you use other e-mail clients that aren’t documented, please contact us – for example, below is a step-by-step guide for the Evolution Mail Client for Linux.

Important note for students

We issue e-mail certificates only to D-MATH employees (excluding teaching assistants!), and only to D-MATH students who have a good reason and whose request is supported by a D-MATH professor.

Archive e-mails

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:42:19 +0200

Read here the official documentation about the Mail Archive to also understand when and which e-mail will be automatically archived.

Keeping your mailbox small by deleting old e-mails, particularly large or duplicate e-mails will increase the speed of access to it. For this reason and despite the Mail Archive we recommend to do a copy (best on the NAS) of the e-mails before you delete them with your e-mail client. Here below we will explain how to export single e-mails and whole mailboxes; unfortunately the procedure and/or the result are different depending on the e-mail clients used. For this reason we will focus on Outlook for Mac, Mac Mail and Thunderbird. Sadly this isn’t possible with OWA (webmail). Moreover we have a dedicated post for Evolution (e-mail, calendar and address book client for Linux).

Polybox Cloud Storage

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:39:04 +0200

Please use Polybox instead of Dropbox whenever possible.

The advantages of Polybox are:

Polybox is a service of ETH Zurich
Data is stored at ETH Zurich
Every user has 50 GB of storage space (more is possible upon request)

Polybox is installed on all our Mac and Linux clients. The Linux version is called OwnCloud.

You can download Polybox for your private computer or mobile phone from the Polybox website:

Technical support in lecture halls and seminar rooms

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:31:08 +0200

For technical support in lecture halls and seminar rooms please contact the Multimedia Support for ETH Zentrum:

Phone: +41 44 632 2117
E-mail: mms-is-hg@id.ethz.ch

Moreover various video adapters (e.g. USB-C to HDMI) and presenters can be collected and returned independently at the Mathematics Library (HG G 7); these can be found behind the counter in a drawer labelled “ISG D-MATH”.

Also note: almost all rooms at ETH already have a built-in beamer. The following website gives you some info about what’s installed in a room: https://ethz.ch/staffnet/en/service/rooms-and-buildings/roominfo.html

Standard IT equipment

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:53:09 +0200

We offer the following standard hardware to our staff:

Linux desktop computer: e.g. Esprimo Q958 with 8-Core Intel i7
Mac desktop computer: e.g. Mac Mini with 6-Core Intel i5 or Apple Silicon
Linux laptop computer: e.g. ThinkPad X1 Yoga, or ThinkPad X1 Carbon; or a Laptop that is up to 4 years old
Mac laptop computer: e.g. MacBook Pro 14″ with Apple Silicon; or a MacBook Pro that is up to 4 years old

Additionally you can get 1 screen (EIZO 24″ or 27″) (upon request 2, if supported by the hardware) and a docking station and some adaptors if you have a laptop.

SSH key fingerprints of D-MATH hosts

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:03:41 +0200

When connecting to a new OpenSSH server for the first time you’ll be prompted to accept its host key – but how do you know if it is valid?

username@asterix ~$ ssh sftpmath
The authenticity of host 'sftpmath (129.132.119.199)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:o8jYLjJZIkG8+V474HcSdUVJTvSjYOYT3qQi8+8kFtE.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

This case should happen to you only while connecting from a private computer. In this case you should compare the fingerprint (see the output above) with the corresponding one on the list that you can find here:

Softphone / ETH phone

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:17:24 +0200

The softphone can be used in the home office, at the shared desk or for mobile working. A softphone is software that is installed on a PC, laptop or mobile device to operate telephony as a software solution. This means that conventional number telephony can also be used regardless of location, for example from the home office or at shared desks, and is no longer tied to a desk phone.

Access a remote linux desktop with ThinLinc

Fri, 16 May 2025 16:21:50 +0200

We are using a solution based on ThinLinc from Cendio to easily connect to a remote Linux desktop inside the D-MATH network from anywhere.

Requirements

You need

either a Wi-Fi connection at ETH, as described here (with the “math-guest” profile),
or a working VPN connection to the D-MATH network, as described here (with the “math-guest” profile)

and

a ThinLinc client for your operating system (external link) Note: on our managed computers, the ThinLinc client is already installed

If you do not want or cannot install the ThinLinc client on your (private) device, you may try to use it via browser at this URL:https://tango.math.ethz.ch (the correct Wi-Fi or the VPN connection is still needed!). This solution may also work on a tablet.

Linux Environment Modules at the D-MATH

Fri, 09 May 2025 08:12:22 +0200

With Environment Modules, or simply called Modules, it is possible to dynamically expand the active user environment and to remove it again without closing the shell.

At the D-MATH modules are used for:

providing applications in different versions,
customising the personal library environment,
setting environment presets for institutes and groups.

Modules are grouped by their functionality in different folders. These module collections are referenced by their MODULEPATH.

Default collections

Every bash-shell starts with two collections.

SSH Access to D-MATH network from outside

Mon, 05 May 2025 11:43:21 +0200

If you are using the D-MATH WiFi or VPN configuration (with “math-guest”), you are already in the D-MATH network and can reach all important hosts directly (e.g., ssh host -l <eth-username>).

If you are using the default ETH VPN (i.e. connected with “staff-net” or “student-net”) you can simply access the D-MATH network (e.g. our central clients) with SSH via pytharski just by entering the following command in a terminal:

ssh pytharski.math.ethz.ch -l <eth-username>
# or just
ssh pytharski -l <eth-username>
# and if your local username is the same as the ETH one, then
ssh pytharski

The first time you log in to pytharski you also have to accept the host key (please verify the fingerprint that you get with this list). Then at the “Hostname or command”-prompt enter for example “ada-29” and you are in:

Backup: I deleted a file… how can I restore it?

Mon, 05 May 2025 10:58:22 +0200

We have 3 different ways/tools to restore deleted data on the server. The first one (very fast) is only usable if the deletion occurred in the last 7 days; the other tools work even for older data.

Note: Only files on the servers are backed up automatically, i.e. not the files stored locally on a laptop.

Solution 1 – with “snapshots”

If you deleted a file or a directory now or in the last 7 days , you can recover it very fast. Suppose you removed the following latex file:

Room reservation with calendar

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:41:13 +0200

By following the few steps below, you can send a request for a room reservation. Your request will then be reviewed and approved or rejected in a reasonable time frame.

The following rooms are currently available:

location	resource name	description
HG G 19.1	hg-g-19.1@math.ethz.ch	big seminar room
HG G 19.2	hg-g-19.2@math.ethz.ch	small seminar room
HG G 33.3	hg-g-33.3@math.ethz.ch	meeting room for admin/tech
HG G 43	hg-g-43@math.ethz.ch	Hermann-Weyl-Zimmer
HG G 69	hg-g-69@math.ethz.ch	Common Room

Your personal calendar

Accessing a shared mailbox or calendar

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:31:27 +0100

If several people need to access the same mailbox – for example, for a secretariat, a group organiser or a project – you need a so-called shared mailbox. To get one, please contact us.

Accessing via webmail

This is the simplest way to access a shared mailbox. Here there are 2 ways:

Way 1: Open the shared mailbox separately

Login to webmail https://outlook.office.com with your account
Click on the person symbol on the top-right
Then click on “Open another mailbox”
Search for the shared account (ex. by entering the e-mail address) and click on “Open”

Home office for D-MATH members

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:39:52 +0100

We explain below what you have to do to be able to work efficiently from your home, for instance how to set up a secure network connection to the ETH Zurich using VPN (eg. to access ETHIS, electronic resources like journals, file shares, …), how to access your e-mails, your files and a virtual linux desktop.

VPN – Secure Network Connection to the ETH

You can set up a secure network connection to the ETH Zurich by connecting to the VPN server using a VPN client. You find all information here:

Tipps for smartphones and tablets, recommended apps

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:06:11 +0100

Configuration of mail, calendar:

general: https://unlimited.ethz.ch/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16451437 (=> see below “Instructions / FAQ / How To / Tips”)

Important : use username@ethz.ch (and not @math.ethz.ch) for configuration, then most of the configuration will be automatic.

VPN-client:

https://unlimited.ethz.ch/spaces/itkb/pages/21125994/VPN

WLAN:

../wireless-networks

Using your smartphone or tablet abroad:

It’s a good idea to use the VPN-client if you’re connecting to foreign networks as the data transfer will be encrypted. Turn on WLAN or Bluetooth only if needed. Konsumentenschutz has published a document on what to look out for if you’re using your mobile phone abroad (only in German): Roaming Merkblatt

Where to buy computers and peripherals

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:01:33 +0100

Please contact us if you want to buy computers and peripherals with ETH funding as special rules apply.

Recommended shops for private purchases

It’s always a good idea to compare prices at Toppreise (https://www.toppreise.ch) before spending a lot of money.

Neptun shop for Apple, HP, Lenovo laptops and some peripherals (http://www.projektneptun.ch): opens twice a year (around the beginning of the semester) with low prices for these laptops
Apple Store for university members (http://store.apple.com/ch-de-edu): for private purchases of Apple computers, iPads etc. Note: prices in the Neptun shop are lower than in this shop
YouLap (former Studentenrabatt) (https://www.youlap.ch): good offers for Lenovo and HP notebooks
Brack (http://www.brack.ch): low prices for all kinds of electronics
digitec (https://www.digitec.ch): low prices for all kinds of electronics; check warranty policies and supply status as these can be problematic
Interdiscount (http://www.interdiscount.ch): sometimes has good deals on iPads and tablet computers
Melectronics (http://www.melectronics.ch): good service, sometimes good deals on iPads
microspot (http://www.microspot.ch): sometimes has good deals on iPads and tablet computers, other devices

Personal homepage

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:28:24 +0100

Read this blog for an alternative solution to create a personal homepage with corporate design. If you instead want a personal homepage with “full control”, read below.

General information

The URL (address) of your homepage is/will be the following:

https://people.math.ethz.ch/~username

The main file that you need has to be called index.html. You will probably have some more files like images, CSS-files, PDF-files, etc. You have to put all these files in your www-folder on the server.

Accessing your files (on the server)

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:26:43 +0100

You can access your files that you have on the server via Samba (recommended for administration staff and also for all macOS users) or via SSH (ssh, sftp, rsync, unison, …)

Access via Samba (VPN needed!)

Connect to:

smb://shares.math.ethz.ch (macOS & Linux)
\\shares.math.ethz.ch (Windows)

and log in with your eth-username and your e-mail password.

MacOS

Select the Finder , in the menu Go , click on Connect to server… , enter the address smb://shares.math.ethz.ch , click on Connect and authenticate. Afterwards you will be prompted to select a “volume” like “your-eth-username”, “www” or “share-xyz”.

Sagemath

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 15:09:50 +0200

https://hub.docker.com/r/sagemath/sagemath/

Since Fedora 39 sagemath is not included as a package anymore. There are several possibilities you can use sagemath on Fedora, let’s highlight two:

Using the official docker image
Installing it with conda

Podman

sagemath commandline

As our installation provides a fully configured rootless podman configuration, you can for example use the following commands to run the sagemath image:

# connect to a central client
ssh ada-X
# start tmux, alternativly you can use screen
tmux
# create a .sage folder
mkdir $HOME/.sage

# run sage with your home mounted to /home/sage/mydata and a mounted .sage
podman run --user 0 -ti -v $HOME/.sage:/home/sage/.sage -v $HOME:/home/sage/mydata sagemath/sagemath:latest

# to detach from the tmux session use the following keystrokes
#CTRL+B then D

To add an additional folder you can put another -v parameter, for example:

Moodle Development Environment

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:25:07 +0200

Develop moodle

Resources:

The following setup can be used to set up a moodle development environment, with rootless podman:

# D-MATH link podman-compose
ln -s /usr/bin/podman-compose ~/bin/docker-compose

# D-MATH clone moodle-docker repo
git clone https://github.com/moodlehq/moodle-docker.git
cd moodle-docker

# D-MATH set variables
export MOODLE_DOCKER_DB_PORT=15432
export MOODLE_DOCKER_APP_VERSION=18080
export MOODLE_DOCKER_SELENIUM_VNC_PORT=15900
export MOODLE_DOCKER_WEB_PORT=18000

# Change ./moodle to your /path/to/moodle if you already have it checked out
export MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT=./moodle

# D-MATH add custom configuration
cat <<EOF > local.yml
services:
 webserver:
 volumes:
 - "${MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT}/../moodledata:/var/www/moodledata"
 db:
 environment:
 PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
 volumes:
 - "${MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT}/../database:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
EOF

# Choose a db server (Currently supported: pgsql, mariadb, mysql, mssql, oracle)
export MOODLE_DOCKER_DB=pgsql

# D-MATH creating files with group access for moodle code
umask 007

# Get Moodle code, you could select another version branch (skip this if you already got the code)
git clone -b MOODLE_404_STABLE git://git.moodle.org/moodle.git $MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT

# D-MATH add folder for moodle data
mkdir moodledata
mkdir database

# D-MATH setgid for automatic setting group permission
chmod 2770 moodle
chmod 2770 moodledata
chmod 2770 database

# Ensure customized config.php for the Docker containers is in place
cp config.docker-template.php $MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT/config.php

# D-MATH set the permission to 33 inside the container for moodle code
podman unshare chown 33 -R moodle
podman unshare chown 33 -R moodledata
podman unshare chown 999 -R database

# Start up containers, choose docker.io to download the images
bin/moodle-docker-compose up -d

# Shut down and destroy containers
#bin/moodle-docker-compose down

Above we set the webserver port to 18000 so this means you now need to connect to http://localhost:18000 in your browser to see the application.

Microsoft Office & Adobe Acrobat (Windows)

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 07:45:48 +0200

Specifically for Linux users, but also for Mac users, we provide Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook) and Adobe Acrobat in a Windows environment. To access the applications and open your files (which you have stored on the server), follow these instructions.

Start Citrix

authenticate with “d\” followed by your ETH username as in the example below and your e-mail password:

open the desired application (sometimes you may need to click ‘Refresh Apps’, especially if the list of apps is empty or you are missing something):

List of Printers at D-MATH

Thu, 23 May 2024 08:57:04 +0200

The following colour printers and copiers can be accessed from all the ETH computers (incl. using VPN). We strongly recommend using the “follow me” printer “card-hp “.

NAME	CATEGORY	MODEL	QUEUE
card-hp	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	card-hp
p-hg-e-62-2	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp005
p-hg-f-28-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp006
p-hg-f-42-1	MC4	HP Color LaserJet MFP E57540c	p-hg-hp007
p-hg-g-14-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp008
p-hg-g-21-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp009
p-hg-g-27-4	MC4	HP Color LaserJet MFP E57540c	p-hg-hp010
p-hg-g-32-2	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp011
p-hg-g-33-2	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp012
p-hg-g-37-3	MC4	HP Color LaserJet MFP E57540c	p-hg-hp013
p-hg-g-39-1	MC4	HP Color LaserJet MFP E57540c	p-hg-hp014
p-hg-g-44-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp015
p-hg-g-48	MC4	HP Color LaserJet MFP E57540c	p-hg-hp016
p-hg-g-53-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp017
p-hg-g-57-2	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp019
p-hg-g-68-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp020
p-hg-j-59	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp022
p-hg-j-68-1	MC3	HP Color LaserJet MFP E77830z	p-hg-hp023

We have basically only 2 printer categories: MC4 (which can print and scan A4) and MC3 (which can print and scan A4 and A3).

Address Book

Fri, 10 May 2024 15:22:29 +0200

Below is a description of how to configure your Thunderbird address book with Active Directory (AD).

The information that you need is the following:

Server Address: d.ethz.ch Server Port: 636 with SSL Search Base DN: DC=d,DC=ethz,DC=ch Bind DN: < your-eth-username>@ethz.ch Search filter: ( &(objectclass=organizationalPerson)(ou=*))

Important: Note that this AD Server is only reachable from ETH Networks (incl. VPN).

Configuration for Thunderbird

Open the Settings, select the “Composing”-tab and then search for “Addressing”. Check the “Directory Server” and click on “Edit Directories…” as illustrated in the following image:

Build Automation with GitLab Pipelines

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 07:58:15 +0200

Do you still recompile and run your program (and ideally your tests) after every change, like developers did 20 years ago? Do your teammates still bother you about your specific setup that is needed to compile/run your projects? Well, then we’ve got some news for you!

We’ve set up GitLab Instance Runners on our central computing servers, so that people can run their build automation on powerful, independent machines. All managed and fully integrated on our GitLab Server.

minikube (Kubernetes Development)

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:07:58 +0100

If you want to develop something for kubernetes, you may need to run minikube. This can be done on our linux installations. The following commands should start a working “kubernetes cluster” on your installation:

mkdir ~/bin/

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64 -O ~/bin/minikube
chmod 755 ~/bin/minikube

cd ~/bin/
./minikube config set rootless true
./minikube config set driver podman
./minikube config set container-runtime containerd

./minikube start --cni calico

After minikube has started, you can check all running pods with the following:

Request a Gitlab Account for People without an ETH Account

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 08:58:02 +0200

For D-MATH members to collaborate on our Gitlab Server (gitlab.math.ethz.ch) with people who don’t have an ETH account, the host needs to create a guest account via ETHIS:

https://ethz.ch/staffnet/de/anstellung-und-arbeit/gaeste.html

The guest type is: Individuelle Kooperationen für Forschung, Lehre und Wissenstransfer

Once the guest account has been created, the user can log in to gitlab using ldap authentication.

After this you can set the user as a member in your project to give him/her permissions.

Linux (Evolution) local mail archive

Wed, 17 May 2023 11:01:41 +0200

This describes how to create a local folder in which you can move emails, which will still be available in the evolution mail client. So the mails will be removed from the mailserver and saved into a folder, which you have to backup.

Requirements:

You already use evolution as your mail client
You make backups of your local files and folders

First create a folder in the filesystem, which will hold your mails:

Write Multiple Choice Exams

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:55:46 +0200

You can find documentation, an F.A.Q, examples and some additional resources about Auto Multiple Choice (AMC) here:

https://gitlab.math.ethz.ch/teaching/amc-howto

Changing your password

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:49:51 +0200

You can change your ETH passwords using the web center at https://passwort.ethz.ch.

After you log in, click on “Self Service” and then on “Change password”. Then select a group of passwords that you want to change (LDAPS, Active Directory, Radius), enter the new password twice and click on “Save” (note the policies on bottom).

On the other side you also can change your D-MATH password (actually for desktop login, sftp and a few other applications incl. “t3”-applications) using one of the following tools:

Create a Git Repository

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:48:41 +0200

As a D-MATH employee you can have up to 10 Git Projects on our gitlab server located at

https://gitlab.math.ethz.ch/

Please don’t save big data files and binary files (like compiled codes, PDF files, images, …) in your repository. Ideally a repository has to contain only source code.

You can collaborate with every ETH Zurich employee, if you have a small group of external collaborators you can request the account as described here.

Leaving ETH Zurich

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:47:39 +0200

Please talk to your supervisor and/or ISG D-MATH before leaving ETH about what should happen with your scientific data.

The following webpage of the central IT services gives some information about the expiration of services provided by ETH Zurich (e.g. e-mail, Wi-Fi/VPN, …) – it is, however, possible to extend some of those services if there is a good reason:

https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/associates/services/Service/IT-Services/files/broschueren/en/exit-en.pdf

How do I send a big file to someone?

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:47:14 +0200

You want to send a file (by mail) to a colleague but the mail server rejects your attempt because the file is too big (usually bigger than 5 – 20 MB)?

Here are some tips on how to “send” huge files:

Use the Polybox sharing feature:

Log in to https://polybox.ethz.ch with your ETH Password for Web-Application (AAI/LDAP)
Upload the file to the Polybox (if it’s not already there)
Click on the “Share” symbol next to the filename

Settings for TeXShop (and other Mac TeX-Editors)

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:46:49 +0200

The default TeX Settings for MacTeX should work in all editors as we don’t have a special installation any more.

TeXShop – > Preferences

There the “Engine” settings for the paths should be as follows: (pdf)TeX: /Library/TeX/texbin Distiller (ghostscript): /usr/local/bin

texshop-prefs

Note: It’s no longer necessary to change the “Typesetting” preferences from “pdftex” to “TeX + DVI”.

Path settings for other Mac TeX-editors should be set accordingly:

all TeX-related binaries (e.g. latex, pdflatex, etc.) can be found at: /Library/TeX/texbin
all Ghostscript-related binaries (e.g. gs, ps2pdf) can be found at: /usr/local/bin

OS X problem with 802.1X

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:46:18 +0200

When you get the following pop-up window about 802.1X, after you logged in or connected your network cable

mac_802_1X_popup

open the network preferences:

mac_802_1X_network_preferences_1

click on the “Advanced…” button:

mac_802_1X_network_preferences_2

select the “802.1X”-tab (1), uncheck the “Enable automatic connection” (2) and click on the “OK”-button (3):

mac_802_1X_network_preferences_3

and the last step: confirm your changes by clicking on the “Apply”-button.

Then unplug and replug the network cable.

Grant Permissions on a Git Repository

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:45:21 +0200

If you have a git repository and you want to grant permissions to an existing user, this can be done like the following:

After you log in click on your project, to enter its details:

perm1

Now on the navigation to the left you find “Project information -> Members”, where you can manage your members:

Next, search for the person you want to give permissions to, in the text field “People”:

Secure File Transfer (SFTP) to the D-MATH network

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:42:54 +0200

SFTP can be used on all platforms, incl. Linux, Windows and Mac to transfer files to / from the D-MATH fileservers.

Filezilla for all platforms

Open the application filezilla, if you need to install it you can download it from:

https://filezilla-project.org/

With the following information you can connect

Host: sftp://sftpmath.math.ethz.ch
Username: [your username]
Password: [D-MATH password]

Click on the button “Quickconnect”
You may need to trust the ssh host key of the server to be able to connect

Synchronise your Files with Unison

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:41:12 +0200

See also the alternative software FreeFileSync.

Unison is a file-synchronisation tool for Linux, Mac and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

For example, you can synchronise (in both directions) your working directory on your laptop with the working directory on the D-MATH file server.

How to Protect a Webpage with a Password

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:40:06 +0200

Suppose you want to protect the sub-page “secure” of your homepage with a password; that is, you want the visitors to be asked for a username and a password when accessing a webpage:

https://people.math.ethz.ch/~USERNAME/secure/

To do that you first have to create the directory “secure” with the correct permissions:

mkdir ~/www/secure
chmod 755 ~/www/secure

Then you have to create a kind of configuration file in that directory, named .htaccess with the following content (you can use emacs, xemacs, vi, … as editor)

Mailing-Lists of D-MATH

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:39:31 +0200

All mailing-lists are viewable in a convenient way with a dynamic visualisation tool that represents the mail structure with a tree layout.

URL: https://isg.math.ethz.ch/mailinglists

mailing-lists

click on the name of a list to expand or to collapse the sub-tree
double-click on the name of a list to show only that list
click on the name of a person to get more information (in a box on the right side)

Abbreviations

a-	assistants (:= phd- + pdoc-)
d-	lecturers (Dozierende), not professors
fim	Forschungsinstitut für Mathematik (Institute for Mathematical Research)
g1,g3-g6	Group 1, Group 3 – Group 6
h-	tutorial assistants (Hilfsassistenten)
ifor	Institute for Operations Research
p-	professors (not guest!)
pd-	Privatdozenten
pdoc-	postdocs
phd-	PhD Students
r-	retired professors and emeriti
s-	secretaries
sam	Seminar for Applied Mathematics
stat	Seminar for Statistics

How can someone send me big files?

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:35:28 +0200

If some collaborator (a non ETH member) needs to send you a big file (up to 1 GB), then you can set up a “file drop” folder using polybox and send the generated link for the upload to the person.

For ETH members see here.

Set up the “file drop” folder as described in the following screenshots.

Log into polybox:

polybox_files_drop_1

Create a new folder:

polybox_files_drop_2

polybox_files_drop_3

polybox_files_drop_4

Click on the three dots:

Using “screen” to run simulations on a remote host

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:34:15 +0200

The suggested way to run your simulations on a remote host (let’s say for instance on ada-18) is to use screen, which allows you to:

use multiple shell windows from a single SSH session
keep a shell active even through network disruptions
disconnect and re-connect to a shell session from multiple locations
run a long running process without maintaining an active shell session.

Start screen

Enter in a terminal

screen

or – better – start a screen session by giving it a name (for instance “sim1”):

Colour printing

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:32:45 +0200

The default printer configuration on all our managed computers is black and duplex. The following OS specific instructions explain how to print colour documents and are specific for the new HP Color LaserJet printers (introduced in March 2020).

macOS

Create a “colour” preset

Print using the “colour” preset

Fedora Linux

Print with colours

Howto use docker at D-MATH

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:31:22 +0200

To use docker at D-MATH is to use podman -> https://podman.io/

With podman you can use all docker commands just write podman instead of docker in the command, all the parameters stay the same.

With podman we are able to provide a possibility that a user without administrative rights can download and run docker images.

Example 1

The following example will run the latest docker image of alpine linux (https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine).

podman run -ti -v $(pwd):/home/test alpine:latest

Synchronise your Files with FreeFileSync

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:29:46 +0200

FreeFileSync is a folder comparison and synchronisation software that creates and manages backup copies of all your important files. Instead of copying every file every time, FreeFileSync determines the differences between a source and a target folder and transfers only the minimum amount of data needed. FreeFileSync is Open Source software, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Installation

Download FreeFileSync here and follow the OS-specific instructions for the installation.

There are also a lot of video tutorials available on how to use this application, e.g. for synchronisation of two folders at: https://freefilesync.org/tutorials.php

Citrix / Back Office Applications

Wed, 17 May 2023 08:06:12 +0200

The requirements and installation procedure are very well documented on the following page:

https://ethz.ch/services/de/lehre/lehrbetrieb/it-services-lehrbetrieb/admin-applikationen/backoffice-applications.html

But for linux systems there is one additional step required. You need to add the ssl certificate, to be able to connect to the ETHZ servers.

You only need to do the part “Installation der Zertifikate”:

https://cd-portal.sp.ethz.ch/linux/Wiki/Citrix%20Receiver%20unter%20Fedora.aspx

Zoom Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication

Wed, 17 May 2023 08:03:43 +0200

Afterwards you will have one of the following screens; either provide the “company” URL “ethz.zoom.us” or your e-mail address “username@ethz.ch”:

You will then be redirected to the following ETH page. Log in with “username@ethz.ch” and your ETH e-mail password:

After the authentication you will be redirected back to the Zoom app:

iPad Reset

Wed, 17 May 2023 08:02:58 +0200

Bevor ein ausgeliehenes iPad an die ISG zurückgebracht werden kann, muss ein Reset gemacht werden. Anderenfalls haben wir von der ISG keinen Zugriff auf das Gerät und können es nicht weiter verleihen.

Es wird eine Internet Verbindung benötigt um den Reset durchzuführen. Hier der Link, wie dies gemacht wird:

https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT201274

Before bringing back a lent iPad to the ISG, it has to be reset. Otherwise the ISG will not have access and it can’t be lent again.