Installation instructions

We will be using a virtual computer pre-installed with Debian Linux and sample data necessary for the exercises.

Note

You need to install the image even if your main system is Linux / Mac OS X!

Installation steps (it should take about 10 minutes):

• Install VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads). It works on Linux and Mac too.
• Download the virtual machine image from this link: https://goo.gl/ugMHB0 You’ll get a single file with .ova extension on your hard drive.
• You can either double click the .ova file, or run VirtualBox, and choose File > Import Appliance. Follow the instructions after the import is started.

After successful installation you should see something like this (only the machine list will contain just one machine). Check whether you can start the virtual machine: click Start in the main VirtualBox window:

After a while you should see something like this:

You don’t need to type anything into that window, just checking that it looks like the screen shot is enough.

How to access the machine

Because it is much more comfortable to use a native terminal application than the small VM screen, you will connect to the machine depending on what system you are using.

Machine configuration details:

• Administrative user: root, password: debian
• Normal user: user, password: user
• ssh on port 2222
• RStudio on port 8787

In case of any problems try to find contact the tutors, we’ll try to resolve all problems before the course.

Windows

Install PuTTY and WinSCP. PuTTY will be used to control the virtual computer. WinSCP will be used to transfer files between your computer and the virtual computer.

• PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html - look for putty.exe)
• WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/download.php - look for Installation package).

Mac OS X and Linux

Ssh is used to control the virtual computer. It should be installed in your computer.

Files can be transferred with scp, rsync or lftp (recommended) from the command line. Scp and rsync could be already installed in your system, if you want to use lftp, you’ll probably have to install it yourself.

Mac users that prefer grapical clients can use something like CyberDuck. See http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/25661/whats-a-good-graphical-sftp-utility-for-os-x .

Time to log in!

Try to log in following the instructions in Connect to control the machine.