Operating Systems at DESY
The various FLC hosts run several operating systems:
Ubuntu LTS (Long-term-support)
Since 2010 DESY IT offers a 'best-effort' support for Ubuntu installations on desktops. With minor midifications and additions, ubuntu systems are seemlessly incorporated into DESY infrastructure (AFS, Printing, groups) etc and offer a modern and reasonably long-supported alternative to SLD.
Ubuntu 12.04 is the current supported version (till 2015). It offers modern Unity, KDE and Xfce as desktop environments and good multimedia support, as well as a whole bunch of up-to-date office and productivity software. However, as of now (mid-2013) one can't directly submit GRID/BIRD/NAF jobs from Ubuntu machines, neither there is a binary distribution of ILC software packages.
- Ubuntu 10.04 systems are out of support since April 2013.
More on DESY Ubuntu Linux flavours here
Scientific Linux flavours (RedHat Enterprise recompiled/rebranded)
DESY Scientific Linux 6 (SLD6) is currently in production, available in 64 bit version only. End of support in 2020. Runs on the central DESY cluster pal-sld6.desy.de and BIRD/NAF batch systems.
DESY Scientific Linux 5 (SLD5) is the current production version of Scientific Linux. It is available in 32 and 64 bit versions, the 32bit with less and less popularity (in particular, 32bit is not supported by GRID middleware anymore). End of support in 2017. Runs on the central DESY cluster pal.desy.de and BIRD/NAF batch systems.
DESY Scientific Linux 4 (SLD4) is the DESY flavour of Scientific Linux 4, which is in turn a modified variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. SLD4 is outdated and should not be used.
DESY Scientific Linux 3 (SLD3) is the predecessor of SLD4 – the DESY flavour of Scientific Linux 3, based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. SLD3 is long outdated and should not be used.
More on DESY Scientific Linux flavours (also installation and FAQs) here
DESY Linux flavours (SuSE based) - out of support
- DESY Linux 5 (DL5), based on SuSE Linux 8.2, is the predecessor of SLD3. It is outdated and computers running DL5 should be updated or replaced.
- DESY Linux 4 (DL4), based on SuSE Linux 7.2, is the oldest operating system which can be found on very few FLC computers. DL4 systems are not supported anymore by the DESY IT. For security resons, computers running DL4 must be updated as soon as possible.
More on the history of DESY Linux flavours here
For you as a user there should be only minor differences between the operating systems. However, you have to keep in mind that you should recompile your software if you’d like to run it under a different operating system because the systems use different compiler versions by default – if you forget this, you may get rather incomprehensible error messages or crashes. Furthermore, keep in mind that symbolic links which make use of the “@sys” mechanism in the AFS will take you to another destination (or may become invalid).