1. The Sage Virtual Machine

This page describes how to use the virtual machine that you can download from http://www.sagemath.org/download-windows.html. If you want to create your own virtual machine, go to the VirtualBox wiki page instead.

1.1. Requirements

The Sage appliance (packaged virtual machine) can be used on any operating system that supports the free VirtualBox player, for example Microsoft Windows. Your computer must have at least 2.5 GB of free disk space and at least 512 MB of RAM. The virtual machine can also be used with other hypervisors like VMware. However, unless you are already familiar with VMware, we recommend that you use VirtualBox. In our experience, it is easier for non-technical users.

1.2. Installation

1. Download VirtualBox (available at http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads). Install it anywhere you want. Version 4 or later is required.

2. Download the file Sage-x.y.z.ova located in the directory where this README is.

3. Open VirtualBox. Import sage-x.y.z.ova by clicking File, then Import Appliance. Make sure you read the Information boxes that appear, as they explain how to type and use the mouse pointer in the running VirtualBox window.

4. If you only want to access Sage through the web browser notebook interface (i.e., to write or run worksheets), you do not need to complete any further installation. You may go on to the next section to find out how to use Sage.
5. If you want to enable shared folders between Sage and your Windows system, complete the following steps:

   1. In the running VirtualBox window, click Devices, then Shared Devices.

   2. Click on the icon with a green + in the upper right corner.

   3. Select the path of the Windows folder that you want to share.

   4. Check auto-mount and make permanent. Click OK, then click OK again.

   5. From the menu, select Machine, then Reset. The files will be in /media/sf_<volume name>.

1.3. Using the Sage Notebook

1. Start VirtualBox.

2. To start the Sage notebook server, power on Sage-x.y.z by selecting it and clicking 'Start'. (This may take awhile. You may see some warning messages you can safely ignore.)

3. Wait a few moments until the running VirtualBox window displays a message saying "Open your web browser to ..." Open your web broswer (it's best to use Firefox or Chrome) to the address specified.

4. If you would like other users to be able to create additional accounts on the same local virtual machine, you will first need to complete some further steps. See the advanced options section below.
5. When you are finished working with Sage, logout and close your browser

   as usual. In the running VirtualBox window, click Machine, then Close. Select Send the shutdown signal then click OK. You may now close VirtualBox.

1.4. Using the Sage shell

1. Start VirtualBox if you have not already done so.

2. Power on sage-x.y.z (if you have not already done so) by selecting it and clicking Start.

3. Once the virtual machine is powered on, press Ctrl C twice to quit the Sage notebook.

4. Type

   ./sage

   on the command line to start a shell interface in Sage.
5. To work with files attached in a shared folder (if you have shared folders enabled), type

   attach /media/sf_<volume name>/filename

   in the Sage command line session.

1.5. Troubleshooting

• If you experience problems, get free tech support by subscribing to the

  sage-support mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support

• Or login to the IRC channel #sagemath on irc.freenode.net.

• Or use http://ask.sagemath.org

2. Advanced Options

• You can log into the virtual machine from the text-mode console. Press Alt-F1 for a different tty. The user account running the Sage notebook server is called sage with password sage. The root account password is sage, too.

• Advanced users may want to note that the sage user is in the sudoers file now. You can run any command with administrative rights by sudo <command>.

• List available optional packages with the optional_packages() command and type install_package("exact package name") to install a package. You can do this from an input box in the notebook.
• Upgrading: To upgrade between stable releases, you can type the following at the command prompt:

  [sage@localhost sage]$ sage -upgrade
  ...
  takes a while 

  • This *will* merge your changes to /usr/local/sage/devel/ with the latest version of Sage and build everything. WARNING: This will use up more disk space and is *not* guaranteed to result in a working upgraded Sage installation.

2.1. Giving Others Access to the Sage Virtual Machine

You can run the Sage appliance as a server on the network, so that others can access it similar to [http://www.sagenb.org].

2. To allow for the creation of new users (other than 'admin') on your local

• virtual machine,
• Type 'cd', then hit 'Enter' b. Type 'nano .bash_profile' c. At the end of the line that begins with 'notebook', type ',accounts=True',
  • then hit 'Enter'.
  d. Type 'exit' e. This enables a link on the Sage notebook login in the web browser that
  • reads 'Sign up for a new Sage Notebook account'. Users can then click on the link and follow the instructions to create a new account.

== How to be a Sage developer (even more advanced) ==

Some Unix familiarity is assumed below. If you've never used anything but Windows, some of this won't make sense.

1. Change to the SAGE_ROOT directory:

   [sage@localhost directory]$ cd
   [sage@localhost ~]$ cd sage
   [sage@localhost sage]$ 

2. To actually edit files, you'll perhaps want to install the editor of your choice. For example, to install Emacs do this:

   [sage@localhost sage]$ sudo yum install emacs

   The nano editor is included.
3. Now type, for example,

   [sage@localhost sage]$ cd devel/sage/sage/rings/
   [sage@localhost rings]$ emacs arith.py
   [edit the file]

   or
   • [sage@localhost rings]$ nano arith.py [edit the file]
4. Save the file and type "sage -br" to build the changes and install them.
   • [sage@localhost rings]$ cd [sage@localhost ~]$ cd sage [sage@localhost sage]$ sage -br

• sage: Building and installing modified SAGE library files.
• ..

• | SAGE Version x.y.z, Release Date: .........