Social Data Science

The Social Data Science VM

An easy to use virtual machine (VM) for teaching data science in the social sciences

Installation and setup

We tried to keep the installation process as simple as possible. You just need to follow these easy steps:

1. Install necessary tools

You first need to install install VirtualBox and Vagrant in order to setup and run the VM.

2. Prepare the VM

Start terminal

Preparing the VM requires to use the command line in a terminal window. This is a lot easier than it sound. To start a terminal you do the following:

  • Ubuntu Linux: Press command/Windows/Apple key > type terminal > hit enter
  • MacOS X: Press command/Windows/Apple key + space > type Terminal > double click Terminal in the results
  • Windows: Press command/Windows/Apple key > type cmd > hit enter

Create new directory

Now you need to create a new directory and navigate to it by typing the following commands into the terminal and hitting enter after each line:

Ubuntu Linux and MacOS X: 

mkdir ~/umasds-vm
cd ~/umasds-vm

Windows: 

mkdir %HOMEPATH%\umasds-vm
cd %HOMEPATH%\umasds-vm

Initialize the VM

As the last step of the setup you have to initialize the VM and tell the tools where to find the VM image file (called a box):

all operating systems: 

vagrant init http://bethm.de/umasds-vm/umasds-vm.box

3. Download and run the VM for the first time

The following step will take a considerable amount of time depending on the speed of your internet connection. To download and start up the VM you need to enter the following:

all operating systems: 

vagrant up

After a while your social data science desktop should come up and you can start crunching data!

4. Starting the VM

You can always start the VM by opening a terminal, changing to the umasds-vm directory and starting vagrant up manually, but if you want a more convenient way you can easily set up a shortcut on the desktop:

all operating systems:

  • Start the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager - much like you started the terminal above, just type in oracle instead
  • Do a right click on umasds-vm > click left on Create Shortcut on Desktop

... et voilà! Anytime you want to start the VM now you just need to double click on the umasds-vm icon (blue cube saying "vbox") on the desktop.

5. Stopping the VM

To stop the VM all you have to to is click on the shutdown icon (red square with white circle) in the lower right corner > click on Shut down.

Keeping up to date

The VM image you can download above will only be updated occasionally, e. g. for major changes. It is still highly advisable to update your installation on a regular basis in order to get bug fixes and security updates.

To easily get your system up to date you just have to start a terminal in your VM as shown above and enter:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

To update RStudio you start RStudio and simply click on Help > Check for Updates