Important Note:

Approved Software Only!

All software, including user installed software in userspace, is subject to UM system policy. UM system Business Policy Manual (BPM) 12004 states that all software must be reviewed and approved by IT. S&T IT provides the ITAM application as a method to request IT software review. Note: Software collections can be entered as one submission for approval.

Userspace Python Environments

On the campus Linux build, the default python environment cannot be modified by users. If you need specific python packages, you must create a virtual environment. Inside this environment, you will be allowed to install packages as a normal user.

Using Python venv

Using a python virtual environment will allow you to install python modules.

First, create you python virtual environment using
python3 –m venv ~/name

You can then activate your environment. This will need to be done every time you open a new shell.

source ~/name/bin/activate

Inside your python environment you can now install python modules using pip. For example, to install Numpy you would run

pip install numpy

Using Conda

Using conda will allow you to install system packages as well as python packages.

These directions are written using Anaconda, which is already approved for use on campus. The directions can be modified to use another flavor of conda, like miniconda (also approved for campus use).

In your home directory, open a terminal. Download anaconda with the command
curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-x86_64.sh

After the download completes, run the installer with
bash ~/Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-x86_64.sh

You will have to agree to the terms of service and choose an installation location, for which the default location is fine.

The installer will ask if you want to initialize conda. This will modify your shell so that every time you open a terminal you will be placed in the base conda environment. If you do not want this, you may say no and manually enter the base conda environment using

source ~/anaconda3/bin/activate

Assuming you installed in the default location. You should see (base) appear to the left of your terminal command line to indicate you are now in the base conda environment.

You may now create a conda environment using

conda create -n name

Once you have created the environment, you can activate is using
conda activate name

You should see (name) to the left of your terminal command line to indicate that you have entered the environment. In your environment, you can use conda commands to install packages. For example, if you wanted to install CUDA toolkit 12.8, you could run

conda install cuda=12.8.1 -c nvidia/label/cuda-12.8.1

Conda can also install python packages as well; Numpy could be installed using

conda install numpy

These packages will now be available while in your conda environment.