Alma8 Frequently Asked Questions

The short answer is: yes, it can. A change in operating system means that there will be a change in the underlying libraries, which may impact code execution and results.

Users should test and verify that their codes are producing the expected results on AlmaLinux 8. These can change results, so users need to be sure to test and validate their codes.

RCS provides a Singularity container to run jobs and programs using the CentOS 7 environment. This provides the exact set of modules, filesystem, and system libraries that were available on the SCC under CentOS 7. 

No, this does not affect the OnDemand experience at all. However, we have decided to take this time to also apply an upgrade of the OnDemand version, and with that the appearance and layout has improved.

No. The behavior of and ways of interacting with the SCC are unchanged.

The change in operating system means that some software packages no longer work. See the full list of software modules that have been retired. If you need a particular software package and/or version, please submit a software request.

No. This transition has no affect on your files, projects, or how data is stored.

If you were using the anaconda2 or anaconda3 modules, you will have seen a message about their retirement. Please see our page for details and instructions.

On CentOS 7 the python3/3.8.10 module was the default python3 version, so “module load python3” loaded Python 3.8.10. The current default python3 module on Alma8 is “python3/3.10.12” with up-to-date libraries. Due to the version change from 3.8 to 3.10 any Python libraries you installed (typically with pip) or virtual environments won’t work if you had not been specifying the version number when loading the python3 module. To fix this you just need to specify the previous default version: “module load python3/3.8.10“, or in OnDemand specify “python3/3.8.10“.

If the icons on the bottom panel of your OnDemand desktop look cropped or “squished” like this:

you can fix them by following these instructions: do a right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) on the icons and choose “Panel Preferences”:

In the window that opens, where it says “Row size (pixels)” click the – and then the +. This forces a resize of the panel which reformats the icons to the proper size.

Finally, close the Panel Preferences window.