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CEU Accounts and Python Environment Setup
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ENV-SETUP.md

Accounts and Python Setup for the CEU MSc in Business Analytics

Welcome. Before teaching starts you need a working Python setup and additional software installed on your own laptop. This page walks you through it.

Do this before the setup session. Work through it on your own, and test it. Whatever is still broken, We will help you fix during that session.

Time needed: about 45–60 minutes, most of it waiting for downloads.

If you get stuck: try to resolve it with AI first. If that does not work, write to Ulrich Wohak WohakU@ceu.edu and you will get help during the session.

Any operating system is fine. Windows, macOS, and Linux are all fully supported.

Part 1 — Accounts and Software needed

You are installing four things and creating one account.

The terminal

The terminal (also called the command line, Terminal, or PowerShell) is a window where you type commands instead of clicking buttons. Most of this page consists of commands you copy and paste into it. It is already on your computer — you do not install it.

If you are not familiar wirt the Terminal application, go through these Youtube videos first:

In this doc you will see instructions like this:

uv --version

That means: type (or paste) it into the terminal, press Enter, and read what comes back.

uv — manages Python for you

uv is the tool that installs Python and every package a course needs, at the exact versions that course was built against. It is the only tool you need for this.

Do not use pip, conda, or Anaconda for these courses. uv gives each project its own private set of packages, so they cannot collide.

Python — installed automatically

Python is the language you will write in. You do not install Python yourself. uv downloads the correct version per project.

Git — tracks changes to code

Git records the history of a project: every change, who made it, and when. It runs locally on your laptop and lets you copy a project down from the internet, which is how you will get every course's materials.

GitHub — where the code lives

GitHub is a website that hosts Git projects. Course materials live there, and you will hand in some assignments through it. Git and GitHub are related but not the same: Git is the program on your computer, GitHub is the website your computer talks to.

A repository (or repo) is one project's folder on GitHub. Cloning a repo means downloading your own copy of it.

VS Code — where you write code

Visual Studio Code is the editor you will write and run code in. It also opens notebooks — documents that mix code, results, and text — which is the format most course materials use.

Your GitHub account

You need one account:

  1. Sign up at github.com/signup. Pick a username you are happy for an instructor to see. If you already have a GitHub Account, feel free to use that one; no signup needed in this case
  2. Add your CEU email as a second address, at Settings → Emails, and verify it. This is what links your account to the university.
  3. Turn on two-factor authentication at Settings → Password and authentication. GitHub requires it. Save the recovery codes somewhere safe — students lock themselves out of their account mid-term every year, and recovery codes are the way back in.
  4. Apply for the Student Developer Pack at education.github.com/pack as soon as you have your CEU ID in hand. It is free and gives you paid tooling for the duration of your studies. This step can wait until you have the ID; nothing else depends on it.

Checklist

Work down Part 2 and tick these off along the way:

  • uv installed — uv --version (in the terminal) prints a version number
  • Git installed — git --version (in the terminal) prints a version number
  • VS Code installed and opens
  • VS Code Python extension installed
  • VS Code Jupyter extension installed
  • GitHub account created
  • CEU email added and verified on the account
  • Two-factor authentication on, recovery codes saved
  • Course repos cloned and synced (Part 3)
  • The check prints SETUP OK in all five folders (Part 3)
  • Student Developer Pack applied for — once you have your CEU ID

Part 2 — Instructions for your operating system

Follow only the section for your own system, then continue to "Both extensions" at the end of this part.

Windows

Open PowerShell. Press the Start button, type PowerShell, and open Windows PowerShell.

1. Install uv

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Close PowerShell and open it again — this is required, the command will not be found until you do. Then check:

uv --version

2. Install Git

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

If winget is not available, download the installer from git-scm.com/downloads and accept the default options. Close and reopen PowerShell, then check:

git --version

3. Install VS Code

winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode -e --source winget

Or download it from code.visualstudio.com.

macOS

Open Terminal. Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.

1. Install uv

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Close Terminal and open it again, then check:

uv --version

2. Install Git

macOS ships with Git, but the first run may prompt you to install Apple's developer tools. Run:

git --version

If a dialog appears offering to install the command line developer tools, accept it and wait for it to finish. If nothing happens and you see a version number, Git is already there.

3. Install VS Code

Download from code.visualstudio.com, unzip it, and drag Visual Studio Code into your Applications folder.

Linux (Ubuntu or Debian)

1. Install uv

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Close and reopen the terminal, then check:

uv --version

2. Install Git

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git
git --version

3. Install VS Code

Download the .deb package from code.visualstudio.com and install it, or use your distribution's software centre.

Both extensions (all operating systems)

Open VS Code. Click the Extensions icon in the left sidebar (four small squares), then search for and install:

  • Python (published by Microsoft)
  • Jupyter (published by Microsoft)

Both are needed to run course notebooks.

Part 3 — Course repositories

Cloning every course repo now is the real test. It is also the point of doing this early: if something is going to fail, it fails here, in front of someone who can fix it, rather than in week one.

First, make a folder for them

Pick one place to keep all course materials.

macOS / Linux:

mkdir -p ~/ceu
cd ~/ceu

Windows PowerShell:

mkdir $HOME\ceu
cd $HOME\ceu

The repositories

Course Clone command
Coding 1 git clone https://github.com/ulrichwohak/Coding-1-Introduction-to-Python.git
Coding 2 git clone https://github.com/ulrichwohak/Coding-2-Python-for-Data-Analysis.git
Data Analysis 1 and 2 git clone https://github.com/gabors-data-analysis/da_case_studies.git
Data Visualization 1 git clone https://github.com/ulrichwohak/Python-Dataviz.git
Data Engineering 1 git clone https://github.com/zoltanctoth/ceu-cloud-class.git

For each repository

From inside your ceu folder, run the clone command for a course, then move into the folder it created and set up the environment:

git clone https://github.com/ulrichwohak/Coding-1-Introduction-to-Python.git
cd Coding-1-Introduction-to-Python
uv sync
cd ..

git clone downloads the materials. uv sync reads that project's lock file and installs the exact Python version and packages it needs — the first run takes a few minutes, later ones are fast. cd .. returns you to the ceu folder, ready for the next course.

Repeat for all five rows.

The check — run it in every folder

Straight after uv sync finishes in a folder, run this:

uv run python -c "import sys; from importlib.metadata import distributions; print('Python', sys.version.split()[0]); print('Packages', len(list(distributions()))); print('SETUP OK')"

You should get three lines. In the Coding 1 folder they look like this:

Python 3.12.13
Packages 124
SETUP OK

The Python version and the package count are different for each course, and that is exactly right: each course gets its own Python and its own packages, which is the whole reason we use uv. Do not worry about the numbers — what matters is the last line.

If you see SETUP OK in all five folders, your setup works. You are done.

If a folder gives an error instead, note which folder and what the error says, and bring that to the setup session.

Troubleshooting

uv: command not found or 'uv' is not recognized You did not close and reopen the terminal after installing. Do that first — it fixes this almost every time. If it persists, restart your computer.

git: command not found Same cause, same fix: reopen the terminal.

uv sync fails on one repo but works on others That repo has a problem, not your machine. Note which one, and move on.

Permission denied when installing on Windows Right-click PowerShell and choose Run as administrator, then try again.

Getting help

  1. Try to resolve it with AI.
  2. Still stuck? Write to Ulrich Wohak WohakU@ceu.edu.
  3. Bring it to the setup session - that is what it is for.

Come to the session having tried with a specific error message, if any.

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