Citizen Science Project on Hive: Re: Detector effects and event reconstruction

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I actually almost gave up at this point but my persistency and perseverance paid off eventually. Ok, so this is my report on the latest task with respect to @lemouth's led [citizen science project on Hive](https://peakd.com/@lemouth/towards-a-citizen-science-particle-physics-research-project-on-hive). For those that are wondering, below are the various tasks for the project so far. Anyone, irrespective of their background is still free to join the project and publish their reports using the hashtag #citizenscience for proper documentation. - Task 1: [Citizen science particle physics project on Hive - Let’s get started!](https://peakd.com/@lemouth/citizen-science-particle-physics-project-on-hive-let-s-get-started) - Task 2: [Citizen science on Hive - simulating top quark production at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider](https://peakd.com/hive-196387/@lemouth/citizen-science-on-hive-simulating-top-quark-production-at-cern-s-large-hadron-collider). - Task 3: [Citizen science on Hive - detector effects and event reconstruction](https://peakd.com/hive-196387/@lemouth/citizen-science-on-hive-detector-effects-and-event-reconstruction) Below is my own report on task 3. It was a bumpy road that required several restarts but I was eventually able to pull through after a series of debugging and searching through the web. The first thing was to clone madanalaysis 5 using the command `git clone https://github.com/MadAnalysis/madanalysis5` in a new terminal tab. It was at this point I ran into the first glitch telling me that I don't have 'git' installed on my virtual machine. I had to use the command `sudo app install git` before getting a headway.   Next was to enter the downloaded madanalysis directory by using the code `cd madanalysis5` and starting the program with `./bin/ma5`  Of course, I had to install matplotlib next as I never had this on the VM before now. I did this by running the code `sudo app-get install python3-matplotlib`. I think I ran into another snag here where I had to install python3 first using the code `sudo app install python-is-python3  Since I got a whim from @isnochys report that one can proceed without having to install pdf and latex, I decided to take the shorter route of not installing. It also saves me some internet data as well :). Hopefully, this won't come back to haunt me later in future tasks. Next was to install zlib and fastjet. Those two went without any fuss.  The part that took me days to get around is the physics path where top-antitop simulation is involved. I thought the problem initially was an incorrect file path but it was much more than that. I kept on trying different avenues to get around it and was finally able to do so after restarting this entire task 3 from the scratch (yes, I had to uninstall and reinstall all the packages multiple times).  I finally got lucky today. If you ask me the exact thing I did to fix the problem, I honestly might not be able to tell (I am certain the file path was not the problem as I copied that directly from a terminal code). All I know is that after several tries, I was finally able to pull through. Besides, I used the number in in my own simulation run the code `set ttbar.xsection = 505.491` (505.8 instead of 505.491)  Finally, it is time to open. Even though I was a bit anxious, the opening was smooth.  Although this took a bit of my time due to the various snags I encountered, I am loving the overall experience! See you all in a fortnight. Below are my reports for the previous assignments: - [Citizen Science Particle Physics Project on Hive: Solving some issues with Linux on Virtualbox](https://peakd.com/hive-196387/@gentleshaid/citizen-science-particle-physics-project-on-hive-solving-some-issues-with-linux-on-VirtualBox) - [Citizen science on Hive - Task 2 Report](https://peakd.com/hive-196387/@gentleshaid/citizen-science-on-hive-task-2-report)