Getting Started
Using the workstations in the lab
The computer labs are ET 213 and ET 214.
You can enter through ET 239 when it is open or use the code for the keypad lock
given out in class.
Move the mouse around to get the login screen on one of the computers.
Logging in
The machines in this lab make up a cluster called onyx.
You will be asked
for your login name and then for your password. Type these carefully, or the computer
won't recognize you. Both are case sensitive. Don't forget to terminate
your input with an enter (carriage return), by pushing the enter key. In
general, after you type a command you have to push the return key to indicate
that the input is ready for processing.
Working with Linux
Logging out
Make sure you are completely logged out before you leave the lab. Select
the lock/logout item from the Red Hat menu or the logout icon in the panel at
the bottom of the screen.
(Someone else could come along and trash your files if you don't.)
The login screen should reappear.
Note: Typing exit will close an xterm
window but it does not log you out.
If you don't log out completely, the next person to use the terminal can
do anything they want to your account.
Changing your password
If you think your assigned password is too hard to remember, you can change
it. To keep your account secure, your password should not be an English
word and it should have at least one number mixed in with the letters.
A mixture of upper and lower case also makes it harder to guess. Use the
passwd command. The interaction will look like the following:
[uname@onyx uname]$ passwd
Changing password for uname
(current) UNIX password:
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
Internet access
You have Mozilla available on onyx if you need web access while you are
in the lab. (for getting assignments and handouts, e.g.) To
open Mozilla and leave your terminal window accessible, click the world
icon in your menu bar if you have one or type
netscape &
By default, Mozilla caches the pages that you have looked at. If you
find that your quotas for either disk space or number of files are getting too
tight, you can turn caching off by doing the following:
-
Go into Mozilla's Edit menu and selecting Preferences.
-
Click on the arrow next to Advanced and select Cache.
-
Make the number in the Disk cache field 0. (You could also click on "Clear
Disk Cache" to make sure the cache is empty.)
For transferring files between onyx and other machines use a secure copy program
Remote Sessions
Logging in
You can access onyx remotely using the secure shell protocol.
-
From Windows: Do one of the following.
-
Download, install and run the secure shell software (available
from http://www.ssh.com). This program can do both remote login and file
transfer.
-
Download and install the cygwin program.
-
From machines running Unix, Linux, DOS or other command line interfaces
- slogin username@host.boisestate.edu
- scp username@host.boisestate.edu:directory/file localDestination
- scp localFile username@host.boisestate.edu:directory/
-
Macintosh: Use the terminal program that comes with OS X which is basically a
Unix shell program and has slogin
for logging in and scp for transferring files. For earlier versions of the
operating system, you can download MacSSH and MacSFTP.
Transferring Files
If you develop your programs on another machine, you will need to secure copy
your files to your BSU computer account for submission. See the discussion of
Secure Shell programs above.
Logging out
Either exit will log you out of a remote session.