or any other computer running Unix, for that matter. Turning these computers off without executing the proper shutdown procedure can cause damage to everyone's files, including your own. Additionally, other people may be using the computer remotely at the same time you are using it, and turning the machine off is sure to anger those people. If you are ever tempted to turn one of these computers off, read the section titled When You Encounter Problems below. If that doesn't help, contact Dr. Bui or Dr. Null. If no help is available, simply leave the computer alone and use a different one if necessary. Report the problem to one of the people listed above as soon as possible.
IMPORTANT: When you finish using one of the Suns, be sure to log out (see the section titled Logging Out below). Otherwise, anyone can sit down at the computer you just left and access and modify your files, send harrassing email as you, and so on.Unless reserved for a class or seminar, the Sun Workstation Lab is available as long as the Olmsted Building is open to individuals having a valid Sun account and Sun Lab access (available via your PSU Id card which must be activated by the staff assistant).
The machines are on 24 hours a day and available for console and remote access, with the exception of applying patches to the machines. Applying patches to the machines is performed late Sunday morning to early Sunday afternoon. After patches are applied, the machines are rebooted. You should plan your work accordingly. The machines may not be available for other reasons, such as power outages, hardware or software failures, etc. If the reason the machine(s) will be unavailable is known ahead of time (with the exception of applying patches), an email will be sent to the mailing list.
The following discussion (except for running web browsers) applies whether you are accessing these computers via ssh or are actually sitting at one of the workstations. If you are sitting at the workstation, the discussions below assume you are using the Java Desktop System. At the login prompt, there is an "Option" menu. On that menu is a "Session" option, where you can set your desktop session to Java Desktop System or Common Desktop Environment (CDE). We recommend you use Java Desktop System since CDE is being phased out on Solaris OS. Once you set your session, you can save it (when you log out), which will set the "User's last session" option.
After logging in for the first time, open a terminal window and execute the command:
ls(type the command in the terminal window and then hit the Return key). This will display the files you currently have in your personal directory. You will see the files
local.login and local.profile.
As long as you haven't asked for the Bourne or Korn shell,
you can safely delete the local.profile file. You can also
delete the local.login file if you wish:
rm local.login rm local.profileUnlike PCs, there is no simple way to recover a file once it has been deleted. If you do delete something you needed, it may have been backed. Backups are not performed regularly on this system, so do NOT rely on this backup system. Contact one of Dr. Bui or Dr. Null to check if a file can be restored in this way.
If you execute the command:
ls -ayou will see additional files
.cshrc and .profile.
As you learn more about Unix (and Solaris), you may want to modify these
files to customize your account. For the moment, you can see the contents
of these files using the cat command, for example:
cat .cshrcIf these files ever become damaged, you can restore them by copying new ones from the directory
/etc/skel. After copying a new
.cshrc, you need to execute it (using the source
command) to put the customizations it contains into effect. For example:
cp /etc/skel/local.cshrc ~/.cshrc source ~/.cshrc
The next thing to do is to read the policy on acceptable uses of these computers. If you are reading a paper copy of this document, start a web browser by clicking either firefox or mozilla from the Launch menu on the lower left corner of your desktop or by executing:
firefox&or
mozilla&in the terminal window. If you have modified your
.cshrc file,
you may have to enter:
/usr/local/bin/firefox&or
/usr/local/bin/mozilla&instead. When the browser window appears on your screen, visit the following url:
http://cs.hbg.psu.edu/misc/ethics.htmlAfter reading and understanding the policy, you can exit the browser by using the left mouse button to select Quit from the File menu in the upper-left hand corner of the netscape window. Email questions or concerns about this policy to admin@turing.hbg.psu.edu
See Basic Unix Commands for a brief description of more useful Unix commands.
Return to Table of ContentsAll of the following discussion applies only when you are actually sitting at one of the workstations.
In general, the left mouse button is used for selecting, the middle button is for adjusting, and the right button is for bringing up menus. Some specific tips:
If you are logged in remotely via ssh, simpy type
logoutor hit ^D (otherwise known as control-D). If you are sitting at one of the workstations, the process may be a bit more complicated. If you have opened multiple windows (see the next section of this document), you can exit from all of them and log out by selecting Log Out from the Launch menu on the lower left corner of your desktop. This will open up a confirmation dialog, in which you will find an option for Save current setup. Check this option if you want the currently open windows on your desktop to reappear in the same configuration when you log back in next time. For example, if you three terminal windows open when you logout, those windows will appear (in the same location) when you log back in. Alternatively, use the mouse and left mouse button to navigate among the windows and execute the exit or quit command from File menu in each window. When you have successfully logged out, the screen will turn black and eventually the login window will reappear. Return to Table of Contents
All of the following discussion applies only if you are actually sitting at one of the workstations.
There are three ways to open additional terminal windows on your screen.
gnome-terminal&or
xterm&
As described in section Logging Out, you can switch between windows by clicking in the desired window with the left mouse button. To close a terminal window, either enter:
exitor hit ^D while in it. Return to Table of Contents
All of the following discussion applies only if you are actually sitting at one of the workstations.
The Sun Solaris operating system includes a file browser much like those found in the MacOS and Windows environments. The file browser can be started in a number of ways:
The file browser associates a program with each type of file. For example, double clicking with the left mouse button on a text file icon will bring that file up in a text editor. You can quit the file browser by selecting close from the File menu. Use the man pages as described in section Getting Help to find more information on the file manager.
Return to Table of ContentsThe following describes the proper procedure for using external storage media on the Sun machines. Not following these instructions may cause the current and subsequent media to become unusable.
Mounting USB/CD/DVD
Insert your device. An icon for your device will appear on the desktop
when the device is successfully mounted. You can doule click the icon
to open a file browser or other program associated with your device.
You may then copy files to and from this device using drag and drop.
Unmounting a Floppy
Click the right mouse button on the icon of your device to bring up
a popup menu. Select Eject from the popup menu. After a few seconds,
the icon will disappear from the desktop when your device is successfully
unmounted. You may now safely remove your device from the machine.
NOTE: If the device icon does not disappear from the desktop or if you get a message saying the device is busy, that means you are currently using the directory somewhere and you need to change out of the directory.
As a precaution against having your disk corrupted by the previous user improperly dismounting his or her floppy, it is strongly recommended that you give your device a volume name when you format it.
Return to Table of ContentsFour text editors are available to you:
emacs and vim have the built-in tutorials you can follow. To access emacs tutorial, open an emacs window by executing the command:
emacs&and type Ctrl-h t (that is control key and h at the same time, followed by t) inside the emacs window. For vi tutorial, execute the following command:
vimtutorReturn to Table of Contents
All of the following discussion applies whether you are accessing these computers via ssh or are actually sitting at one of the workstations.
Most importantly, NEVER print an executable file -- that is, an a.out file or any other file produced by compiling a program. This files are extremely large and contain no intelligible information when printed.
To print a postscript file or text to one of the B/W laser printers in the lab, enter the command:
lp filename
where filename is the name of the file you want to print. A
postscript file will usually have a .ps extension. Many
applications (notably web browsers and Adobe Acrobat) produce/print postscript
files. You should not have to change anything in the default configuration of
these applications to print correctly.
You can also convert a text file to a postscript file and then print it using the enscript command. This allows you to format a text file nicely. For example, the following:
enscript -fCourier8 -2rG filename
will print the text file filename in an 8 point Courier font (-fCourier8), two columns (-2), landscape (-r), gaudy mode (filename, date, etc... at top of page) (-G) to the printer as a Postscript file.
If you change your mind about printing a particular file, use the command:
lpstat -a
to get a listing of all pending print jobs, and then the command:
cancel pid
where pid is your print job id number.
If the job has already started to print,
you need to cancel your job at the printer by pressing the orange cancel button.
All of the workstations in the Sun lab can be accessed via ssh and
sftp. (SSH and SFTP are available for download at the ITS.)
This is useful for working from a remote location, or for those times
when all seats at the workstations are in use. The PCs
in the campus labs have ssh installed. Select the Start menu, then Programs,
and then (probably) security (ITS changes the folders periodically).
Any of the following Sun lab machine names can be used.
If you are sitting at a computer and need to leave for less than five minutes,
it is acceptable to secure your account by locking the computer. This is
done in one of the following ways:
Access via SSH and SFTP
alpha lab: Sun Ultra 24 (CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600, 3.33GHz)
courant@hbg.psu.edu
dijkstra@hbg.psu.edu
galois@hbg.psu.edu
hardy@hbg.psu.edu
noyce@hbg.psu.edu
nygaard@hbg.psu.edu
perlis@hbg.psu.edu
shannonulam@hbg.psu.edu
wilkinson@hbg.psu.edu
zeno@hbg.psu.edu
zorn@hbg.psu.edu
beta lab: Sun Ultra 24 (CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600, 3.33GHz)
ada@hbg.psu.edu
alonzo@hbg.psu.edu
babbage@hbg.psu.edu
borg@hbg.psu.edu
cantor@hbg.psu.edu
cray@hbg.psu.edu
dahl@hbg.psu.edu
eckert@hbg.psu.edu
erdos@hbg.psu.edu
euclid@hbg.psu.edu
euler@hbg.psu.edu
fermat@hbg.psu.edu
fourier@hbg.psu.edu
frege@hbg.psu.edu
gauss@hbg.psu.edu
godel@hbg.psu.edu
grace@hbg.psu.edu
hamming@hbg.psu.edu
hilbert@hbg.psu.edu
noether@hbg.psu.edu
pascal@hbg.psu.edu
peano@hbg.psu.edu
riemann@hbg.psu.edu
wilkes@hbg.psu.edu
zermelo@hbg.psu.edu
As some of these computers will be out of service at times, try several
before concluding that none are accessible.
Locking a Computer
After you execute one of the above commands, a screen saver will appear on
the monitor. When you return, remove the lock by pressing Return
and then entering your password.
If use of xlock becomes problematic (i.e. if computers are consistently locked for long periods of time), the xlock command will be removed. System administrators reserve the right to remove a lock and log the user out whenever necessary.
Return to Table of ContentsThe following discussion of man and info applies whether you are accessing these computers via ssh or are actually sitting at one of the workstations.
If you know the name of the command you need more information on, enter:
man command-name
Some commands will also have additional information available in the form
of info documentation. This can be accessed by entering:
info command-name
or
/usr/local/bin/info command-name
If no info documentation is available, then info
will display
the relevant man pages, so always using info is a
good strategy. To see the tutorial on using info, enter:
infoand then hit h to bring up help on info.
If you want to see a list of commands relating to a particular topic, enter:
man -k topic
When all other sources of help fail, ask Drs. Bui or Null.
Return to Table of ContentsRemember that turning the power off and on never helps when a program locks your screen or some other mishap occurs. All that turning the computer off will accomplish is annoying anyone else who was using it and (likely) damaging the file system. Please read the following before asking for help.
If a power surge occurs while you are sitting at one of the workstations and it loses power, it will often be able to restart itself when power returns. This process can take as long as five minutes or more, so be patient. Eventually, the login window should reappear so that you can log back in and continue working. If the computer can not restart itself, contact Dr. Bui or Dr. Null for assistance. You will be logged out when a power surge occurs, and so your account is secure even if help is not available.
If you are logged in via ssh and a power surge occurs, your connection will be broken. You won't be able to ssh back in until the computer has restarted, which can take five minutes or more as noted above.
The following discussion applies whether you are accessing these computers via ssh or are actually sitting at one of the workstations, except that you may not have to use a separate ssh session if you are sitting at one of the workstations.
If a program you are using crashes, you may get an error message like:
segmentation fault, core dumpedIn that case, just remove the core file from the directory you ran the program in (unless you need it for debugging):
rm coreand then continue with whatever you are doing.
If a program you are using locks up a window or your entire screen, do the following:
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