FAQ for the CSIF labs

1.1 Where is my user@cs.cudavis.edu email being sent?: If you are an undergraduate then your email is being forwarded to your campus account.
If you are not an undergraduate then your email is being sent to the CSIF mail server which has its email mounted on the systems in the CSIF inside of /var/mail/user. You can access this mail from the CSIF systems.
1.2 How do I forward my email?: Create a file called ".forward" in your home directory that contains the email address where you would like to forward your CSIF email. The easiest way to do this is by typing,
'echo email@address > ~/.forward'
Where email@address is the email address of where your CSIF email will be sent.
This will not work for undergrads because their email is forwarded to their campus account.
1.3 How do I check my CS email?: To check your CS email account, log in to any of the machines in the basement of EUII (either in person or remotely. Next, make sure that you are at a terminal window (a command prompt). Type "pine". This will open a common UNIX email reader. Type "i" to see an index of your current emails. For a complete pine tutorial, pick up a pine quick reference sheet from inside the printer room, room 083.
This will not work for undergrads because their email is forwarded to their campus account.
1.4 How much email can I store? (or Why is my email being removed?): If you have more than 2 MB of email stored in your CS account, it will be moved to your home directory. This is done to prevent the email server from getting too full, which would cause it to stop receiving email. This must be done right away (ie with no advanced warning!) because usually by the time that email was received the server would be too full already. In order to view the email that was moved in your home directory, you will have to change to pine setup configuration so that your "inbox-path" reflects the new location of your mail. You will have to change the path back when finished in order to see new mail. To do this, leave the "inbox-path" blank and pine will load the correct default path.

2. Printing

2.1 How can I print multiple pages on one sheet?: On any of the machines you can use the enscript command to print 2 pages on 1 sheet by typing the following command.
'enscript -2r filename' Where the options are 2 - for 2 pages on 1 page and -r for landscape..
Do not print PDFs or any binary files using these commands.
2.2 What types of files can I print with the lpr command?: You can print any ascii text file and postscript file with lpr.
2.3 How do I print latex files (files that end with tex)?: Prof. Matloff has a good page at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/LaTeX/HowToProcess.html.
2.4 How can I print from MaxPlus2?: Edit the file /home/username/windows/win.ini, so that Printer1=lpr "%s". Also, before printing in MaxPlus, outline the portion of the layout you wish to print.
2.5 How can I check my printer quota?: Your printer quota is printed on the header page that comes from each print job
2.6 How do I reset my printer quota: Bring in an unopened ream of printer paper along with the receipt to the CSIF Support room (Room 47). If its the end of the quarter and you don't want to bring in a whole ream, we can give you about 10 pages.
2.7 What do I do when the printers are out of paper?: Report to the assistant programmer on duty in room 047. He or she will take care of it promptly.
2.8 How do I print PDF files?: Because PDF files cannot be printed directly with
lpr, they must be opened with a PDF viewer, and then
printed with this program. Which PDF viewer to
use depends on which machine you are using at the moment:

PCs running linux - use acroread, Ex: acroread filename, OR use xpdf, Ex: xpdf filename
HPs and SGIs - use acroread, Ex: acroread filename

You can then print the PDF file from within these programs.
------------------------------------------------------------
Another option, if for some reason this
does not work, is to use the utility pdf2ps
Ex: pdf2ps

This will create an identical postscript file which can
then be printed using lpr.

3. Remote Computing

3.1 I have an internet connection, can I log in to the CSIF and do work?

Yes. We highly recommend that you use ssh (secure shell). You can get a Window's client from www.ssh.com and because you are using ssh for educational purposes it is free to use. Personal computers running Linux or Mac OS X come with ssh built in. Use the Terminal program to access it. The CSIF systems also respond to a telnet connection request so you can also use telnet but we highly recommend using ssh. See topic 3.7 below for more information on ssh.

Note, you can also connect graphically to a remote system using X Windows. See topic 3.4 below for more information.

3.2 I transferred a file from home to my CSIF account, but now there are ^M symbols at the end of each line.

This is because the line break character on Unix, Dos, and Macintosh systems are all different. You can use the dos2unix command to get rid of them.

3.3 How do I access the contents of a floppy disk?

Mtools is a set of utilities that helps you access a DOS disk in unix. For help with mtools, do a "man mtools".

To access a dos or unix disk with the Linux machines you can also mount the floppy disk.
For Dos/Windows formatted disks: mount /mnt/floppy
For linux formatted disks: mount /mnt/floppy2
When finished, unmount the disk by typing 'umount /mnt/floppy or umount /mnt/floppy2'

To tar/untar a minix disk use the following commands
Transfer files onto disk: tar cvf /dev/fd0 files
Extract files from disk: tar xvf /dev/fd0 files

3.4 How do I use graphical programs remotely?

You can setup your local computer to run GUI based programs remotely from another computer. For example, from a slow computer in the CSIF you could remotely login to a faster computer and launch Netscape, directing the faster computer to display the program on your slower computer. The same can be done from home (or other labs on campus) but only works well if you have a fast internet connection (ie, DSL or better). Some students have used this in ECS 175 to test graphics work at home.

Installing X Windows on your home computer:

Linux:

Windows:

Mac OS X:

Apple's X11 implementation

Setting up your Router/Firewall to work with X Windows:

If you are behind a firewall, you will need to set up your firewall to forward port 6000 to the IP address of your local computer. Most routers used with a DSL/cable connection also include a firewall, and most are configurable via a web interface. Note, this also applies to software firewalls.

Now that you have X Windows, you're ready to use it:

On your local computer, open a terminal window using an X Windows terminal client. Type xhost + hostname where hostname is the domain name or IP address of the remote computer you want to connect to. For example, xhost + pc35.cs.ucdavis.edu or xhost + 169.237.10.100
Obtain the IP address of your local computer (or domain name). Note, if you are using DSL behind a router, you probably want to provide the IP address of your router, not your local computer. Also, make sure that port 6000 is forwarded properly as mentioned above.
Connect to the remote computer you will be using with SSH, telnet, or rlogin (if you're already using a CSIF computer). See topic 3.7 for more information on SSH.
On the remote computer, type the command setenv DISPLAY hostname:0.0 where hostname is your local computer's (or router's) domain name or IP address.
If all went well, you should now be able to open remote programs. To test it, try typing xclock & or xlogo & on the terminal window you have connected to the remote computer with. This should open the graphical display on your local computer. Make sure you're typing into the correct session!

Troubleshooting:

If the above instructions don't work - primarily if you follow them and nothing happens, you probably have a problem with your router. Make sure it is set up to forward port 6000 as mentioned above.

3.5 How can I transfer files from home to my CSIF account or person to person?

One way is to email the files to your CSIF account as attachments. This works best when the files are small. You can also use a floppy disk. For more information check the "How do I access the contents of a floppy?" section of the FAQ. If you wish to transfer more files you can ftp the files. For more information check the "How to use FTP" section of the FAQ.

3.6 How to use sftp or ftp?

Type ftp or sftp and the remote system you are trying to connect to.
For example: ftp pc8.cs.ucdavis.edu
sftp pc8.cs.ucdavis.edu
You will then be prompted to login and to enter your password.
Here are several commands that you might find useful:

: cd directory_name :
: ls :
: mkdir directory_name :
: rm directory_name :
: del file_name :
: quit :
: get file_name :
: put file_name :
: lcd directory_name :

3.7 How do I use SSH from home?

SSH, or Secure Shell, allows you to connect to a remote computer in a secure, encrypted dialog. It is also for the remote DISPLAY abilities of xhost builtin.
In order to use ssh from home with Win 9x or Win 2k, go to: www.ssh.com and download the Windows client. This client should allow you to open an ssh sessions with the computers in the CSIF.

Most Linux and Mac OS X systems come with ssh in their normal distribution. You just need to type ssh hostname (within the terminal program).

3.8 How do I ssh to the pc's with SecureCRT?

To ssh to the pc's with SecureCRT, set the ssh server setting to "standard server".

3.9 Can I compile programs at home?

Yes! C, C++, and Java compilers exist for most major operating systems. When working at home, make sure that your programs will run on the CSIF computers since most classes will only grade your programs if they run properly in the CSIF.

If you use Linux at home, your distribution probably came with gcc, g++, and javac which you should be able to use for most of your work.

If you use Windows at home, you can either run Linux in addition to Windows (see Prof. Matloff's Linux tutorial), visit www.gnu.org to find free compilers, or purchase a commercial compiler. Linux is the recommended method however since it's free and will be similar to what we use in the labs.

If you use Mac OS X at home, you may have received a free Developer Tools CD with your OS. This CD includes everything you need to program from home - gcc, javac, perl, a nice IDE, etc. If you don't have the Developer Tools CD, since you are a student, you can download it for free. Go to developer.appple.com and sign up for a free ADC (Apple Developer Connection) student account. This will allow you to download the entire Developer Tools CD for free.

4. Access Information

4.1 How do I login?: The login program prompts for two pieces of information: userID and password. A user must know both of these to enter the system. If you have forgotten either your userID or password, stop by room 047 with your student ID card. For new users, a list of userIDs (indexed by surname) can be found in a glass case across from room 083 in the EUII basement.
4.2 What do I do if I forget my password?: If you have forgotten your password, stop by room 047 with your student ID card and a new password will be issued for your account.
4.3 How do I change my password?: From any CSIF machine type 'yppasswd'. The program will prompt you for your current password, then the new password you wish to have. If you need assistance, please stop by room 047 with your student ID card.

5. Personal Home Pages

5.1 How do I setup a website in the CSIF?

First, create a directory called public_html in the top level of your home directory. Any HTML, graphic, or downloadable file must reside under this directory.
1. mkdir ~/public_html
Next, you must make the path to your public_html world readable.
1. chmod a+x ~/.
2. chmod 755 ~/public_html
If you add pages or files to your website in the future, you will have to make them readable as well.
1. chmod 644 filename

5.2 What is my webpage address or URL?

http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~your-user-id

6. Unix Help

6.1 How do you set permissions on Files/Directories: Use the "chmod" command to change the permission on a file or directory. There are three different permission environment where you can set. They are owner/group/others respectively. In each environment, you will be able to give read, write, or executable attributes.
Here are the octal numbers for the permission attributes:
: 7 => [rwx] read, write, and executable
: 6 => [rw-] read and write
: 5 => [r-x] read and executable
: 4 => [r--] read only
: 3 => [-wx] write and executable
: 2 => [-w-] write only
: 1 => [--x] executable only
6.2 Where can I find general unix help on the web?: Try These: linuxnewbie.org
UNIX Reference Desk
Unix is a Four Letter Word...
A Good Set of Unix Help Links

7. Important Locations

7.1 Where is the TA's room located?: The TA's room is located in Room 53 in the basement of EUII.
If you go in front of the Computer Science Main Office, which is located on the second floor of the EUII building, you will be able to see a list of the TA's offices on the bulletin board.

8. General Problems

8.1 My computer froze, what do I do?: If a lab computer you are using freezes, please come to the CSIF Support Office and inform us which computer
is having the problem. Please DO NOT
reboot the computer! Other people may be logged
on and we have methods by which to deal with
your problem without disrupting other people's
sessions.