faq News

John Koch

Q. Where do I go to get a username or if I forget my password?

John Koch
A. If the account is on wilkes, call the help desk (408-HELP). If the account is for mathcs, you need to see one of the network managers (students) for mathcs.

John Koch

Q. How do I get emacs to auto indent Java and Python programs?

John Koch
A. Add this to the bottom of your ~/.emacs file

(add-hook 'python-mode-hook '(lambda ()
      (local-set-key (kbd "RET") 'newline-and-indent)))
 
(add-hook 'java-mode-hook '(lambda ()
      (local-set-key (kbd "RET") 'newline-and-indent)))

John Koch

Q. What do I do if Firefox has a greyed out back button?

John Koch
A. Usually, this occurs when something in your Firefox directory is messed up. Go to your home directory and remove ".mozilla":

John Koch

dogbert > rm -r .mozilla

John Koch

Q. What do I do if my mathcs account is out of space?

John Koch
A. Usually, this occurs when your Firefox cache is too large. You can reset its size smaller in the Preferences for Firefox. To delete your cache from the terminal, go to "~/.mozilla/firefox" and look for a large directory containing the cache. You can do

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dogbert> du | sort -n

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which will list your files and directories in increasing size. This will allow you to see which directory is the largest and where there might be a large file created by a runaway program.

John Koch

To check your quota, you can type the following command on dogbert:

John Koch

dogbert % quota
Disk quotas for user XXXXXXXX (uid XXXXX):
     Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
/dev/mapper/system-home_lv
                  62748   92160  102400            2644    7000    8000

John Koch

If there is an asterisk after the number of blocks, e.g.:

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dogbert % quota
Disk quotas for user XXXXXXXX (uid XXXXX):
     Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
/dev/mapper/system-home_lv
                  62748*  46080   51200            2644    3000    4000

John Koch

...it means the user is over quota.

John Koch

We have had many problems with quota over the past few weeks, which I have linked to the new "Places" feature in Firefox 3, which was installed over the summer in SLC 404 only (not 409). In the past, I had recommended that people lower their Firefox quotas from 50MB to something around 5-10MB. However, Firefox 3 uses "places" for their location bar which indexes page titles, urls, etc., so that if I type "wilkes" in it, it will list any URL in my history or bookmarks that had wilkes in the URL or title of the HTML document. In the past, typing "wilkes" would only go to any URL I had previously visited that started with wilkes. All of these keywords are indexed in what accumulates to be a very large sqlite database file (over the past three weeks, mine has accumulated to over 56 MB). This file does NOT count as the limit set in user preferences for caching for caching, and it appears that setting a lower threshold for history, or even clearing your history, has no affect on file for caching purposes.

John Koch

We are trying to find a way to disable this in Firefox. However, again, please check your quotas, and if they are close, we can raise it for you.

John Koch

If you are in lab and students have quota issues, the immediate fix is to do the following:

John Koch

dogbert % cd
/home/mathcs/users/admins/wagnerja
dogbert % cd .mozilla/firefox/
/home/mathcs/users/admins/wagnerja/.mozilla/firefox/
dogbert % ls
profiles.ini  smowwny2.default
dogbert % cd smowwny2.default
/home/mathcs/users/admins/wagnerja/.mozilla/firefox/smowwny2.default
dogbert % rm urlclassifier2.sqlite
dogbert % rm uriclassifier3.sqlite

John Koch

Note that, in my case, the profile directory was "smowwny2.default". The "smowwny2" is randomly generated the first time a user runs Firefox, but will always end in ".default".

John Koch

Q. What do I do if it says Firefox is running on another computer?

John Koch
A. Usually, this occurs when you have left Firefox running and still logged in on another computer. Sometimes, it is because Firefox crashed previously. Go to "~/.mozilla/firefox" and look for a file whose name contains "lock" or "parentlock" (you might have to list the invisible files by doing "ls -al"). Delete that file and try Firefox again.

John Koch

Q. How does one type the choices in turnin on the command line so one doesn't have to keep typing them to redo turnin?

John Koch
A. Dr. Sullivan provided a solution to a question that was posed in lab yesterday by Kyle Hatcher. He asked if it was possible to enter the choices in turnin on the command line so you don't have to keep typing them to redo turnin. If you can do that, then you can use the up-arrow to find the line in your history and not have to type the entries again.

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Dr. Sullivan suggested:

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If this is the sequence you are going through for turnin:

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dogbert > turnin
The available courses are: 
     cs125
     cs126
     cs230
     cs326
Choose a course: cs125
The available assignments are: 
     PigLatin
     Pierre
Choose an assignment: Pierre
*** Compiling ***

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Simply type:

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dogbert > echo cs125"n" Pierre | turnin

John Koch

Q. How do I report a computer or printer in the lab that is not working?

John Koch
A. Call the help desk (408-HELP). Describe the problem and the location (or number on the monitor) of the malfunctioning equipment.

John Koch

Q. What page do I go to to submit my weekly questions?

John Koch
A. Click on "Questions" in the navigation bar. Then choose Submit Questions for your section.

John Koch

Q. How do I download everyone's weekly questions?

John Koch
A. Click on "Questions" in the navigation bar. Then choose Download Questions. The browser will bring up a dialog about an "Unhandled File Type". Choose "Save File As..." and name the file with a ".txt" suffix since it is a plain text file. You can open it with a text editor (like NotePad, WordPad, SimpleText or BBEdit ) or use a word processor (like Microsoft Word).

John Koch

Q. How do I forward my email from my wilkes or mathcs account to another email account (like hotmail or AOL)?

John Koch
A. ITS won't let you forward the email. However, some students using Gmail have had it access their wilkes email via pop.

John Koch

Q. How many passwords do I have?

John Koch
A. You have a password to read your wilkes email and another to get into the mathcs computers. You also use the wilkes email password to login to the course site.

John Koch

Q. How do I change my mathcs password?

John Koch
A. There is a page describing Changing your mathcs password.

John Koch

Q. How do I change my wilkes email password?

John Koch
A. Go here to change your email password:

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http://mywilkes.wilkes.edu/

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(link under the User Name and Password boxes: Wilkes Online Change/Expired Password Utility)

John Koch

Q. How do I change my course.wilkes.edu password?

John Koch
A. By changing your wilkes email password, your course.wilkes.edu password will also change. Go here to change passwords:

John Koch

http://mywilkes.wilkes.edu/

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(link under the User Name and Password boxes: Wilkes Online Change/Expired Password Utility)

John Koch

Q. Can I make both my passwords the same?

John Koch
A. Yes.

John Koch

Q. What happens if I forget my course.wilkes.edu password?

John Koch
A. You must call the help desk (see above, first question).

John Koch

Q. Can I use my AOL or hotmail email address to log into the course.wilkes.edu site?

John Koch
A. No, all accounts on course.wilkes.edu are set up using only wilkes email addresses (they all end with "@wilkes.edu").

John Koch

Q. Using Windows XP in SLC 409

John Koch

Starting with the Spring 2009 semester, we have upgraded to Windows XP and implemented it inside VirtualBox in SLC 409.

John Koch

Logging In

John Koch

To use Windows, log in under Ubuntu with the account...

 
Username:  windowsuser  
Password:  guest

After logging in, Windows will automatically start to load within 10 seconds.

John Koch

Logging Out

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To logout, shut down Windows by going to "Start", "Turn Off Computer", and then "Turn Off ". Once Windows shuts down, log out of Ubuntu by going to "System", "Quit...", and then "Log Out".

John Koch

Accessing Files on dogbert

John Koch

Because the logins to Windows are not authenticated with Math/CS subnet usernames and passwords, dogbert home directories are no longer automatically mounted as the H: drive. To access files on dogbert, open the "dogbert" icon on the desktop. You will be prompted for your username and password, which will then open a window. Click the folder with your username to go to your home directory.

John Koch

Using a Flash Drive

John Koch

To use a flash drive, insert it into a USB port on the front of the machine. Then, hit RightControl + Home. This will bring up a popup menu. Select "Devices", "USB Devices", and then check the USB device. To remove a flash drive, follow the same steps, except you will want to uncheck the USB device.

John Koch

Using a CD

John Koch

To use a CD, insert it into the disc tray on the machine. Then, hit RightControl + Home. This will bring up a popup menu. Select "Devices", "Mount CD/DVD-ROM", and then click the CD/DVD device. To remove a CD, select "Devices", and then "Unmount CD/DVD-ROM".

John Koch

Resetting Windows

John Koch

In the past, DeepFreeze froze the machines and they were reset every time Windows was restarted. Under the new setup, every morning at 4:00am, the virtual machines will be reset. Thus, any documents, files, programs, etc., that were created during the day will be lost.

John Koch