Getting Started

New Users

Where else can I get help?
I/my PDRA/PG/vistor is new. How do I get an account?
I have a visitor staying for a few weeks
My_visitor_is_bringing_his/her_own laptop
What computing facilities are available across the University?
What computing facilities are available in Applied Mathematics?
Should I get an AM Unix network account?
How do I get an AM Unix network account?
How do I get a Novell PC account?
How do I get an account on Titania?
What machines should(n't) I connect to?
Help! I'm completely new to Unix!
How do I change my password?
Can't I have a simpler password?
So how do I remember my password?

New Machines

I want to buy a new PC
Should I get my computer security clamped?
I've got my computer clamped. What should I do with the key?
I've got a new PC/Mac and it's unpacked and running on my desktop. How do I connect it to the network?
I need a foreign power adaptor.

New Users

Where do I get help aside from in this manual?

• The University helpdesk!  Email helpdesk@shef.ac.uk or phone 21111.
• On Unix/Linux machines, always read the man (manual) page carefully for the command you are using. For example, to find out about lpr, type 'man lpr'. To find out about the manual, type 'man man'!
• Sun's answerbook (a set of on-line manuals) is available by typing 'answerbook2' in a Solaris terminal session. This gives you viewer and navigator windows. As well as the usual man pages, answerbook contains manuals for CDE, Programming, using Solaris, etc.
• On Windows machines, the help is your friend.
  
• Type 'idlhelp' at the terminal prompt in Solaris/Linux for idl help.
  
• We keep some paper manuals in H10a; e.g. there are Sun Fortran user guides here, but they may well be out of date.
• A number of utilities (e.g. TeX, gcc) are complicated enough to have their own substantial documentation. Where available, this can be found in /usr/local/docs. Some of these are huge (e.g. gcc > 800 pages), so check before printing out.
• Books: O'Reilly books are uniformly good and cover many Unix topics. Ian Staniforth's recommendation: For two of the best computing books ever written (and to absorb The Unix Way from some of it's original designers), seek out "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan & Ritchie, and "The Unix Programming Environment" by Kernighan & Pike. Richard Balthazor's recommendation for Unix/Linux users: Unix Power Tools, by Peek, O'Reilly and Loukides, O'Reilly
• Stumped with an obscure error message? Try looking it up on www.google.com, either directly (ie, search on the web) or in the Groups (an archive of the newsgroups).
• If you have no luck on any of the previous routes, then try your Scientific Officer. Please email me with a full description of the problem, including what machine you were on, what operating system it's running (I can't remember what OS every different machine in the department is running, sorry!), exactly you typed, what files you were using, what directory you were in, and what exact error message you got (where applicable). Please make sure you don't delete any of the files, or turn the machine off/switch it to another OS, or I can't reproduce the problem!

I/my PDRA/PG/visitor is new. How do I get an account?  What accounts are there?

Before you can do anything else, you must get a university account from CICS. This will allow you to log into a network PC, receive and send email through the mailhub, and print to several printers around the campus. You can do this by taking your U-card, and/or a letter from your supervisor, to the CICS building reception over the road. Whilst you're there, you may also want to get a RATS and/or VPN account to enable you to connect from home, and/or a gateway account to telnet (only) from home, and/or an account on the White Rose GRID machines. You should also tell CICS if you want incoming email (to your.alias@shef.ac.uk) to be directed to your PC/Novell account (the default) or to acms1 (where you can read it on the AM Unix network) Other options from CICS are accounts on gold and stoat (central Unix machines) and the White Rose grid (requires a letter from your supervisor if you are a PDRA or PG).

Checklist of things to get from CICS:

• PC/Novell account (record your account name, eg ap1xyz, for my use later)
• Your mail alias (eg j.bloggs@shef.ac.uk) - tell them where you want the mail directed to.
• gateway account (optional - allows you to telnet in from outside the uni)
• RATS account (optional - allows you to dialup the uni at local call rates)
• VPN account (optional - allows your computer to appear to be inside the uni if you connect from home via a commercial ISP)
• White Rose account (optional - an account on the high performance computers)

If you want further computing inside the department, please consider the following before you talk to  Richard Balthazor (G32, telephone 23711) or Dave Robson (telephone 23701)

You must fill in a user agreement form (click to download).

Sun Workstations: There are a number of Sun workstations running Solaris.   These are "owned" by groups within the department.  Ask your head of group if you can use one of these, or if one can be bought for you; if you can, ask for a Sun account.  You should be able to use (or willing to learn) *nix-based shell accounts.  You will not have root access to these machines.  There are a couple of Sun workstations that can be used by newcomers/visitors, but these are slow, and it would be preferable to get a GRID account.

Linux Workstations/ Dual Boot machines: There are a number of Linux workstations running (mostly) Red Hat.   These machines are "owned" by groups within the department. Ask your head of group if you can use one of these, or if one can be bought for you.  You should be able to use (or willing to learn) *nix-based shell accounts.  You will not have root access to these machines.   There are no (at the time of writing) spare Linux boxes.   Some of these Linux workstations are dual boot Windows XP machines.   If you have a Windows XP machine, you are expected to be "Administrator" for that machine, and keep it up to date, patched, and virus-free.   CICS will (and do) automatically block machines from the network when they become infected. 

Windows XP machines: There are a number of Windows XP only machines. If you have a Windows XP machine, you are expected to be "Administrator" for that machine, and keep it up to date, patched, and virus-free.   CICS will (and do) automatically block machines from the network when they become infected.

Managed Windows XP machines: If you don't want to bother keeping a Windows PC up to date with patches and virus-free, then you need a Managed XP machine.  This will give you no local storage and you cannot install local software, but all the usual stuff (Office - Word, Excel, etc, Netscape, Matlab, etc, etc) is installed.  All your data is stored on the Novell network account.

The SCEOS group and Lucy Wyatt's group have a number of self-administered Linux boxes that fall outside our remit. 

Checklist of things to get from AM:

• Applied Maths Solaris network account
• Individual accounts for Red Hat Linux machines
  
• AM printer access

I have a visitor staying for a few weeks.

At least a week efore your visitor arrives, please let Dave and myself know which room they are to be staying in, and specifically what computing facilities they will require - PC, operating system, access to specific software, etc.

When your visitor has arrived: you should send your visitor should go over to the CICS reception.  Either go as well (taking your U-card), or send a letter on departmental letterhead authorising their use of the facilities.  CICS will set them up with a short-term University account, including an email address.

You and your visitor must then jointly fill in a user agreement form (click to download).

This is to forfill legal requirements; we cannot set up user accounts without this.

Note that it is not absolutely necessary for your visitor to get a CICS username/password (and if not, that section in the user agreement form can be left blank/ignored).   However, if you do not, your visitor will have no local email account (ie, username@shef.ac.uk) and nor can email be sent to/from any local account here in Sheffield (although he/she can of course access remote webmail email accounts through a web browser, and potentially access remote POP3 or IMAP mail servers, although that very much depends on security settings at the remote site, which we have no influence over)

There is a departmental visitor computer room, G9, with two networked PCs; one running Windows XP (unmanaged) and one running Scientific Linux 3.0.4.  Both have access to the departmental printers.    It is not feasible to move these PCs to other offices.

There are also now four visitors'/general access computers in H10a - a Sun workstation running Solaris 5.7 and linked to the applied Solaris network, a P4 running Scientific Linux  and linked to the applied Linux network, a standalone Windows XP machine with a scanner and a CD burner, and a managed Windows XP machine.   Visitors will need a local username/password for the Sun and Linux machines, and a CICS Novell username/password for the two Windows machines.   If your visitor is likely to want to spend a lot of time on a Windows box, please note that the standalone Windows XP machine is for use by all the department for scanning and backups.

If your visitor requires other facilities you must let Dave and Richard know in plenty of time. 

If your visitor is bringing their own computer, please make sure that their computer is fully patched with all relevant security patches BEFORE it is connected to the network.  Connections must be made only with network cables supplied by Richard, Dave, or CICS.    And all computers MUST have English language installed and selected before we can troubleshoot them.

What computing facilities are available across the University?

The Department of Corporate Information and Computer Services manage a campus-wide network of PCs, with central facilities including printing, workstation computing, ftp and web space, a dialup service and a gateway/firewall service. You will need to register for any of the facilities on the campus network. Please note that you will be unable to use some of the facilities of the applied mathematics network if you do not register for the campus network.

What computing facilities are available in Applied Mathematics?

The Research groups that make up AM (SPARG, SCEOS, PC, AZ, etc) have networked a number of workstations under a common network server (that also serves Pure and Stats). The server (acms1) handles file requests, print services, backups, user space, email, ftp server, and connections to the 'outside world'. Above this hierarchy, incoming email filtering, a web cache, and an incoming telnet firewall are handled Corporate Information and Computer Services (CICS). This is shown schematically below; AM's computer resources are shown shaded.

For brevity, this document will refer to all variants of Unix (Unix, Linux, OSF, Irix, etc) as 'Unix'.

Should I get an AM Unix network account?

If you want to do numerical analysis, image and data processing, CPU- or memory-intensive applications, use the IDL programming language, or use the LaTeX typography package, you will probably find that the most appropriate tools are on the Unix system. If you want to send and receive email, do word processing, or spreadsheet/statistical work, you will probably find that the most appropriate tools are available on PCs running Windows on the campus network, and there is no need for an AM Unix account.

How do I get a Novell PC account?

Go in person to the CICS Reception (just over the road in the big white flat building) and present your student/staff card as proof of identity.

How do I get an account on Titania (or any of the other White Rose Grid machines?)

What machines should(n't) I connect to?

If you don't have your own Unix box, it's polite to ask the owner of another box before you run processes on it (read: if you don't, they might get annoyed!) The following table shows the 'owners' of the main Unix machines. Any other machine you see will not generally permit you access unless you have a specific account on that machine. All of the machines except the three specified are Sun architectures running SunOS/Solaris Unix variants.

Unix boxes

Machine	Owner
acms1	Server: do not use
acms5	Robertus von Fay Siebenbergen
acms11	Backup machine: do not use
acms12	Julia Rees
acms14	Andrew Middleditch
acms15	Balazs Pinter
acms16	Shaun Quegan
acms17	Open Access to all
acms19	SCEOS open access
acms20	Lucy Wyatt
acms21	Richard Balthazor
acms22	Jim Green
acms23	Lucy Wyatt
acms24	Pierre Drezet
acms25	Stuart Thom
arcadia	Shaun Quegan (SGI box running Irix)
langkawi	Shaun Quegan(SGI box running Irix)

Help! I'm completely new to Unix!

The following commands should act as an EXTREMELY quick reference to Unix.

Basic Notes and Caveats

• All commands and filenames in Unix are CaSe sEnSiTiVe.
• Unix is a command-line environment (like DOS). There are graphical windows environments that sit 'over' it (like Windows); the most common of these (here) are CDE, KDE and Gnome. These are simply pretty interfaces to the command lines and enable easy multi-tasking, etc. CDE is the default on Unix boxes; KDE and Gnome are popular choices on Linux boxes.
• File deletions are PERMANENT! There is no 'undelete' command. By default, there is NO WARNING OR Y/N CONFIRMATION of overwriting or deleting files.
• You are identified by your unique username(s). If you have an account on the Unix network, this will usually be of the form 'ap < number > < your initials >'. < number > is 1 for staff, 2 for postgrads and 3 for visitors; mine, for example, is ap1rb. You will be given a default password, but you should change this to something more easily memorable. Use the 'passwd' command to do this. DO NOT DIVULGE YOUR PASSWORD. TO ANYONE. EVER. If you have an account on a Linux box you will generally have an (different) username and password specific to that machine.
• A note about passwords. It is generally unwise to set all of your passwords to be the same, for obvious reasons. However, it is also generally unfeasible to have a different password for every single account you possess. A good middle ground is to memorise three passwords; one for all high security applications (such as online banking), one for all medium security applications (such as email accounts) and one for all low security applications (such as a desktop screensavers)
• Your home directory is referred to as ~ (the tilde character), or /home11/< username >, which point to the same location. You can create subdirectories off this directory to organise your files. You cannot create directories elsewhere unless you have write permission to the parent directory.
• By default you have a soft quota of 25MB (which can be exceeded for up to 72 hours at a time) and a hard quota of 35MB (which cannot be exceeded). To work with data files larger than this, you will need to ask for space on a data disk.
• You will generally end up in CDE if you log in from a Unix desktop box. To start a command-line window, pull down the menu on the 2nd window from the center on the left, and start up 'Terminal'; alternatively, right-click on the workspace, select Programs, select Terminal
• Directory structures are hierarchical, with levels indicated by a forward slash (not a backward slash like in DOS).
• File names can be long and can contain multiple periods, etc. However, they may not contain forward slashes, and if you begin them with a dash you'll run into problems later.
• Two user files are executed automatically when you log on; .login5 and .cshrc5. These contain user-defined setups and scripts, many of which are extremely useful. To copy Richard's .cshrc5 (the most useful), type (from your home directory) 'cp ../ap1rb/.cshrc5 .' and re-login.

Basic Commands That Can Be Typed In A Command-Line/Terminal Window

Basic Unix/Linux commands

Command (Syntax)	Example	Remarks
cd target	cd ~ cd .. cd ~/bin/test cd /acms21_data1/richard/data/new	Changes directory. Target is a relative or absolute path. ~ is your home directory, . (single period) is the current directory and .. (double period) is the parent directory. Directory heirarchy follows forward slashes (unlike in DOS which uses backslashes).
ls [flags] [target]	ls ls -al ls -al ~/bin/test ls *.gz	Lists files. flags usefully include the l flag (a long listing, showing the size, ownership, flags, and date of last change) and the a flag (that shows hidden files, ie those whose name begins with a period. Target can be a directory (default is current directory) and can include wildcards.
mkdir directory	mkdir journals	Creates a directory. directory may be a relative or absolute path.
rmdir directory	rmdir journals	Removes a directory.
cp sourcefile destinationfile	cp myfile.tex myfile.tex.safe cp *.ps backup	Copies files to a new name/location.
mv sourcefile destinationfile	mv myfile.tex myfile.tex.old	Moves files, i.e. deletes the original.
rm filename	rm junkfile rm *# rm -R core*	Removes/deletes (unrecoverably) files.  Wildcard is *.   Recursive (ie, descend through daughter directories from current location) is -R.
man [-k substring]	man cp man mkdir man man man -k postscript	Displays the manual for each command. The optional -k substring argument displays a list of the commands that contain substring in their descriptions.

How do I change my password?

On the AM Solaris network or any AM Linux machine: use the passwd command: type passwd and follow the prompts.

For CICS applications, including Novell: Use the account maintenance facility on the CICS webpages.

On your local PC running Windows XP: Use the Control Panel - User Administration.

Can't I have a simpler password?  It tells me it's too similar to a dictionary word.

New machines

I want to buy a new PC

See the CICS buying guide.  

At the time of writing (July 2004) I thoroughly recommend the GX60 for a standard office PC and the GX270 for those that want a bit of extra  performance but with rock-solid dependability.  Those that want to push the envelope are usually in a better position than me to recommend the current flavour du jour, but please also consider Titania/the White Rose Grid.

Should I get my computer security clamped?

There is no requirement to do so. A clamped computer incurs an excess of £500 on the university insurance; an unclamped computer incurs an excess of £2500. Clamps (which are made to measure around the computer model) cost of the order of £140+VAT from Compsafe (0114 230 6961, 2002 prices), plus £10 installation. Installation is a matter of bolting four hefty blind bolts onto a desk or similar, which is not beyond the realms of difficulty for anyone with an electric drill and an 8mm bit. There are a few redundant clamps and bolts floating around the department from retired machines.

We have found that clamped machines invariably collect more fluff, dust and general crap inside than non-clamped machines, due to the restrictions on airflow through the box This reduces their life and increases the risk of component failure. Think very carefully before getting a machine clamped.

There have been thefts from (locked and unlocked) offices.   If your machine is stolen, how will you replace all your data?  Have you backed it up regularly to a separate location?   Think very carefully before leaving a machine unclamped.

I've got my computer clamped. What should I do with the key?

Don't lose it! It is recommended that you label it and give it to Anne Hall in the School Office, who has a stash of all the keys in the safe.

I've got a new PC/Mac and it's unpacked and running on my desktop. How do I connect it to the network?

See the CICS instructions.

I need a foreign plug adaptor.

These are NOT transformers and will NOT affect supply voltage or frequency. Ensure your equipment is rated at the appropriate voltage AND frequency BEFORE you plug it in. If in any doubt consult the equipment manufacturer. We cannot accept any responsibility for damage to equipment or people by using these adaptors. Robertus has the departmental adaptor that allows foreign plugs to plug into UK sockets. Stuart Thom has the departmental adaptor that allows UK plugs to plug into foreign sockets. I have two US power cables with standard PC-type or monitor-type power supply connectors.