See the Lab administrator.

How do I get a file restored from the backup tapes?

Files are backed up periodically to tape by Center for Experimental Computation, CEC. Click here and follow the instructions.

Why do I pay a course fee when I already paid a basic fee for the same equipment and software?

If we charged only a basic computing fee, then only majors would pay for the computing equipment - non-majors would use it for free. This would mean that the CS majors would have to pay a lot more than they do now. The only way to get non-majors to help pay is to charge a course fee, and there is no way to charge only non-majors the fee - all students, both majors and non-majors who are enrolled in the course must pay it. If you are not enrolled in any classes during a particular term, and you do not pay your basic computing fee to keep your account active, your CS account will be turned off.

How long is my account active for?

Your account is active as long as you are enrolled in a course at the CS department.

Which labs and machines can I access?

You can use pizza, scifi, icu and language labs at the CS department. The access to some special purpose labs (and machines) requires a CS faculty member to sponsor. The undergrad students can log in to any machines in the csl.mtu.edu domain and the grad students can also access machines in the cs.mtu.edu domain.

Where are the printers located?

The printers laser112, laser112A are in room 112 and laser113 is in room 113.

How to print a PDF file?

Adobe Acrobat Reader is the default program for pdf files. To print a file from Acrobat, select print from file menu or click printer icon on the toolbar. Then select printer from drop down list. Adjust other properties as per your requirements and click OK. The screenshot below uses laser113.

How to print a PDF file from command line?

Use the following command:
$lpr -Pprinter_name filename.pdf
If you want to print a file named assignment.pdf at printer laser112,
$lpr -Plaser112 assignment.pdf

If you don't specify the printer, the file is printed at the default printer. The default printer is the nearest printer from your computer. It is set in the environment variable PRINTER. You can view the current default printer using the following command:
$echo $PRINTER

How to print using double column for source code?

Use the following command:
$enscript -2Gr -Pprinter_name filename
If you don't specify the printer, default printer is used. Default printer is specified by the environment variable PRINTER and it will be your nearest printer.

How to print a PS file?

Evince is the default program for postscript files. To print a file from evince, select print from file menu and select the appropriate printer. You can also use the the program gv for postscript files (it works for pdf files too). To print from gv, select print marked to print the current page or print all to print the whole document. In the print command dialog box, enter lpr -Pprinter_name. You can just enter lpr if you want to use the default printer.

How to print openoffice presentation handouts?

Click on View -> Handout page. Then Format -> Slide Layout and click on the number of slides you want per page. Then select File -> Print, click on options, and in the contents select Handouts (unselect Drawing).

What do I do if I have problems with printing?

Contact the lab consultants on duty or email csmaint.

How do I make a personal web page?

The personal site is stored in ~/.WWW directory. Home.html is the index page. The URL of personal page is http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~yourid. Example for editing your personal site-
$cd ~/.WWW $vi Home.html # you can use your favorite editor Note that you might get error message while accessing your page. Make sure that your home directory has execute permissions for others (recommended 711) and .WWW directory has read and execute permissions for others (recommended 755).
The output of ls command should be similar to the following, note the permissions
$ls -ld ~
drwx--x--x 66 yourid student 3072 Feb 21 12:13 /home/grad/yourid

$ls -ld ~/.WWW
drwxr-xr-x 3 yourid student 512 Feb 21 13:07 /home/grad/yourid/.WWW
Use chmod command to change permissions.
$chmod 711 ~
$chmod 755 ~/.WWW
$man chmod for details

How to use vi?

Vi is the most common text editor on UNIX systems. Vi stands for "visual editor", it is pronounced "vee-eye". Enter the command vi at the shell prompt to run the program. You can also pass the name of the file you want to edit as an argument to vi. There are two main modes the command mode and the input mode. Press i to enter the input mode. From input mode press [ESC] to return back to command mode. Commands start with :. To save the current file press :wq [RETURN]. To exit without saving press :q!. The one installed in the lab machines is called vim (Vi improved). There is also a graphical version called gvim.
For details read the man page of vi. There is also an interactive tutorial of vi. Type vimtutor at the shell prompt to run the tutorial.
You can also visit http://www.vim.org/docs.php for various vi documents.

How to Burn a CD?

The lab machines have k3b, a cd burning tool, installed. Type k3b in command line to open the k3b window. You can also open K3b in Gnome from Applications->Sound & Video->K3b.

How to use USB flash memory?

Plug in the USB into the box. An icon pops up at the desktop indicating the USB flash memory. The mount point is /mnt/usb. Remember to unmount after you are done. To unmount right click the usb icon and select unmount or use the command umount /mnt/usb at the shell prompt.
Remember to close all the windows accessing the flash before unmount. If you are using the command line be sure to cd to another directory before issuing the umount command.

How much storage space is available?

For majors the soft limit is 150 MB and hard limit is 220 MB. Similarly for non-majors soft limit is 40 MB and hard limit is 50 MB. Generally, you can exceed soft limit upto the hard limit for a grace period of one week after which the soft limit becomes the hard limit. There is no quota for grad students

How do I view the disk usage?

You can use the command quota -v to view your disk usage. The output will be similar to the following:

Disk quotas for user yourid (uid 33232): 
     Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
colossus.csl.mtu.edu:/export/major
                   4688  150000  220000             244       0       0        

I don't have much files, but still my quota shows high usage. What is the problem?

The spaces might have been occupied by the hidden files and directories. Filenames begining with . are hidden. To view all files use the option -a with the ls command. You can also clear the browser cache, the object files (.o files), and executable files to save disk space. $ls -a Typical output of the command is as follows. Note that the names begining with . are hidden.

.                   
..                  .gconf                   .ppracer
.AbiSuite           .gconfd                  .qt
.Trash              .gnome2_private          .rhosts
(some other files)

.dmrc               .mozilla                 bin
.eclipse            .mplayer    	     Desktop           

208M    Desktop

I am having weired problems with some software XYZ, what do I do?

First check whether you have exceeded your quota. It is always a good idea to leave some free space in your home directory. If that doesn't help contact csmaint.

What if I need more storage temporarily?

If you want more storage for temporary purpose, you can use the /scratch directory. Unlike the home directories, the /scratch directory is specific to a machine and not backed up.

How to clean up your web browser cache?

For firefox, Click on Edit, go to preferences. Then click Privacy icon. After that click on cache. Click clear to clean the current cache contents. It is recommended that you set only 1024 KB for cache.

How to handle eclipse and mozilla lock files after crash?

Eclipse and mozilla might complain about the lock files after crash. Eclipse lock file is located at .metadata/.lock in the current workspace. Mozilla lock file is located at ~/.mozilla/[Profile Name]/lock and firefox lock file is located at ~/.mozilla/firefox/[Random String.Profile Name]/lock. You have to delete the lock files if these software complain during startup.
Eclipse doesn't work if you are over quota, so be sure to check your quota if eclipse gives problems.

How to change your PATH enviroment variable?

$setenv PATH ${PATH}:/your/new/path
If you want this change to reflect every time you login, include the above line in the file .cshrc in your home directory.

How to kill a program?

Find the process id of the program using the ps command. Then use the kill command to kill the required process.
For Linux, use
$ps -ef to list the currently running processes.
For Solaris, use
$ps -aux to list the currently running processes.
$kill -[signal] #processid
Use the -9 signal only as a last resort.

How do I change my default shell?

The default shell is /bin/tcsh. If you want to change your default shell, use the command ypchsh. It will ask for your password and the shell you want to make default. You are advised not to do this unless you know what you are doing.
You can use other shells temporarily by typing the name of the shell. For example, if you want to use the bash shell, type bash at the command prompt. Use exit to return to the previous shell.

How to remote login from home?

It is recommended that you login to wopr.csl.mtu.edu using ssh. If you are trying to access from windows machine, there are a lot of softwares available for this purpose. One such software is PuTTY. You can download it from http://www.putty.nl/latest/x86/putty.exe.

How to transfer files from home?

You can transfer files using ssh or sftp. The recommended host is wopr.csl.mtu.edu. For windows, WinSCP is one of the softwares used for this purpose. Visit http://winscp.net/eng/download.php to download WinSCP.

How to use submit?

Log on to any machines in the csl domain. Change the current working directory to the one having the file to submit. Then type submit on the command line. Then select the requires class, section and assignment. Then press space to mark the required file and press return to submit. Filenames of the files you submit should not contain any whitespace characters.
You should get a verification email after submiting your assignment.

How to get MSDNAA account?

All the students of CS department are eligible for MSDNAA account. Send an email to csmaint, including your expected graduation date. You will get a confirmation email about your MSDNAA account.

What if the software I want to download from MSDNAA is not listed?

If the software you want to download is not listed, send an email to csmaint. The software will be added to the download list if available.

How to request for redownload in MSDNAA?

Fill out the online form which is shown when you try to redownload a software. You will get a confirmation email when the system is ready to allow redownload.