Below are the various FAQ catagories:
Who do I contact for help?
Scott Dowdle is the CS Systems Admin. He works in a cubby-hole in EPS262 and is usually there 8am-ish until 6pm-ish.
Email: admin@cs.montana.edu
Phone: (406)994-3931 [work], (406)388-0827 [home]
Reading the whole FAQ first wouldn't hurt.
How do I contact the CS Department?
Computer Science Department
357 EPS Building
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
Phone: (406)994-4780
E-mail: csinfo@cs.montana.edu
I am a new person what should I do first?
The CS computer labs are "dual boot" and have both Microsoft Windows XP and CentOS Linux 5.3 (based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux) available on them.
Linux: esus.cs.montana.edu is currently our primary server. If you are a new student, chances are you'll get an account automatically created for you at the beginning of a semester. Check with your CS instructors as they usually give out new account information during lab periods. Once you have an esus account you should be able to log into the Linux side machines in the CS labs... as well as access esus via secure shell. You will also have an email address associated with this account. If for some reason, an account wasn't automatically made for you, please call 994-3931 and set up a visit to EPS262.
Windows: The MSU IT Center handles new account creation on the MSU Domain. To setup an MSU Domain account go to the following URL and fill in your student information:
What is my CS email address and how do I configure my email program to use it?
Your email address is your esus username followed by @cs.montana.edu.
To configure an email client, go into your desired email client's account settings to create a new account. You'll need to know your username, password, incoming email server, and outgoing email server.
The primary email server for cs.montana.edu accounts is esus.cs.montana.edu.
For picking up email, POP3 and IMAP are available, as well as the secure flavors of both. For outgoing email, SMTP is used. The standard port numbers are used for all email services and you generally should not have to set any port numbers in your email client program.
When configuring your desired email program, just put in esus.cs.montana.edu (or just cs.montana.edu if you prefer) for both your incoming and outgoing server. IMAP is preferred over POP3.
NOTE: For outgoing email (SMTP), if you ARE NOT connecting from on campus, you must configure your email client to authenticate before sending or your email will be blocked as "relaying denied".
How do I read my CS email over the web? (webmail)
SquirrelMail is currently our webmail package of choice. You can read webmail either via http or https (secure http). Of course the later is preferred. Here are the URLs:
https://www.cs.montana.edu/mail
http://www.cs.montana.edu/mail
Note: To save money, we decided to "self generate" the secure certificate (https) and as a result your browser may prompt you to manually verify the certificate rather than just accepting it automatically. Various web browser programs handle manual verification of secure certificates differently but it should a fairly straight forward process. If you have any questions about the secure certificate, feel free to email admin@cs.montana.edu.
How do I forward my CS email to another email address?
Email forwarding is rather simple. Just place a text file named .forward in your home directory on esus.cs.montana.edu. The .forward file should be a text file that contains the email address you would like your email forwarded to.
The easiest way to create a .forward file is to ssh into esus.cs.montana.edu using your esus username and password. Run your preferred text editor to create/edit a file named .forward. If you are not familiar with non-GUI text editors, nano is recommended as it is fairly simple and has the hotkeys for the various commands shown at the bottom of the screen. Just "nano ~/.forward". Again, the .forward file should be just one line containing the desired email address you want your email forwarded to.
Note: Make sure to test your mail forwarding anytime you change your .forward file to make sure it works. If you don't test it, there is no guarantee that you won't lose your email. To test, just send an email to your CS email account and verify that it actually ends up at the correct place.
How do I publish a web page to the CS server?
Assuming you have an esus account... create a directory within your home directory named www. It is within this www directory that the CS web server (apache) looks for personal web pages.
File and directory names are case sensitive. You should name your top level web page index.html. It is recommended that you don't use any spaces nor special characters in your file and directory names although it is not a techincal requirement.
It is recommended that any graphic files are sampled / sized for web presentation... i.e. < 1MB at 60 DPI and in .jpg, .gif, or .png format.
Creating your web pages: Use whatever you want -- vi, emacs, Mozilla Composer, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. Once you have created your web pages, just transfer them to your www directory on esus via ftp or scp... although since scp is an encrypted protocol, it is preferred. You'll need to know the following details:
Host: esus.cs.montana.edu
Username: Your esus account name
Password: Your esus account password
Again, make sure and put your web pages within your www directory. If you don't have a www directory, create one.
Viewing your web page: Just visit http://www.cs.montana.edu/~username where username is your esus account name. That should bring up your index.html page. If you don't have a file named index.html in your www directory, you'll have to tack on the full name of the file or directory you want to view to the end of the previously mentioned URL. For example: http://www.cs.montana.edu/~username/somefile.html.
File and directory permissions: If you run into any permissions problems, make sure your www directory has the other read and excute permissions set so the web server has the ability to access your web page files.
Your homedir should be drwx--x--x (711) [chmod 711 ~username]
Directories including www should be set to drwxr-xr-x (755) [chmod 755 ~/www]
Files should be -rw-r--r-- (644)
Most file transfer programs offer the ability to change permissions. Those who are comfortable with the command line can also login to esus via ssh and use the chmod command to fix permissions. See the chmod man page for more command syntax details.
Troubleshooting: Help! My pictures are broken links rather than displaying. File and directory names on esus are case sensitive. Microsoft Windows, although it offers upper and lower case, is not particularly case sensitive. When you upload a file, you need to check its exact spelling on esus and refer to it properly. If your HTML refers to "gif" and/or "jpg" and your files end in .GIF or .JPG, they will show broken links rather than displaying. To fix this, either rename your files to match how you referred to them, or change your references in your HTML to reflect the correct filenames.
It is recommended that you use only lowercase letters for filenames and directories... while not technically necessary, it eliminates some of the guesswork.
It is also recommended that you don't use any spaces in your filenames. Again, while not technically necessary, it eliminates having to use ugly HTML entity coding... where %20 = space.
How do I publish a webpage on the MSU servers (CS150 students for example)?
MSU has a few webpages with instructions:
Student website: https://forge.montana.edu/wiki/stlabswebsite/Student_Websites
Z-drive off campus: https://forge.montana.edu/wiki/stlabswebsite/Network_Drives
I can't seem to find java on esus. Where is it?
Background: bash is the default shell for most esus accounts. Upon login bash parses certain files in your home directory an establishes an environment by creating environment variables and assigning values to them. At any time you can run the env command to see what environment variables bash is aware of:
env
If you don't see references to JDK_HOME and CLASSPATH, you are probably missing some of the files bash is looking for. While you could manually create the desired environment variables by hand, the better solution is to do the following:
cp /etc/skel/.bashrc ~
cp /etc/skel/.bash_profile ~
The two commands above copy the default bash startup files to your home directory. You can source ~/.bash_profile to affect your current session... or you can simply logout and log back in. To verify the fix, you can run the env command again and look at the additions to your environment. You should see JDK_HOME and CLASSPATH (as well as other things) added now.
With the proper environment, you should have more directories in your PATH and should have no trouble finding java, javac, netbeans, bluej, eclipse, etc.
What programming languages are available on the lab machines?
On Windows XP Pro, Linux, and Mac OS X you should easily be able to find Java IDEs like BlueJ, Greenfoot, Netbeans and Eclipse in the application menus offered by the desktop. Most OSes also have C (GCC or VisualStudio), C++, Objective C, PERL, Python, CLISP, Assembly, and Pascal (Lazarus IDE). The Macs have Xcode installed. Machines that have Fedora Linux may have additional languages like OCaml and Haskell.
If you need access to a programming language that isn't available, just ask the system admin.
What software is offered by the CS Department to students, faculty and staff?
Microsoft Products: The MSDN Academic Alliance Program enables eligible students and faculty members to access software available under the Program. E-Academy Inc., a partner of Microsoft, is providing ELMS for MSDNAA to us. If you have not received an email from elms_support@e-academy.com with a subject of "You are Registered!" just email admin@cs.montana.edu and request enrollment into the ELMS/MSDNAA program.
Anti-virus software: MSU has licensed McAfee for students, staff and faculty to use. Please see the sites linked to below for specifics.
MSU Student McAfee anti-virus software
http://software.montana.edu/mcafee/
(MSU Domain Username/Password authentication required)
MSU Staff and Faculty McAfee anti-virus software
http://software.montana.edu/mcafeestaff/index.php
(MSU Domain Username/Password authentication required)
Local Downloads: Some utility software that CS students might find useful:
SSH and SCP client for Windows - SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe
X11 Server for Windows - xcursion.zip
Linux Distributions: ISO images for download over the LAN: CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian... just browse http://img.cs.montana.edu/linux/.
Free Software: The use of quality, multi-platform Free and Open Source Software is encouraged. Some popular FOSS titles: GIMP, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Blender, Inkscape and Scribus.
Check for local copies by browsing http://img.cs.montana.edu/. Also visit Freshmeat, the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform software.
What Operating Systems are offered in the CS Labs?
The primary CS Lab (EPS254) got all new computers for Fall 2009 - 33 Dell Optiplex 960 Small Form Factor machines with 22" all-in-one monitors and 9 iMacs. With the new computers comes a new setup - triple-boot... even for the iMacs. In previous setups the flavor of Linux that was offered was the latest release of CentOS which is built from the source packages of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. (See below for "Why CentOS?")
With the new setup the PCs are running:
- Windows XP Pro 32-bit
- CentOS 5.3 x86_64
- Fedora 11 x86_64
The iMacs are running:
- Mac OS X Leopard (may upgrade to Snow Leopard soon)
- Windows XP Pro 32-bit
- Fedora 11 x86_64
Fedora was chosen because of student feedback where they said they wanted more bleeding edge software. Fedora offers a very rapid development cycle (6 months) and a contant stream of updates for the latest software.
The PCs in EPS259 are dual-boot and run Windows XP Pro and CentOS.
The ITC controlled lab (Roberts 111) are also dual-boot and have Windows XP Pro and CentOS. The Windows side is managed by the ITC and the Linux side is maintained by the CS System Admin.
Most other public access computers the CS Department manages are dual-boot with Windows XP Pro and CentOS. This includes EPS109, EPS348, and many of the research rooms.
How do I access the Windows side of the lab machines?
The ITC manages the MSU Domain and all MSU students are given an MSU domain account. If you don't have your MSU domain account information, please contact the ITC Help Desk at 994-1777 or visit the ITC Help Desk in the basement of the Renne Library. When logging in, make sure to use your MSU Domain username and password and ensure that the MSU Domain is selected.
How do I access the Linux side of the lab machines?
If the machine you want to use is already booted into Linux and displaying the graphical login screen, simply login using your esus username and password. Remember, usernames and passwords are case sensitive so you have to get them just perfect or they aren't going to work.
If you have trouble logging in, don't know your username and/or password, or your password has expired, please call (994-3931) or stop by EPS262 for help with account issues. If the system administrator is not available, Jeannette Radcliffe or Kathy Hollenback in the CS Department office can also reset passwords.
If the machine is currently booted into Microsoft Windows XP, you can use the Windows login screen to restart the computer. After the BIOS screen flashes by a boot menu is presented. Just arrow up/down to CentOS and hit Enter. Windows is the default if no OS is selected from the boot menu.
What software is available on the Linux side of the lab machines?
Everything you should need for your classes as well as general purpose desktop software should already be installed on the lab machines. This includes a plethora of programming languages (PERL, Python, C, C++, Java, shell script, etc), integrated development environments (Netbeans and Eclipse), wiget sets (QT, jogl, swing, etc), and application software (OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape, Blender, etc).
If there is any additional software that you need, please call (994-3931), stop by EPS262, or email admin@cs.montana.edu and put in a request.
Why are you still using Windows XP Pro instead of Windows Vista?
The CS Department, like most all other departments on campus that manage public lab computers, decided to skip Windows Vista for a number of reasons. The main problems with Vista are software incompatibility issues and slower performance. With the release of Windows 7 many of the problems appear to have been resolved and the department may switch over to Windows 7 in the Spring or Fall of 2010... or perhaps offer a dual-boot Windows configuration.
Why is the CentOS distribution of Linux used on the CS lab machines?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most popular distribution of Linux used by US businesses today. A close second is Novell's SUSE Enterprise Linux. Since RHEL is so popular, it is a good idea to expose students to it... but in an effort to save the tax payers of the state of Montana some money, the CS Department has opted to use CentOS on the lab machines. RHEL is used on most of the CS Linux servers.
CentOS stands for Community ENTterprise Operating Ssystem and is built from the publicly available source packages from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information, visit the CentOS website.
The CentOS community abids by the copyright laws and removes all Red Hat trademarks, logos, and graphics from the Red Hat released source packages. As a result, the experienced offered by CentOS is virtually the same as that offered by RHEL... except for lack of access to the Red Hat Network update system... and the paid support. If you want RHN and support, Red Hat offers substantial educational discounts for students, faculty and staff who would like to purchase Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Documentation: Students looking for documentation for CentOS are advised to check out the volumes of freely available documentation provided by Red Hat.
Linux distro ISOs: ISOs for CentOS (as well as an assortment of other Linux distributions) are available over the LAN: http://img.cs.montana.edu/linux/
Know issues
Hardware compatibility
With the new hardware in EPS254 (as of the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester) there are some hardware compatibility issues with Linux. Most of these hardware compatibility issues will probably be resolved with upcoming releases of CentOS and Fedora. The compatibility issues include:
- The PCs do not have accellerated 3D in either CentOS or Fedora
- Fedora Linux on the Mac has the following issues:
- The screen resolution is lower than in Windows XP Pro or Mac OS X
- Accellerated 3D is not available
- Wireless doesn't work (not used anyway)
- The built in webcam doesn't work
- Sound doesn't work
- Rebooting can hang the hardware, hold down the power button for 10 or so seconds to turn it off and the push the power button again to turn it back on
Potential desktop environment config conflicts
Because CentOS and Fedora use greatly different versions of GNOME and KDE, switching between CentOS and Fedora can sometimes confuse the desktop environments. While settings are usually forward compatible they are often not backwards compatible. If you use Fedora, it is probably a good idea to stick with it. If you use CentOS, you should probably stick with it.
If you want to switch back and forth between CentOS and Fedora you may encounter some software issues. For example, switching between KDE 4.3.x in Fedora and KDE 3.5.x in CentOS, it has been reported that when you first login to CentOS the windows don't have window decorations/borders. That will usually fix itself by logging out and back in. KDE keeps its settings for the 3.5.x series and the 4.x series separate but there are some applications in KDE 4 that are still based on KDE 3 libraries.
Not a lot of testing has been done with switching back and forth between environments. If students notice issues (especially if they also have fixes for them), they are encouraged to report them to the system admin so this FAQ can be updated.
How do I print from Microsoft Windows XP Pro in the EPS 254 lab?
Printing should be pre-configured on the computers to print to the HP LaserJet 4350 located in the EPS 254 lab. The printer is \\presto\orca. Most application programs offer a Print... option under their File dropdown menu... and Control-p is often the keyboard hotkey for printing. If you have questions about printing from a specific program, please refer to that program's builtin help system via the Help dropdown menu... and F1 is often the keyboard hotkey for application specific help.
Printer Accounting System: Near the beginning of each semester, the MSU domain user accounts are feed into the COE printer accounting system (Equitrac), sorted by departments. Currently CS undergrad students receive $12.50 worth of printing credit per semester and the printers are valued at $0.05 per page... which is equal to 250 pages. Graduate students get $25.00 worth of printing credit.
There is an icon in the Windows System Tray that will keep a running account of how much printing credit you have.
If you happen to run low on or exhaust your printing allotment within a semester and would like some additional credits, please visit an Administrative Assistant in the CS Department office who can take a payment and credit your printing account.
How do I print from CentOS Linux or Fedora Linux in the EPS 254 lab?
Printing should be pre-configured on the computers to print to the HP LaserJet 4350 located in the EPS 254 lab. The printer is orca.cs.montana.edu. Most application programs offer a Print... option under their File dropdown menu... and Control-p is often the keyboard hotkey for printing. If you have questions about printing from a specific program, please refer to that program's builtin help system via the Help dropdown menu... and F1 is often the keyboard hotkey for application specific help.
Printer Accounting System: The COE Printer Accounting System (Equitrac) does not offer Linux compatibility and as a result the Linux side of the lab machines are configured to talk directly to the printer and bypass the accounting system... so printing from Linux DOES NOT count against your Windows printing credit. This essentially means that printing from Linux is free. Of course if any individuals are caught abusing the system, they will be delt with accordingly.
Desktop Environment Differences: The KDE desktop environment seems to offer a robust printing environment and should just work. If you use a different desktop environment, your printing experience may vary.
Please report any printing difficulties to the system admin: admin@cs.montana.edu.
How do I print from Mac OS X in the EPS 254 lab?
Printing should be pre-configured on the iMacs to print to the HP LaserJet 4350 located in the EPS 254 lab. The printer is orca.cs.montana.edu. Most application programs offer a Print... option under their program name dropdown menu... and Option-p is often the keyboard hotkey for printing. If you have questions about printing from a specific application, please refer to that program's builtin help system.
Printer Accounting System: The COE Printer Accounting System (Equitrac) does not offer Mac OS X compatibility and as a result the iMacs are configured to talk directly to the printer and bypass the accounting system... so printing from an Mac OS X DOES NOT count against your Windows printing credit. This essentially means that printing from Mac OS X is free. Of course if any individuals are caught abusing the system, they will be delt with accordingly.
How do I print from esus?
esus has the CUPS (Common UNIX Printing Solution) service installed, configured and running and has the HP LaserJet 4350 in the EPS lab set as its default printer.
Graphical Applicatons: If you are running a graphical application on esus with the display exported to your local machine, you should be able to print from the application as expected.
Printing from the command line: If you have a document you would like to print from the command line you should be able to use the lpr command like so:
lpr document-filename[Enter]
Troubleshooting: If your print job isn't printing as expected and you want to abort it, you should be able to use the lp family of commands to manage your print job. See the man pages for lpq and lprm for more info.
If you have a problem printing from esus, just transfer the desired document to your local machine (or open it up with an application on the local machine) and print from the local machine as usual.