How to use PC781 cluster

PC781 cluster consist of 4 Debian Linux boxes. Each computer has 300MHz Pentium II, 64Mb memory and Viewsonic P815 monitor. Each computer is intended to be enhanced X-Terminal. Heavy usage of this computers remotely is discouraged, but not prohibited: you supposed to sit in front of those computers to use them.

Gnome desktop is installed on this systems

• How do I login? You should use same username and password as on fn781a computer. If you get message "Login incorrect" contact Jianming You .
• What are all those startup error messages? Once you login your home area is mounted from fn781a. So you may think that you are working on fn781a, but you are not! All the commands you execute are running on PC781. So you can not run SOAP for example, also command setup will not work.
• Where is X-terminal window? I see ugly black terminal with big gray letters on it. Actually Linux has upto 12 terminals on 1 monitor. You can find your favorite X-terminal window pressing Ctrl-Alt-F7 simultaneously.
• Why everyone around have nice menus and buttons, and I don't? Perhaps you have remnants of .fvwm2rc or .Xsession files. It means that you are smart, so fix it. I would recommend to get rid of them. You can add your customisation of FVWM2 (window manager) into file ~/.fvwm2/post.hook. You can check details in /usr/doc/fvwm2/README.sysrc
• How do I print? Use command rplr . Example:
  rplr -Hfnprt -Pwh13nw_hp5si_duplex myfile.txt
  rlpr myfile.txt (goes to wh13nw_hp5si)
  a2ps myfile.txt | rlpr
• Which editor to use? XEmacs . As EDT is commercial product there is no way in can be installed on this system. Hint You can edit file on another computer using XEmacs - specify the name in the following way: /kushnir@fsgi02:~/myfile.txt This way you need only one XEmacs window, I do it all the time. You can also run XEmacs in EDT-like mode.
• slogin or telnet? My X window does not open! I strongly recommend to use slogin instead of telnet. Example slogin fn781a . This is encrypted version of telnet. Another good feature is that you don't need to worry about allowing other nodes to open Xwindow on your terminal (you may remember command xhost - don't use it anymore). So from this day forget about telnet and use only slogin. . Given the number of young hot heads on the Internet, who would like to establish themselves by breaking into the system, it became quite an issue.
  Use scp instead of rcp and sometimes even ftp
• OK I use slogin, but I still can not open window on this terminal You are likely to get messages like connection to "pc781e:0.0" refused by server . It's highly probable that in your startup files you setup $DISPLAY variable. Comment it out - slogin will do all necessary things for you. If you insist on it - keep in mind that slogin uses MIT cookies and emulates Xserver on the computer you just logged into on display for example fn781a:10.0
• What programs are installed? where is documentation ? You can get complete list of programs installed running command dpkg -l It will give you list of packages and there short description. Documentation for package for example gv could be found in /usr/doc/gv . It is usually gzipped, you can read it using command gunzip -c gv-faq.txt.gz | less for example. You also can use man pages if you are brave, or info system (in XEmacs for example). Also now many packages come with HTML documentation.
• Where do I put my X resources In file ~/.Xresources Note : not ~/.Xdefaults I would recommend to put a symbolic link between them.
• Someone LOCKED terminal, I need to use it NOW! . It's another chance to see that Linux really rocks. Press 3 keys simultaneously: Ctrl-Alt-F1 (or F2..F6 for this matter). You will see black terminal with login prompt on it. Login and work, once you done - logout. Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to bring back locked window.

  If you need to run X session on this terminal you can do it too:

  • Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 - VT100 terminal will popup, login into your account
  • startx -- : 1 - X winodow will popup, you are assigned to display Ctrl-Alt-F8
  • Once you done with your work press on menu Really quit
  • If you don't have menu press Ctrl-Alt-F1 You are back to your vt100 terminal. Press Ctrl-C to kill you X session
  • Logout from VT100 terminal
  • Bring XLock session back by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F7
• Processing of Russian documents It's a very wel advanced feature of PC781 cluster, you can do almost anything there.
• I want program DOOM, StarOffice, Quake... to be installed! Contact Sasha or Jianming about that.
• This idiotic system is totally screwed up! Whom should I contact? Peter Cooper signed for those computers.
• This system is beautiful! Whom should I honor? Contact Sasha (cookies, money donations), Jianming (postcards, lost pets and Time magazines).
• I want to run/emulate Windows 95... Don't even think about it.

Some programs on PC781

Unlike other UN*Xes Linux is quite friendly, you will like it.

• ls --color display directory in color. You may want to build a nice alias for yourself. (default dir=ls --color)
• rlpr - Print anywhere around
• a2ps, enscript - Text to PS converter. You can print in russian too.
• gv Better version of ghostview
• xemacs You should know it by now.
• netscape, lynx WWW browsers.
• latex Very complete installation.
• xlock Lock your terminal.
• rvplayer Real Audio Player - listen to news on the Web. You have to setup your Netscape preferences put 'rvplayer %s' in "Application" window. (without quotes of course).
• xanim To view video files.