The UG Lab is located in Room 2128, Computer Science Building. Regular hours are 6AM to 1AM, with an access card that can be obtained from the CS Department Undergraduate Office. See here for more information on lab access.
You can log in to the lab remotely from over the net at any time.
The machine
public.ug.cs.sunysb.edu
is recommended for this.
startx.
If the stipple background comes up, but then X Windows stops immediately
and you see the following error message:
X Windows Won't Start
Another reason X Windows might not start is if somebody using the system
before you left an X server running. To check this, type ALT-F5
on the keyboard. If you hear a beep, there is no X server running, and
this is not your problem. If the screen changes to an X display,
then type CTRL-ALT-BKSP to exit the X server.
It is sociable to then log out the other user, since they probably forgot.
Getting out of X Windows
X Windows can always be exited by typing CTRL-ALT-BKSP.
I Can't Read Small Print in Netscape
If you have trouble reading small fonts using Netscape, simply
select the Preferences item from the Options
menu and click on the Huge font size.
Then click on OK.
If you want to make the change in preferences permanent,
choose Save Options from the Options menu.
How Do I Change My Shell to {bash,tcsh,sh}?
The currently recommended way to change your default shell is to
log in to ug.cs.sunysb.edu
and run, for example:
NOTE: The chpass command is supposed to work everywhere,
but it is currently broken on the workstations in 2128 because it
tries to create a temporary file in the /etc directory,
which is read-only on these machines for technical reasons.
How Do I Change My Password?
Use the passwd command to change your password.
Due to limitations of the ancient authentication system being used
in the lab, passwords are limited to 8 characters or less.
If you get a strange error message "RPC: Can't decode arguments"
when trying to change your password, it means that you entered more
than 8 characters for your old password. If your old password was
more than 8 characters, just enter the first 8.
How Can I get a SLIP or PPP Connection to the Lab?
Computing and Communications now provides PPP service on a campus-wide
basis. Please go to one of the SINC sites to get information about
this service.
I can't contact remote Web or FTP sites on TCP ports
other than the default
For reasons explained
here,
certain outgoing TCP connections are blocked at the UG Lab firewall.
To connect to Web and FTP sites that are blocked, you may
the UG Lab proxy server located at:
gatekeeper.ug.cs.sunysb.edu port 80.
You should configure Netscape or your favorite browser to use
this proxy by entering this name and port number on the "Proxies"
options screen.