On this page... (hide)

1. Using floppy, CD-ROM and usb drives
2. How to open windows to other hosts
3. X program says: "Error: Can't open display:"
4. How to use ssh, and xauth
5. Screen blank interval/Screen saver
6. How to use the SUNPCi card
7. Setting eXceed to open a Xwindow
8. Connecting a Computer,Printer,etc. onto the Network in an ECE/CIS research lab
1. 8.1 Incomplete or inaccurate information will delay connections!
9. NSF Fastlane
10. PNPI Info
11. Windows machines network disabled due to virus, etc.

1. Using floppy, CD-ROM and usb drives

Solaris uses a Volume Management daemon to manage removable media.

A data CD is automatically mounted under /cdrom/cdrom0/. after insertion (you may need to wait a few seconds). To remove the CD just run eject cdrom.

USB key drives with FAT filesystems are also automatically handled by Solaris. If one is inserted into a USB port it will be available at /rmdisk/rmdisk0. If you use JDS an icon should appear for it as well.If you need to use a floppy and the system you are using has a floppy drive Solaris can also mount it. To access the floppy do (assuming it is in MS-DOS format):

insert the floppy into the drive
run volcheck -v

Then the contents of the floppy are available with standard Unix file utilities under /floppy/floppy0/.

Note: volcheck -v must be run EVERYTIME you insert a floppy into the drive.

Note: When copying to a DOS floppy the 8.3 filename format must be used.

If the floppy is not in MS-DOS format you can still use it in some cases. For example if it is in tar format the following command can be used to extract its contents:

tar xvf /vol/dev/alias/floppy0

To remove the floppy:

Be sure that you are not cd'd into the above directory.
Then run eject floppy (Newer drives are manually ejected though)

2. How to open windows to other hosts

The supported way of opening windows to other hosts on Solaris hosts running X is by using xgo. This will use SSH to other hosts on ECE/CIS networks. Xgo relies on the X server being started up using magic cookie based access, this is the default for Solaris, instead of the insecure host based access. To learn how to use xgo more do xgo -help, or look at the xgo script itself in /usr/local/X/bin/xgo.

3. X program says: "Error: Can't open display:"

This usually happens when you run an X program on a remote host and do not have your DISPLAY environment variable set properly and/or your X access is not set up properly. If your are displaying from another system ssh should be used. If you are displaying as another go your display do something like the following:

 asyourself% xauth extract /tmp/x $DISPLAY
 asyourself% chgrp otheruser /tmp/x  (assumes your in that group, otherwise use ACLs)
 asyourself% chmod 640 /tmp/x
 asotheruser% xauth merge /tmp/x

The first 3 commands should be ran as the owner of the display and the last as the user that needs to display to $DISPLAY.

4. How to use ssh, and xauth

The easiest way to run an X program on another ECE/CIS host is to use ssh. For example to run Firefox on a host named remhost and display it to your local display, type "ssh -f remhost firefox" on your local host. Note that SSH uses the DISPLAY variable differently and no -display option should be given when using ssh.

If you do not want to use ssh X11 forwarding you can work around this by using the following: For example:

xauth extract - $DISPLAY | ssh -l username remhost xauth merge -
ssh -l username -n remhost Xprogram -display $DISPLAY &

And replace username with your username on remhost, if different than ECE/CIS username, remhost with the hostname you want to run Xprogram on and Xprogram with the program you want to run.

Some similar command lines can be used to display an X11 application running as another user to your display. For example you may use eecis_su to a user called pseudouser.

yourself% xauth extract /tmp/x :0
yourself% chgrp csfacsch /tmp/x
yourself% chmod 640 /tmp/x
pseudouser% xauth merge /tmp/x

In this example the yourself user is the one running the X server and pseudouser is being given access to the X server. Once this is done pseudouser can display to your X session. This sharing of the magic cookie would need to be done everytime the cookie changes (usually each time the X server is started).

Xauth is a much more secure way of allowing displaying to your Xserver. X is very insecure if using host based access with xhost, which allows anybody on the host you give access to the ability to not only display anything, but they can read anything on your display as well as your keystrokes.

More info on xauth and X security:

5. Screen blank interval/Screen saver

The screen blanking interval can be changed with "xset s n" where n is the number of seconds for the interval. For example, use "xset s 900" to have the screen blank after 15 minutes of idle time.

A more robust energy save feature (DPMS) is also supported by the X server on newer hardware. DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling) profides support for having the monitor on normally, standby, suspend and power off modes. More info on DPMS is available here.

To use dpms one also uses the xset command. For example 'xset dpms 600 1200 2400' would put the monitor in standby mode after 600 second of idle time, into suspend mode after 1200 seconds and after 2400 seconds turn the monitor off. The monitor would be brought out of any of these modes and the timer reset to 0 when the mouse is moved or a key on the keyboard is entered. For more details see the xset man page (man -M/usr/openwin/man xset) and search for dpms.

If you would like a traditional screen saver and/or lock your screen xlock can be used. It can support different screen savers with the -mode option (see xlock -help or the xlock man page). In public labs please do not leave the screen locked for more than a few minutes.

6. How to use the SUNPCi card

Sun has a PCI card for Suns with an x86 processor on it, which can be used to run Windows XP on a Sun. The PCi card is a mini-PC on a card. It uses the Sun's keyboard and mouse for input. For the display it can run in an X11 window or, with a VGA cable to the card can display to a separate monitor or the second channel on some monitors. The card also has audio connectors and a USB port.

To use the PCi card do the following:

The card must be installed in a supported PCI Sun and the driver software must be installed on the host.
Windows will need a lot of disk space to do its thing. For best performance create a directory on the local host's disk (ex. /m/HOST/USER/pc). You will specify this path later when the software asks to create a C drive.
Run /opt/SUNWspci2/bin/sunpci. The first time ran it will ask to create the C drive. It will default to a location in a pc directory in your home directory, but you need to change this to match the directory created above. Select a size you feel appropriate for the C drive (ex. 4GB, 8GB). The C drive will reside in a large file in Solaris (ex. /m/HOST/USER/pc/C.diskimage).
Then the PCi card should boot up into DOS. You can then proceed to install Windows.
The startup box should have a menu in the upper right to select the windows OS version, select Windows XP with NTFS
The XP install takes about 1-2 hours to complete and you have to respond to several inputs along the way.. (All the PCi cards are named "SUN-WORKSTATION-NAME"-pci1 if you want to use that as a name for your Windows setup when prompted. The WORKGROUP can be anything and is used to share files insecurely between other Windows systems)
Once the system starts, you can run the BAT file in C:\SUN to finish the Sun driver installation.
To access the Sun Network disks (your Home, etc.), open the My Computer icon under the START menu. Right-Click the "My Network Places" link in the Left frame, and select Map Network Drive.
Enter \\localhost\usa\USERNAME and select the mount at boot button. (Replace USERNAME above with your USERNAME..) If you have a local disk on your system you want to access also, you can follow the \\localhost\ with any valid UNIX path. If you browse alot, you may want to mount \\localhost\ by itself, which will be the / directory on your local machine, then you can navigate from there to any unix path/disk.
To change the display properties, open the Display icon in the Control Panel. Under Settings, you can't use the slider, instead you have to go to the Advanced button, and under Adaptor there is a button to show what display options you can run. Select the resolution and number of colors there and it will take effect after closing the Wizard.Note: A Windows license is not included with the SunPCi card. Customers must purchase an OEM copy of Windows or other appropriate version to run the Windows operating system.

7. Setting eXceed to open a Xwindow

Please see this on using eXceed. Specifically, see how to use SSH with eXceed.

Also see this on configuring eXceed. Everyone running the Hummingbird Exceed software on their PCs, needs to be aware of the "Security" section from the above configuration documentation page. The software installs by default with no security and allows remote hackers to log your keystrokes when using Exceed.

8. Connecting a Computer,Printer,etc. onto the Network in an ECE/CIS research lab

Policies for purchasing, obtaining support, and user responsibilities of ECE/CIS networked systems can be found HERE. These Policies are also displayed for acknowledgement when systems are registered through the Network Activation web form mentioned below.

Faculty members can request that a University Owned, self-administered Computer/Printer/etc. (henceforth known as a PC) be connected to the ECE/CIS network in their research lab. This is done by filling out the Network Activation Form.

8.1 Incomplete or inaccurate information will delay connections!

Approved requests will result in an ethernet port being activated to use and the PC's ethernet address configured into the DHCP server. Non-University owned PCs are not permitted on the ECE/CIS network. Such personal systems may be given limited access to access departmental mail, web and cpu servers or a University connection if available.

Once the connection is activated, and the PC is configured into the DHCP server, the PC should be set to do DHCP (obtain address automatically). This is usually done by Right-clicking on the Network Neighborhood icon and selecting Properties. Find/Highlight the TCP/IP driver for the active network interface, and select the Properties button. The DHCP server will configure the PC's IP address, DNS servers, routers and other network information.

9. NSF Fastlane

The NSF's FasLane FAQs about pdf file creation is available here.

Additionally, if you submit LaTeX files thru Fastlane, you must remove all CMS fonts from your .dvi file:

dvips -t letter -Pcms FILENAME -o

will produce FILENAME.PS with all type-1 postscript fonts.

10. PNPI Info

PNPI stands for Personal Non-Public Information. The University maintains guidelines and programs to assist people with this at http://www.udel.edu/pnpi. There are several acts related to keeping personal information private and everyone should be aware of the policy. Read that page. The biggest thing is to not store Social Security Numbers (SSNs) in plaintext. Information such as SSNs, credit card numbers and grades must be either encrypted or stored on a central server.

Additionally, If ANY (Administrative/Faculty/Grad/etc.) system on the network gets infected by a virus/trojan/etc that could indicate/result in any data compromise, the system will be taken off the network for a full security scan AND a full PNPI scan. This may require several days of downtime and/or certification forms signed by the user verifying compliance. It is important that PNPI data is not kept on computers, or if it's required to be stored, that it be encrypted.

11. Windows machines network disabled due to virus, etc.

If a Windows machine is causing any kind of trouble on the network it will have its network port disabled. Usually the trouble is caused by a virus, worm or trojan that is running on the system. The system will not be allowed back on the network until the problem is resolved. Also be aware of the PNPI issues addressed above.

If ANY system is causing trouble on the network, it will be disabled until the problem is found and resolved. This may require a full re-installation of the operating system if the problem(s) can not be resolved. The end-user and/or Administrator of the system is ultimately responsible for keeping any and all virus software, OS and application patches, and security/firewall rules up to date and active AT ALL TIMES.

Comments

To add a comment, click the link below. You are free to contribute anonymously, but it is preferred that you sign your comments with your name. Simply add ~~~~ to the end of your comment to sign it. Regardless of whether you sign your comment, your username will be visible on the History page.
(Add Your Own)

AdditionalInformation