Hall computer how-to

Simpi: Debian-Athena workstation in KL

Piwest: Debian-Athena server in TVL

People to ask for help

meeg has the power (e.g. root). There are also many Linux-savvy people around who can help you with the things covered here.

When things go wrong

Never restart piwest. If you think a reboot is necessary, ask meeg.

Simpi does not mind being rebooted, but people may be logged in remotely. Check who is logged in (`who' command) before you reboot. Use Ctrl+Alt+Delete from a console (preferred) or press the reset button.

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace will restart X, killing any X logins.

Consoles and X

Black screen with white text: console (tty1 through tty6).

Colors and graphics: X (tty7)

Switch between with Ctrl+Alt+F1-7.

Useful commands

• man [command] (looks up the manual entry on some command)
• who (tells you who is logged in)
• uptime (how long the computer has been running)
• date (what day and time is it now)
• screen (useful commandline terminal extension thing to infinite!!!)
• write (send a message to another user logged in, use `zwrite' across Athena)
• ssh (login remotely to another machine)

These require special permissions:

• mplayer (plays back most audio formats)
• alsamixer (volume control)
• ncmpc (mysterious music playback daemon with playlist)
• sshfs (attach a remote filesystem to a local mountpoint, persists until machine is rebooted)
• smbmount (equivalent of sshfs for Windows fileshares)

Workstation quirks

The Debathena workstation environment (as seen on simpi) is somewhat different from regular Athena (as seen in clusters). Tips:

• Firefox is called Iceweasel and is in Applications/Internet.
• Terminal is in Applications/Accessories.
• Log out from the System menu.

Sound system

Simpi has a set of speakers connected directly.

Piwest has multiple outputs:

• Front: CD channel on TVL receiver
• Surround: unused
• Center: Munroe bathroom
• LFE: Kitchen and KL