Using Linux in CoE. Laboratory

Note: Computers in the software laboratory of the computer engineering department which use Linux as its OS (todate -- 7 June 2002 -- only HP vectra set) are using NIS (Network Information System) to provide user authenticate facilities. The 'calvin' is the master of this "coelab" domain. In which any person would like to use computer in the lab must has an account on "calvin.coe.psu.ac.th" first. Anyone didn't has the account yet, could contact sysadmin for an account. Home directory of users are located on calvin machine not a local disk on that machine.

How to add a new PATH
By edit file .bashrc in your home directory, and adding a line like this:
```
		PATH=$PATH:/new/path/you/want/to/add
	e.g.
		export PATH=$PATH:~/PladaoOffice1.0
	
```
$PATH is refered to the old PATH value, the '~' -- tild character is recognized by bash shell as your home directory.
After edit the file for the next logging ini or start of a new shell, your PATH will effectively has new PATH you want to add. However, for this shell session, you can use
```
		$ . .bashrc
	
```
to make the new modified PATH effective.
Setup PladaoOffice
PladaoOffice has been setup on each single linux machine as network installed. Each user need their personal setup to be used. And you need to do this only once, for the next time you login from any machine in the lab, you can use it. To do this, you have to run:
```
		$ /usr/local/PladaoOffice1.0/program/setup
	
```
From X terminal, and answer the questions, the program asked step by step. When finished, if you choose to install it directly in your home directory. You can call the program by:
```
		$ ~/PladaoOffice1.0/soffice
	
```
or by change PATH variable like above and then use only "soffice".
Transfer data between Windows machine to Calvin
It is recommended to use secure connection when you are working in student lab. Since the sysadmin couldn't guaranteed that there won't be any student running sniffer program to monitor your login and to grab your password.
For a telnet like session, please use putty or other program of this kind with secure shell connection (port 22). You can download putty from ftp://ftp.coe.psu.ac.th/pub/secure-shell/putty/0.51/putty.exe.
For file transfer, you can use pscp, which is in the same package with putty, which you can download from ftp://ftp.coe.psu.ac.th/pub/secure-shell/putty/0.51/pscp.exe.
pscp need to be run from command line, so it is recommended to put it somewhere in your machine PATH. I choose to put it in C:\WINDOWS, since this seems to be guaranteed that if you start a DOS session, you will have this in your PATH.
File transfer could be done by using command like this:
```
		C:\Windows> pscp cj@calvin.coe.psu.ac.th:workplace/test.txt .
	
```
Replace "cj" with your loginname, "calvin.coe.psu.ac.th" with the machine name, which could be "ratree.psu.ac.th", or "fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th" or any machine that has secure shell server running on it. Colon, ':', separated the machine name with the path to file with respect to your home directory to that machine.
So to copy from your Windows machine to calvin, you can do
```
		C:\Windows> pscp \temp\file.c myloginname@calvin.coe.psu.ac.th:
	
```
which will put your 'file.c' in your home directory on calvin.
You can use option "-r" to make recursive directory copy to or from calvin. For examples:
```
		C:\My Documents\homepage> pscp -r . myloginname@calvin.coe.psu.ac.th:public_html
	
```
copy homepage directory on your windows machine to public_html directory (your home page) on calvin.

Last update: 7 June 2002