UC Davis Computer Science at
Home
This document will
provide you with a way to communicate with the Computer Science Instructional
Facility (CSIF) from home, and a variety of ways to create a UNIX environment
at home.
Remote Access to the CSIF
You will need secure shell (ssh) and secure
file transfer protocol (sftp) software to communicate with the CSIF. PuTTY is a free ssh program, and WinSCP3 is a free sftp program with a
GUI. You can download putty from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html,
and WinSCP from http://winscp.net/eng/index.php. Once you have the programs you will create
sessions using a CSIF computer name, e.g. pc13.cs.ucdavis.edu
Accessing the Computer Science
Newsgroups
To read and write to the newsgroups
you need to configure a newsreader. This
document will demonstrate how to configure two popular newsreaders: Outlook
Express and Thunderbird.
To configure Outlook Express, start it, and then go to
Tools->Accounts.
To configure Thunderbird, start it, and then follow these steps:
Unix at
Home
There are three ways
of having a Unix experience at home: 1) Install a copy of Linux as a virtual
machine on top of Windows; 2) installing cygwin in Windows; and 3) installing
Linux on one of your hard drives, and dual booting it with Windows. You will find http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/Linux/LinuxInstall.pdf quite helpful for the latter two methods.
Installing Fedora 13 as a
Virtual Machine
You can find instructions and a copy of a Fedora 13 virtual
machine by going to: http://csiflabs.cs.ucdavis.edu,
then click on "Documentation" under the "Help" portion of
the "CSIF Menu", and then click on "CSIF Fedora Virtual
Machine". The direct link is: http://csifdocs.cs.ucdavis.edu/tiki-index.php?page=CSIF+Fedora+Virtual+Machine
Cygwin in Windows
Cygwin is a free application that emulates a Unix
shell while still running the Windows operating system. With cygwin, you can develop using gcc, gdb,
g++ on your Windows computer without need of connecting to the CSIF. You download the cygwin shell as well as
Windows ports of Unix software from cygwin.com. In a web browser, go to cygwin.com, and click
“Install Cygwin now”. Once you start
setup.exe, I suggest you accept all of the default selections until you reach
the “Select Packages” screen. When
selecting the options for cygwin you should at least install X11, openssh from the Net heading, and ddd,
gcc, g++, and gdb from the Devel heading. Once
cygwin is installed, you need only click on the cygwin icon to start a Unix like shell.
If you wish to program in a GUI environment you will need to use the X
Server. First follow the directions at
http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/setup-cygwin-x-installing.html to install the X
server. Then follow the following steps:
Start cygwin
Type cd
Type cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
Edit .bashrc using vi by typing vi .bashrc
Add the following
line at the end of .bashrc: PATH=$PATH:.:/usr/X11R6/bin
Save .bashrc, exit vi, and exit cygwin.
From now on, to
develop at home: start cygwin and then Type startx
For more information
visit http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using.html
To develop using the
CSIF computers remotely:
start cygwin and then Type startx
Type ssh -Y -l username remote_hostname,
e.g. ssh
–Y –l
After entering your
password, at the shell prompt, type xterm& this will open an X Window on your home
machine that you will now type into!
Installing Linux on your Hard
Drive
For this option you will to have a
copy of a Linux distribution DVD or CDs.
You can download the appropriate images from
http://distrowatch.com. You can read
Professor Matloff’s general guide at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/linux.html. If
you think you would like some hands on help, then you can go to an Installfest of the Linux User Group of