JPM | Resources | "Getting Started" Page for UT

Path

The Linux systems at UT are very well managed overall. However, I have found a few things that really should be in your path but for one reason or another are not in the default path. They are:

/lusr/java2/bin (for javac)
/lusr/gnu/bin (for ps2pdf, gnuplot and others)
/p/bin (for mozilla and many, many others)

There are many places you can modify the path, for example the file ~/.profile. The command is: 

PATH=${PATH}:/lusr/java2/bin:/lusr/gnu/bin:/p/bin
export PATH
Note that the /p/bin directories are student-managed. You should put them at the end of your path to avoid that some command there overrides a system command.

(update 1/16/2003: /lusr/bin used to be listed here, but the system administrators have since added it to the default path. Thanks!)

Sawfish

Having problems with the menus on the Sawfish windowmanager? It seems that something went wrong during the UTCS update of gnome. To make sawfish work again, put /lusr/gnome/bin at the front of your path. Worked for me.

Java

If you're using java then your CLASSPATH should include /lusr/java2/jre/lib/rt.jar:.

You can either use the javac java compiler (in /lusr/java2/bin) or the faster jikes compiler (in /lusr/bin).

dos2unix

This script, once run in a bash shell, will give you two new useful commands: dos2unix and unix2dos, to convert between the different end-of-line conventions. They take a file name as argument and output the converted file to standard out. The script can easily be adapted for other shells because it's basically just a call to perl.

Mozilla and pdf

UTCS configured mozilla with the plugger plugin, which in addition to several useful features displays postscript and PDF files inside of the mozilla window. If you do not want these types of files displayed in the mozilla window, follow these steps:
  1. quit mozilla
  2. cp /lusr/opt/plugins/pluggerrc ~/.mozilla/
  3. Edit ~/.mozilla/pluggerrc and comment out the file types that you do not want to appear inside of the mozilla window
  4. rm ~/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat
  5. restart mozilla

More

There are more tips on customizing your Linux experience on my "Linux goodies" page, for example Console Shortcuts and Mozilla Keyboardlets.

If you think of more things that everyone should set up on their UT machine, please contact me.

Another useful resource for new students is the GRACS Documentation (also known as "the primer") and the CS FAQ.

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