The Enet Frequently-Asked Questions List



Basic Account Questions (Section 1)

1-01. How do I get more disk space?

First, make sure you are making efficient use of the space you already have. Remove unused temporary and outdated files, "core" files.
Note: please don't zip/compress files to save space (zip files take the same space on our backups as the original files - and we find that people actually waste space by having both a zipped copy and an unzipped copy of the file - just ask for more space)

You should also know how to use /scratch (see 4-11 below)

If and only if you have made sure of the above and still need more disk space, contact the Enet staff enet@enet.umn.edu.

Note: You start with 250MB of space, we will increase you to 500MB without question.
If you think you need more that 1000MB, please discuss it with us first - then run the request through your advisor/supervisor.

1-02. How do I change my password?

See: Choosing and Changing Passwords

1-03. I forgot my password, what should I do?

Come by AkerH 311 in person (with photo-id) and we can enter a new password for your account (we cannot tell you what your password was).

1-04. I am going to be out of the state for some time. How do I forward my mail to another address?

By default, all new Enet accounts forward to the respective @umn.edu address, you should log into Univerisity of Minnesota - WebMail: mail.umn.edu to forward your mail

You can cause all of your email to be forwarded to another address by editing the file named 

	/my/${USER}_mail/.forward
	(note ${USER} is an environment variable, you can replace it with your username or type it exactly as above).
and placing your new email address in that file (one email address per line). It might be a good idea to test it out first by sending yourself an email before relying on it.

You can forward your mail through our Webmail server: https://webmail.enet.umn.edu/

You can forward your mail through this control as well: https://www.aem.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mailconfig/login

1-05. I'm having trouble accessing AEM's systems remotely via ftp or telnet. How do I do this?

See: Accessing Enet

1-06. How do I access the Windows NT/XP machines?

To access the NT/XP machines, you need to have an NT account set up (you must also already have a Enet Unix account). Come by ME 152 (with Photo-ID) to have the account set up.

1-07. How do I access my Enet account from the Macs?

Your Enet account can be accessed on macs which are connected to the network. The steps are:
  1. From the Apple Menu, select GO".
  2. Select "Connect to server".
  3. enter "smb://sh/${USER}" (where ${USER} is your username)
  4. Log in with your AD domain (AD\${USER), username and password.
  5. You can unmount it by dragging the icon to the trash (like ejecting a CD).

1-08. Netscape/SeaMonkey/Eudora/Outlook can't connect to the outgoing mail server. What do I do?

See: What you should know about email

1-09. What should I use for my IMAP server name to get my ME mail?

See: What you should know about email

The Enet Web Server (Section 2)

2-01. How do I create a home page?

That depends on the type of home page you wish to create. To create a personal home page, simply follow the instructions on the MEnet home page about making your own MEnet home page.

To create a home page for a lab, research center, or class, see question 4. below

2-02. How do I password protect a subdirectory in my home page

Instructions for doing this are available in the:
How to password protect stuff page.

2-03. I am a TA for a course. How do I make a course web page?

See question 4. below

2-04. How do I get my Course/Group/Laboratory page added to the ME web server?

To add/correct information on the official ME web server (www.me.umn.edu)
see: Webpage Management

Questions about other Computer Systems (Section 3)

3-01. Who do I talk to about activating or changing the password on my tc.umn.edu account?

Call or visit the Microcomputer group, 152 Shepherd Labs, 626-4276. Or email them at the appropriate addresses on the Shepherd Labs Email help page.

For activating your umn student email (not your Enet) account, visit the Student Account Activation Page.

To configure your student or staff email account, visit the the account management page .

Software Questions (Section 4)

4-01. How do I find documentation for (some software package)?

Software documentation comes in a number of forms. First see if 'man program' gives useful information. Additional online information may be available through the Enet documentation page.

4-02. What is this "module" stuff I keep hearing about?

The Modules package provides a single command line interface for manipulating your UNIX environment. Enet uses it to provide configuration information for many of our popular software packages. The Modules system on Enet is documented here.

4-03. Do you have (some software package)?

Ask us - the list of available software changes regularly.

4-04. Where is 'jot'?

We removed jot from the SGI's for a number of reasons. Primarily, 'jot' has some known security flaws. Furthermore, 'jot' was removed because it requires the user to be logged into an SGI console to be used, tying up user resources. The systems staff instead suggests emacs, vi, or nedit. And knowledge of vi and emacs can be very useful in other UNIX systems you may enounter.

4-05. Gfinger

By typing 'gfinger' you can see a list of who is logged into each computer. Similarly, by typing 'gfinger .free' you can see which machines are (probably) currently available for login.

4-06. Printers

For information on printing, consult the Enet Printing Page.

4-07. How do I use the floppy drives?

Using the floppy depends on whether you are logged into a Sun, SGI or a Linux machine.

On the Suns: 

	1. Insert your floppy (dos format)
	2. Type 'volcheck'.
	3. The floppy is now accessible through /floppy/floppy0.
	4. Type 'eject' when done.
On Redhat Linux: 
	1. Insert a formatted floppy disk into the drive.
	2. Type 'mount /mnt/floppy'.
	4. The floppy disk will be accessible as /mnt/floppy
	5. When done, run 'unmount /mnt/floppy' (make sure you are not accessing /mnt/floppy)
		so you can eject it without damaging the files on the floppy.
On SGIs: 
	SGI machines don't have floppy drives.

Alternately (On Sun and Linux) you can use the 'mtools' package ('man mtools' for information).
Basically, mtools provides the basic dos command names, accessed by prepending the command with an 'm'. Examples include: 

	mdir a:
	mcopy a:file.txt .

4-08. How do I use the ZIP drives?

Using the ZIP drive (on Redhat Linux Machines) is accomplished with the following steps: 
	1. Insert a formatted zip disk into the drive.
	2. Type 'mount /mnt/zip'.
	4. The zip disk will be accessible as /mnt/zip
	5. When done, run 'unmount /mnt/zip' (make sure you are not accessing /mnt/zip) so you can eject it.
(Suns and SGIs do not have zip drives)

4-09. How do I run the scanner in room 10?

On Unix: 
	module load scanner
	xsane
On Windows: 
	select:
		Start->Basic->Imaging->Xsane.---

4-10. I left my files in /tmp or /usr/tmp and they aren't there anymore. What happened?

"/tmp" and "/usr/tmp" should not be used for storage of any files as we will delete any files we find there (use "/scratch" instead)

4-11. Where can I save temporary files?

On Most machines, you can put your temporary stuff in "/scratch" (you should make a personal folder under "/scratch" with your username as in "/scratch/paulfm" for your use - DO NOT put files directly in "/scratch").
This directory is not automatically emptied on reboot (Please remove your stuff when you are done).
Enet may remove any file under "/scratch" that is over 10 days old to make space for other users, so make sure you don't leave anything there that can't be re-created
Note that scratch is LOCAL to the machine and you will be able to access files there at a much higher speed than files in your home directory (plus the space is only limited by the space available on scratch - not by quotas) - so this is a good place to have background jobs write and read data (to speed them up).

4-12. What word processors are available?

On Unix, the very powerful TeX and LaTeX document preparation systems perform much the same task producing high quality printed documents), and many students have successfully used LaTeX to produce their theses: 
	module load tex
	man tex
For TeX and LaTeX information, see the Enet LaTeX FAQ.

On many machines we now have Open Office available (including Windows) 

	openoffice
or	ooffice

	(on Windows it is Start->Programs->OpenOffice.---)

We also have a command called 'wts' which allows you to log into a Windows Terminal Server (Windows NT Terminal Server).
All of our Windows Machines have Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) as well as MixTex and Openoffice.

4-13. What machine do I use for a USENET news server? 

	As of March 2007 the university no longer maintains a news server.

4-14. All of a sudden, my X Windows has stopped working, I can't click on windows to move them

Usually this means the Num Lock key has been activated (for reasons unknown, Netscape randomly activates the num lock flag, for example), which with the default fvwm configuration causes mouse clicks not to be recognized. The solution is simple: Hit the Num Lock Key.
If that doesn't work - send an e-mail to enet@enet.umn.edu

User Account Customization (Section 5)

5-01. How do I run fvwm2 on the SGI's?

Some users like all UNIX machines to present the same environment on login. If you copy your .xinitrc.fvwm2 file to .xsession_sgi (editting if necessary), then it will be run instead of the default SGI login.

Also, if you create a file called .disableDesktop, you can turn off the SGI desktop application (the one that creates the dumpster, etc.).

5-02. What are all these "dot files" in my directory?

Here are the common "dot files" for user configuration. Your account should have all of these (except those noted). If any are missing, see question 5-04 below. 
	.cshrc
	.login
	.logout		(normally not there - do not add one unless you know what you are doing)
	.tcshrc		(normally not there - do not add one unless you know what you are doing)
Customization files for your shell (csh or tcsh). Be careful editing these files, as incorrect changes may make it impossible for you to log in. 'man csh' for more info. Note that in general these startup files are not interchangeable between users or between Enet and other unix systems! 
	.bash_profile
	.bashrc
Customization files for the bash shell. Be careful editing these files. 'man bash' for more info. Note that in general these startup files are not interchangeable between users or between Enet and other unix systems! 
	.mozilla	(Created the first time you start a Mozilla program)
Where Unix Mozilla programs hide their configuration info, like your bookmarks.html file. 
	.fvwm2rc
Configuration file for the fvwm2 window manager, (the program responsible for window frames and title bars, etc, on the Sun, Linux, and possibly SGI machines). 'man fvwm2' for more info. 
	.dmrc
	.Xclients
	.Xclients-default
	.xinitrc.fvwm2
	.xsession_linux       (usually a link to .xinitrc.fvwm2)
	.xsession_sgi         (usually a link to .xinitrc.fvwm2)
	.xsession_sun         (usually a link to .xinitrc.fvwm2)
	.xsession_freebsd     (usually a link to .xinitrc.fvwm2)
Startup files for the X11 windowing environment. Like the csh config files, take great care when editting these as incorrect changes can result in login failure. 
	.Xdefaults		(you might not have one of these)
	.Xresources
are where user specific configuration of X11 programs is kept. 'man X' for details on the format of these files.

5-03. Ok, I tried to customize my X or fvwm config files and can't login anymore. What can I do?

Type your login name and password without the final (after your password) return. At this point hit the F1 key. This will log you in bypassing your setup files. This will be an ugly login without window manager but it will let you restore your startup files.
You can run: 
	fixhome
		or (if fixhome is not in your path)
	/stage/site/common/bin/fixhome
to restore the Enet default files - it will ask you before replacing a file (missing files will be remade without question). We recommend you Answer "n" to the any question about replacing files unless you KNOW you want that specific file replaced with a default version.

5-04. I screwed up my dot files and don't remember what they are supposed to look like. Help!

Original copies of official Enet login files may be copied into place with 
	fixhome
We recommend you Answer "n" to the any question about replacing a file unless you KNOW you want that specific file replaced with a default version (missing files will be remade without question).

Questions? Contact Enet: enet@enet.umn.edu

Enet MAIN PAGE