This lab gives you the opportunity to explore (or at least configure):
Please don’t be intimidated! Although this lab contains many details which may seem overwhelming at first, these mechanics will become familiar rather quickly. Feel free to talk to the instructor or with a CS tutor if you have questions or want additional help!
To use any of the computers on Grinnell’s GNU/Linux network, one must log in, identifying oneself by giving a user name and a password. MathLAN workstations are configured to use the same username and password as other Grinnell services. If you do not know your Grinnell username or password please tell the instructor soon; we will need to contact ITS to reset your account information.
When a GNU/Linux workstation is not in use, it will display a login screen with a space into which one can type one’s user name and, later, one’s password. (If the workstation’s monitor is dark, move the mouse a bit and the login screen will appear.) This window belongs to xdm, the Xwindows Display Manager. Now, move the pointer onto any part of the box containing the login box. Type in your user name, in lower-case letters, and press the Enter key. The login screen will be redrawn to acknowledge your user name and to ask for your password; type it into the space provided and press Enter. (Because no one else should see your password, it is not displayed on screen as you type it.)
At this point, a computer program that is running on the workstation contacts the College’s authentication server to validate the user name and password. If it does not find the particular combination that you have supplied, it prints a brief message saying that the attempt to log in was unsuccessful and then returns to the login screen – inviting you to try again. Consult the instructor or the system administrator if your attempts to log in are still unsuccessful. (Make sure that you don’t have any spaces before your username; that’s one of the most common errors.)
Once you have logged in, a panel will appear at the bottom of the screen. Some other windows also may be visible in other parts of your screen. All of these areas are managed by a special program, called a window manager. On our network, login chores and other administrivia are handled by a program or operating system, called GNU/Linux, and the primary user interaction is handled by a window manager (GUI), called Xfce.
While some materials for this course will be available in paper, almost everything for this course (including electronic versions of paper materials) will be available on the internet. To use Firefox to view materials, such as this course’s syllabus and this lab, you may follow these steps:
Click the Firefox icon on the panel, next to the Applications menu. The Firefox icon is a small red creature (presumably a fox) holding a bluish sphere.
If you do not see the Firefox icon, then move the pointer onto the Applications Menu icon at the bottom left of the panel (in Xfce, it looks like a creature on a blue X) and click once with the left mouse button. The applications menu will pop up. Move the mouse over Internet, then Firefox. Click the left mouse button once to launch Firefox.
Some students have discovered that Firefox doesn’t launch. If that
happens, it may be that the launcher references the wrong version
of Firefox. Ask one of the class staff to change the launcher
from firefox-esr %u to just firefox. Or just do it yourself.
The materials for this course will walk you through using the Firefox web browser, but a version of Google Chrome is available on MathLAN workstations as well in the Applications menu under the Internet section. You can add this browser your panel if you prefer. (You can add something to your panel by dragging it from the menu to the panel.)
The first time you run Firefox on our network, two message boxes might appear.
You should approve of any requests by clicking on the appropriate word. The pop-up boxes then disappear; you should not see them on subsequent uses of Firefox. It’s also okay if the boxes don’t appear; Firefox’s behavior keeps changing.
Initially, Firefox displays a document containing some default information. You should navigate to the course website at https://csc151.cs.grinnell.edu.
We expect that most of you are already familiar with a Web browser. If not, please consult with one of us or with one of your colleagues.
Each GNU/Linux user can configure Firefox to reflect her, his, zir, or their own preferences. Between logins, these preferences are stored in a file in the user’s home directory; when Firefox is started during a later session, they are reinstated from that file.
Every user of Firefox in this class should establish a base page, a starting point for browsing. Here are the Uniform Resource Locators or URLs of some good choices:
To establish your base page within Firefox, bring up the primary Firefox menu from the menu bar by clicking on the icon with three lines in the upper-right-hand corner of the window. Then select the Settings operation. You should then see a new screen that permits you to configure many aspects of Firefox. Click the Home button on the left. In the home settings screen, you should see a section labeled New Windows and Tabs, the first entry of which is “Homepage and new windows”. Click on Firefox Home (Default). Select Custom URLs…. Paste in one of the recommended URLs. (This does not have to be a permanent change; you can change your mind about this configuration at any time within Firefox.)
To erase the current contents of the Home Page Location(s) box, move the mouse pointer to the left of the first character in the box, press the left mouse button and hold it down, and drag the mouse pointer rightwards until the entire URL is displayed in reverse video, white letters on a black background. Then release the left mouse button and type the new URL; the old one will vanish as soon as you start typing. Once you have entered the new URL, move the mouse pointer onto the button marked OK at the bottom of the pop-up window and click on it with the left mouse button.
You can, of course, simply navigate to the page you want to use as your home page and then click on Use Current Pages.
You may note that the button says “Pages” (plural) rather than “Page” (singular). Since Firefox permits tabbed browsing (that is, you can have “tabs” within the same window that you switch between), you can have a home set of tabs. Particularly obsessive people might want to set up a sequence of tabs with say, links to labs, readings, and beyond.
Note that some folks have a default launcher for Firefox that is configured to start the web browser on a specific page, regardless of the home page you choose. If you don’t see your new home page when you restart Firefox, then ask for help.
If you’ve kept all those windows open, you’ll notice your screen is getting a bit crowded. Fortunately, a tool called the workspace switcher lets you uncrowd your windows by moving them among multiple desktops.
In the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, you should see an icon that looks like a box containing four smaller boxes. (If you don’t see it, ask for help.) This is the workspace switcher, a tool that lets you keep your application windows on several different desktops or workspaces.
The upper-left-hand box represents the desktop you are working on right now. It contains a number of still smaller boxes of varying shapes and sizes, which represent the windows you have open. When you move or resize the a window on the desktop, you should see the window’s representation in the switcher move as well. Give it a try by wiggling one of your windows around.
Now, click in one of the other three boxes. You should see a new, blank desktop with no windows on it. Where did they go? If you look at the switcher, you’ll see they are still in the desktop you started on. Switch back to that desktop.
You can also use the switcher to move windows from one desktop to another. Find the switcher again and identify the box that corresponds to your Firefox window. Click that box and drag it a little ways to the right, onto the next desktop. The window should disappear from the first desktop. If you click onto the desktop to the right, you should see it there.
In this class, you’ll usually need to work with multiple windows: The DrRacket window for your programs, a terminal window or two, and a Web browser to read the laboratory exercises and reference materials. As you get settled in over the next few weeks, consider how you might use the switcher to help you organize your workspace efficiently.
By default, the workspace switcher presents four workspaces arranged in two rows of two each. If you want to change this configuration, right-click on the workspace switcher and select Properties to change the number of rows. Clicking on Workspace settings… will let you change the number of workspaces.
Caution: If you use the mouse scroll wheel while your cursor is over the empty desktop area, you will switch workspaces. This sometimes alarms students as it appears to have closed all of your running applications. You can switch back to the correct workspace by clicking in the workspace switcher. If this bothers you, you may want to reduce the number of workspaces to just one.
If you’ve successfully logged in, started Firefox, selected your home page, tried DrRacket, configured your account, and played with multiple desktops, you’ve completed the lab and you can finally stop.
When you are done using a workstation, you must log out in order to allow other people to use it. To log out, move the pointer onto your username, at the lower right corner of the screen, and click the left mouse button. A menu will pop up giving several options. Move the pointer onto the words Log Out at the bottom of the menu and click the left mouse button. A confirmation dialog will appear, giving you 30 seconds to change your mind. Click the Log out to log out immediately. The Xfce window manager vanishes, and after a few seconds the login screen reappears; this confirms that you’re really logged out.
Please do not turn off the workstation when you are finished. The GNU/Linux workstations are designed to operate continuously; turning them off and on frequently actually shortens their life expectancy. Modern computers use very little power when they are sitting idle, so this is not a significant waste of resources.