Computer Lab and Accounts

Each student in the course will get a cs12 account to use for coursework. These accounts are hosted on the machine ieng6.ucsd.edu, a multiprocessor server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We will use the JDK 1.6 (also known as "Java 2 Standard Edition Version 6") environment for Java programming. These resources are for work related to CSE 12 only.

Your cs12 account name will be assigned automatically when you enroll in the class. To find out what your cs12 account name is, you can use the Account Lookup Tool. Your password will be the same as your UCSD email account password.

Access to the server is available via workstations in the Instructional Lab B260 in the CSE building. The lab is available 24 hours per day, with door combination accessible through the Account Lookup Tool.

Getting logged on

Sit down at a workstation in the lab. Move the mouse. The screen should wake up. These workstations are dual boot Windows and Linux machines. If the machine offers you a Windows login, you must reboot into Linux:
- At the Windows login hit "Ctrl-Alt-Del", select Options, Restart, Click OK
- As the machine restarts, you will get a screen where you can choose to boot into Windows or Linux. Use the keyboard arrow keys to choose Linux and hit enter.
- After a minute or so, you should see the Linux login prompt, a box asking for your username (or login).
In the Linux login prompt box, type your username (cs12zzz -- where zzz is replaced with your letter combination). Don't know your login or password? Get access to a web browser and use the ACS account lookup tool!
When prompted, type in your password.
You will be logged in and brought to a Linux desktop environment. You can explore and customize this graphical desktop environment, however we will require you to become proficient in using the "Command Line Interface" (CLI).
- The CLI is a good thing to know about, because it permits a deeper understanding of the internal workings of the operating system, and also makes it easier to work remotely (from home, for example).
- Compared the the "Graphical User Interface" (GUI) you are probably more familiar with, using the CLI is just a matter of typing command lines in a Console or Terminal window.
- A command line consists of the name of a program to run, and perhaps some arguments which will be passed to the program. You press the "enter" key on the keyboard to terminate the line and send the command to the UNIX shell. You may want to read more about this process in the recommended UNIX book for the course.
- To get access to a Terminal window from the GUI, right click on the background and select "New Terminal" from the menu shown. You can do this multiple times to get multiple Terminal windows. (When you log in remotely, you will be automatically in a Terminal window).

Getting logged off

Don't forget to log off of your machine when you are leaving it! In the GUI, pull down the System menu toward the left of the upper menu bar and select Log Out. Then Click OK in the dialog box that pops up to complete your logout. (The logout icon can be dragged to the menu bar, to make logging out a little faster in the future.)

For the schedule of CSE 12 tutor lab hours, look here.

Access to the ieng6.ucsd.edu server is also available from anywhere on the Internet. For links to download Java and remote connection software for your own machine, look here.