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Mathematical Sciences Department
Computing Facilities FAQ
Beginner's questionsI do not want my work and future to depend on a companyMaintaining your own computer
Before you leave CMU
What do I do if my file does not print? Please see the debugging procedure here. How do I create a good looking pdf file starting from a dvi file in Linux? A dvi file can be transformed into a postscript file optimized to be converted to pdf using the "dvips -Ppdf" command and then the postscript file is transformed into a pdf file using the "ps2pdf" command. Alternatively, the dvi file stage can be skipped altogether by using pdflatex directly on the tex file. How do I know that a pdf file will look good on any platform? Rendering pdf files depends on the fonts used by the file and if those fonts exist on the reader's computer. The solution to this is using "Type I" fonts which are actually included in the file itself, are scaling well, and will be rendered correctly and nicely by almost any pdf reader. To see what type of fonts are used in a certain pdf document, open the document in the Acrobat Reader ("acroread" command in Linux), and open the following menu: "file" -> "Document Info" -> "Fonts". The Linux procedures described above generate pdf files containing only "Type I" fonts. How can I visualize data in Linux? Good packages for graphs, interactive graphs, animation:
How can I create movies in Linux? Movies can be created or transcoded by ffmpeg. For example, "fmpeg -r 3 -f image2 -i name-%05d.jpg name.mp4" will combine jpg frame files name-?????.jpg into a movie name.mp4 on a refresh rate of 3 frames per second. How can I view movies/listen to music on qwe or math computers? Each qwe computer and most of the math computers have sound cards. If speakers are not available, the output connector behind the computer can be used with user-provided headphones. Most multimedia files can be played with mplayer (or gmplayer if a GUI is desired) and vlc. How can I create mp3's in Linux? A very good application to transform wav files in mp3 is "lame". If you are handling wav and mp3 files on the qwe computers, please keep them inside a folder named "tmp" that can be created in your home directory, such that the large sound files will not clog the backup server. How can I edit sound in Linux? A nice sound/waveform editor/filter for wav files is "audacity". How can I use the scanner from Linux? Operation of the existing scanners is described here. How can I burn CDs/DVDs from Linux? A good application with self-explanatory GUI is k3b. NOTES:
What command should I use to do "that task"? How should I use this command? On Unix/Linux computers use the command "apropos keyword" to find a list of commands which may do things described by keyword; then use "man command" to find out what does the command do. If you are familiar with emacs, "info command" may offer a nicer interface that can be browsed. How can I find more about computers? A general purpose course 21-765. Introduction to Parallel Computing and Scientific Computation is offered each Spring Semester by the Math Sciences Department. How do I keep running a long job on the parallel cluster if I need to logout? You can start the job through "nohup". In that case the job will run in background and standard output goes into a file named nohup.out. The job doesn't quit at logout. Another solution is to use "byobu" to start a terminal. After the job is started, the bypbu session can be detached by pressing F6. To re-attach to the byobu session, just start byobu inside any remote session. How do I restrict access to parts of my website? The apache webserver allows access restriction to files in a directory based on a set of credentials. To use that, a file named .htaccess should be created inside the directory. For password based restriction, the file .htaccess should have the following structure:
AuthUserFile /export/home/math/user/directory/.htpasswd This will allow the access of the user "name" with the password specified in /export/home/math/user/directory/.htpasswd. To create or change the password, please use the "htpasswd -c -m name /export/home/math/user/directory/.htpasswd" command. It is possible to restrict access to directories based on the andrew credentials by using shibboleth. In that case, the .htaccess file should contain:
AuthType shibboleth How can I print text documents or e-mail messages from pine? Some of the printers will not print text documents properly when they are sent directly to the printer via the lpr command. Please use one of the mpage or enscript commands instead. These commands transform text into postscript and offer useful options for arranging the result in page (page orientation, multiple pages of text on a sheet of paper, etc - please see the manual pages). A text file "file.txt" can be printed at the queue "queue" using enscript by issuing the following command: "enscript -P queue file.txt" Some applications handling text documents, like "pine", use lpr behind the scenes to print the text files. Please configure "mpage" and "enscript" into those applications as well if needed. Why some pdf documents printed by acroread or okular on a duplex queue would come out one-sided? Even if the default settings of the queues starting with a "d" is duplex, this can be overwritten by the application or by the document itself. If an application prints one-sided on a duplex queue, please go to the properties of the queue inside the application's printing window and make sure that the right mode of duplex is selected. What matlab/maple/mathematica clones developed by the scientific community are available? scilab (developed at INRIA) or octave. What spreadsheets are available in Linux? gnumeric or the spreadsheet application in OpenOffice (command "soffice"). The OpenOffice spreadsheet handles most Excel files. What word processors are available in Linux? The power word processor for publishing is Latex. For fans of WYSIWYG applications: A nice and fast word processor is "abiword". It doesn't have as much features as
Microsoft Word, but in the end who is using at least half of those. It can read
and create MSWord documents. How can I create slides or PowerPoint-type presentations in Linux? One solution (the professional one) is to use the "slides" class in Latex. Or, for nicer graphics, you can use the prosper extensions to Latex (documentation in /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/misc/prosper). Other solution: A PowerPoint alike slide creator came with the OpenOffice suite (command "soffice"). How can I see/edit/print Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint in Linux? Some of those documents can be handled by the corresponding applications from OpenOffice (command "soffice"). Some Word documents can be handled by the "abiword" word processor. What's the IP setup for a .math computer in Wean Hall? Gateway: 128.2.112.1 How do I configure the public Math printers in Wean Hall? Public math printers in Wean Hall are listed here. They can be configured from any networked device belonging to Math Dept personnel. To collect the printout, you need to get a key to the print rooms from the main office, room 6113. On the qwe and Math private computers:
The accounts on the qwe cluster and on the Math private computers will last for as long as you need to safely move your files. Please talk to Florin about this, before you leave. The andrew account policies are rapidly changing. Please contact the Help Desk to find out more. |
