KU Mathematics: Using a Linux Workstation

Using a Linux Workstation

Gregory Harris, gharris@math.ku.edu
Revised: July 2004

Workstations at the Mathematics Department are being installed with Linux. Linux is a UNIX-like operating system that is freely-distributed and open-source. I have modified Scientific Linux 4 and installed it for our use here. This page doesn't describe basic UNIX shell commands; please read the UNIX Help pages for that.

If you can't find a command or program that you use regularly, please e-mail help@math.ku.edu and we will consider installing the program on the workstations.

On this page:

1. The Desktop
2. Looking at Files
3. Editing text files
4. Word processing and spreadsheets
5. Email
6. Finding more documentation

1. The Desktop

Computer Files

When you log into the linux machine, your desktop will be loaded with the default settings I have configured. At the top left corner of the screen will be an icon labeled "Computer". The computer icon controls access to the files on the computer, whether it be on the CD-ROM, the floppy drive, or the filesystem on the hard disk.
Home Icon

Your Files

Below the "Computer" icon is an icon labeled "User's home", where User is your user id. Double clicking on this icon will show all of the files in your account on our network server drive.

Trash Can

The trash can is a temporary storage container for files you have deleted. Right-clicking on the trash can will pop up a menu where you can empty your trash can. This serves as a safety feature against accidental deletion of files.

Panel

The panel is the bar along the bottom edge of your screen. It serves the purpose of launching applications you wish to run, switching between these applications, and logging out of the system. It also contains the system time and date.

In the image of the panel above you will see options to launch programs. First there is a Menu bar that contains the words "Applications" and "Actions". Clicking on "Applications" will cause a drop-down menu to open up. This is much like the "Start" button on a Windows machine.

You will see categories of applications you can click on to show the applications of that category you can launch. Click on the name of an application to launch the program. The "Actions" menu, will open up a window of actions you can take. In this menu are the options "Run Application...", "Search for Files...", "Recent Documents", "Take Screenshot", "Lock Screen", and "Log Out". Use "Run Application..." only when you know the exact name of the file to launch.

Launchers

To the right of the Menu bar are the launcher buttons. Placing your mouse over one of the launcher buttons will provide additional explanation of what the button does. The launcher buttons are provided as a convenience to avoid having to click "Applications", and then the category, and finally the program, every time you want to launch a program.

Additional information on the GNOME desktop, including advanced features, can be found in the GNOME Desktop User Guide at http://www.gnome.org/learn/users-guide/latest/.

2. Looking at Files

You can browse the files in your home directory using the Home icon on the desktop.

3. Editing Text Tiles

For general text-editing, which includes T_EX files, HTML source, matlab modules, C programs, etc., you may want to look at gedit. Gedit is easier to use than vi and emacs, but still has lots of features useful for technical users. Highlighting is built in for many different file types, including L^AT_EX, and virtually all types of source code.

The computer systems also have the standard command-line editors: vi, emacs, xemacs, and nano.

4. Word processing and spreadsheets

For word-processing and spreadsheets, use OpenOffice.

OpenOffice is useful for writing letters, syllabi, making grade sheets, and can import and make MS Word and Excel files too. For those of you used to using StarOffice in the past, OpenOffice is based off of StarOffice, so not much has changed.

5. E-mail

There are two different methods of reading mail on a Linux workstation. The preferred way of reading mail is through a program called Thunderbird. I have written scripts to automatically configure Thunderbird for each user, so no manual configuration should be necessary.

Thunderbird icon

To start thunderbird, click on the thunderbird icon in the panel.

Thunderbird screen

After you start thunderbird, you should see a window like this. On the left are your mailboxes. You will have an INBOX, and you can create folders later on to sort mail. The filtered-spam mailbox contains messages that are likely to be spam. If you can't find a message you are waiting on, please check the filtered-spam mailbox. The other mailbox is sent-mail. Any mail you sent through either thunderbird or through pine will be in this mailbox. Thunderbird is much like any other graphical email program, and fairly intuitive.

Terminal Icon
The second way of reading mail is through pine. This is a console program that works well when away from campus. To use pine, you first need to open a terminal window by clicking on the terminal icon. At the terminal window, type the command pine. If you want to read mail remotely, you need to connect to pascal.math.ku.edu with an SSH program. This is described in the section: Remote Login: SSH.

6. Finding more documentation

UNIX in general:
Use the commands apropos and man. Apropos is more general — if you give it a word, it will find manual pages that have to to do with that word. To look at a particular manual page, use man topic, where topic is a specific command or subject.

T_EX and L^AT_EX:
Use the command texdoc.

gedit:
gedit has an extensive help built-in. Start by clicking on Applications->Accessories->Text Editor, and you'll find the help menu on the right side of the window.

Perl:
Use the command perldoc. You can see a list of available documents by using perldoc perl. If you are using a Perl module, you can use perldoc on it, for example, perldoc Getopt::Std.