UNIX Basics

Training:
If you are unfamiliar with UNIX, please make use of the CCSO short courses. Sometimes they have some just for the Engineering WorkStation lab - check for advertisements on an EWS entrance. Unix is worth the time and effort to learn.
Logging in:
The monitors in ECE 344 lab should be turned off when not in use, so flip the switch on the front right below the screen to turn it on if necessary. Type your first initial followed by the first seven letters of your last name (if you have that many). This is your login name. Pressing return will place you into the password prompt area. A sheet will be passed out during the first or second lab period which will have your initial password on it. The first thing you should do when you first log in is change your password with the passwd command (next).
passwd:
Change your password to something with at least a couple of special or numeric characters and without any words found in ANY dictionaries. Use the passwd command and follow the prompts. Some good techniques are to use words spelled backwards or the first letters of a phrase and sprinkle in some special characters. Be sure your password is 6 to 8 characters long. Passwords should be changed occasionally for your own data security. Changes will normally take effect at the top of the hour.
The "root" menu:
The "root" menu will appear when you click and hold the left or right mouse button down while the cursor is outside of any of the windows on the screen. Many of the most useful things on the workstations will be listed in the menu for convenient selection by students.
network news:
Netscape has a very nice network news interface. To gain access to the ECE344 newsgroup, start Netscape by clicking its icon, or typing netscape & in an xterm. Pull down the Window menu and select Netscape News. The newsgroup is uiuc.class.ece344 and may be accessed by pulling down the file menu and selecting Add Newsgroup.... Once it appears, click the checkmark to subscribe to the group. If you cannot get any newsgroups, you may not have a newshost open. Pull down the File menu and select Open Newshost.... Type in news.cso.uiuc.edu and select OK. We will expect everyone to check the newsgroup before every lab as part of routine lab preparation.
man pages:
Use the man(ual) pages to learn more about a particular command. For example: 
     man passwd
will tell you more about the passwd program than you may want to read. Also try the X-window version - xman which should come up automatically on the right side of your screen.
vi:
The one text editor found on all unix systems is called vi. It is almost as bad as edlin (DOS) and there is no escaping it. The ELectronic Mail program, elm, is currently set up to use it. A full quick reference is included, but the essential commands are:
i - switch to insert mode at cursor
a - switch to insert mode after cursor
o - switch to insert mode on new line below cursor
<esc> - exits insert mode, returns to command mode
x - deletes character
dd - deletes line
ZZ - saves and exits
:q! - aborts without save
dtpad:
This is probably the easiest text editor on the ECE 344 machines. It's quite intuitive and is available by clicking on the editor icon on the control panel (click the terminal pullup menu to find it).
Mail:
Its a good idea to check your electronic mail often by typing elm<CR> at the unix prompt or use the root menu if running X-Windows, or clicking the envelope icon on the main control panel. There may be messages from your instructor waiting for you. Allow it to create a mailbox for you the first time you start it. It's important to note that saved messages will get stored in your home directory or in mailboxes in the Mail directory. If you have an account on other ECE systems, such saved messages will be stored in or below that home directory.
The electronic data files:
Use vi or dtpad to keep a file called logsheet up to date with all your processing data. To edit logsheet type: 
     vi logsheet 
     or click the logsheet icon
You should keep the logsheet file up to date as you progress through the semester. It allows us to see how everybody is doing. Sometimes contamination problems can be spotted, for instance, by a jump in sheet resistances of those who used a furnace on a particular day. There are also similar files called oxide.data and devdata for the oxide experiment and the packaged device exercises respectively.
X-Windows:
If things go well, we will have the machines configured so they will be running X-windows before you log in. If it is not, type "x" to start this graphical user interface. It allows you to have multiple processes shown on the screen simultaneously. Most of the above items are available from the "root" menu which pops up whenever the right button is held down in the background area. X- Windows is particularly useful at times where, for instance, you want to read instructions from a notes article or an e-mail while the subject of those instructions, say ICCAP, is also running. X-Windows also separates the user interface from a process. This allows users to remotely run programs on different machines (see Remote.X-Sessions.html). The only tricks are to be sure to tell the local machine to accept display info from the remote machine and to tell the remote machine to use the local machine for the user interface as described in Remote.X-Sessions.html.
ftp:
File Transfer Protocol (ftp) programs make it possible to move files between different machines (UNIX, Macs, PCs, etc.) over the internet. To use the protocol:
  1. Simply type ftp remote-machine-name while in the local directory you want to use for the file transfers. The remote machine will ask for a login-name and password for the account with which you wish to transfer files. Many machines have limited accounts which use the login-name "anonymous".
  2. Once into the remote-machine, you can use cd to change directories and dir to list the files. Some, but not all, ftp programs support lcd and ldir for moving among and viewing local directories.
  3. Before actually transferring the first file, you should type ascii if the file is a simple ASCII text file or binary for most others.
  4. Use the commands newer file-name, get file-name and put file-name to move files between the machines. The newer command is useful because its just like get except that it won't overwrite newer files, but be careful if you accidently saved bad data since it will be the 'newer' file!
  5. quit will exit the ftp program.
  6. Want to know more? - type man ftp at a unix prompt.
logging out:
If you were running X-Windows, you must first exit windows using the background menu. exit at the standard unix command prompt will log you out. If nobody is going to use the machine soon, please turn off the monitor. The computer itself should never be turned off.
Security note:
Use chmod 700 filename to protect your custom files. Your ECE 344 lab account is set up to save your files with these permissions by default (umask 077 line in .login). Certain files such as most of the "dot" files must be left readable by everyone. For example, if you use a .forward file to forward your e- mail to another address contained in the file, the last digit in the permissions should be 4 (permissions = 704). Want to know more? Read the man pages.
Problems?
System administrators report that the vast majority of problems individual users have are caused by modification or deletion of their "dot" files. You can restore your "dot" files to their original configuration with the following commands.
If you highlight each of the above command using the left mouse button and then click the middle button while in an ece344 computer's window, they'll be run without any typing on your part. Don't worry if the last three commands generate errors since ECE 344 accounts are not set up with .mwmrc, .Xres, or .Xdefaults files, but some students have problems if they create them.
Miscellaneous:
A file called .cshrc (C-SHell ResourCes) has the following useful aliases. Aliases behave like commands (sort of like one line batch files in DOS). You can use vi to view this and other "dot" files, but they are read-only since they are "linked" to common files
dir - Shows all files and subdirectories. Equivalent to ls -ap
x - Starts X-Windows. Equivalent to x11start
n - Starts network news showing the ece344 newsgroup.

We don't want ECE 344 to be a UNIX course, so feedback from students inexperienced with UNIX is appreciated. We want to make it as easy as possible to do everything necessary to learn about device fabrication. Once you start X-Windows , most things discussed above will be available from the "root menu" by holding the left mouse button down while anywhere in the background area. Explore the root menu yourself.

Games and malicious computer activity will result in a loss of your account. C-V data would then have to be taken point by point and the results of calculations applied to each graphed by hand like the author had to do when he took the course. It was not pleasant.

UNIX REFERENCES

The Good.Links.html file has links to helpful references to help you use the workstations. Very often out in industry, engineers are expected to seek out and assimilate this sort of information on their own. Not only is the inclusion of seemingly unrelated quick references easy for the author, but it's actually more like what you will probably experience on the job, so get used to it. Remember man pages are always available to you on the ECE 344 machines or the EWS machines.

ECE 344 home page.

I like to edit this file with the command:
vuepad /ece344/Software/UNIX/UNIX.help.html &
Written by Mike Fitzsimmons - mikef@uiuc.edu and is maintained by Dane Sievers - U of Illinois ECE Dept. - dsievers@eceuil.ece.uiuc.edu
E-mail comments and suggestions to ece344@uiuc.edu or use the FEEDBACK FORM.

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