EGR 103 Startup

This page will be a guide to how to get working on things for EGR 53.

Resources

The main resources for EGR 53 will be:

• Class web page: http://classes.pratt.duke.edu - has the schedule, all the lab manual and appendix handouts, and contact information
• BlackBoard page: http://courses.duke.edu - there's a page for EGR 53L9 on there; this page will have the grades and a discussion board
• Pratt Pundit http://pundit.pratt.duke.edu - you're here! This page will have various pages of special interest to EGR 53 and to Pratt in general.

Working from Home / Other Computers

Depending on what operating system you use, you will need to have one or two pieces of software on that machine to properly connect to and work with the UNIX systems.

Mac Users

Mac users will need X11R6. It is generally installed with OS 10.5; 10.4 users will need to install it. Information on each is at the X11R6 page.

Windows Users

To work from home, Windows users will need to install X-Win 32 and PuTTY. When you install X-Win 32, you will also need the license key OIT has provided - install it as a "floating node" configuration. More info on the X-Win 32 page.

When you install [PuTTY] and run it, the first time through you will need to create a session to connect to one of the hudson or teer machines; after that, you can just use that session. More on the PuTTY page.

All Cases

In all cases, you do not need to install anything else. emacs, LaTeX, kdvi, and everything else you need will be on the UNIX systems - you will not have them on your own machines.

Lab 1

To work on the lab from your own computer, follow these steps:

• If on Windows, start X-Win 32. Make sure the white X with the blue background shows up in the bottom right of your window. Point to it with the mouse and hover - it should say "Display 0" or something similar. If there is a number different from 0, right click and exit X-Win, then restart X-Win. You need to be using Display 0.
• Start a terminal program. On Windows, this is PuTTY while on Macs it is in the X11R6 package. Use it to connect to one of the Teer or Hudson machines. Note that if that particula machine doesn't connect, close the terminal program and try again with a different teer or hudson machine.
• Test the graphics connection by typing xterm - if the xterm window comes up - great! If not, note the following:
  1. If the error says display type is not set, you forgot to enable X11 forwarding in PuTTY
  2. If the error says there some protocol issue, close PuTTY and try connecting to a different machine
• Once connected to a terminal and testing the graphics, change into your lab 1 directory with:

cd EGR53
cd lab1

or

cd EGR53/lab1

• Edit your lab report with emacs using

emacs lab1.tex &

Don't forget the &!

• After saving the file with emacs, process the LaTeX file with

latex lab1.tex

Make sure LaTeX compiles! If not, check what kind of error there is:

• • If LaTeX can't see lab1.tex or sits there with two asterisks, hit CTRL-D
  • If it is some other error, hit CTRL-C, then hit x. Fix the problem in emacs and run again.
• Once LaTeX succeeds, run kdvi with:

kdvi lab1.dvi &

Don't forget the &! There may be a bunch of little warnings and errors that pop up. Make sure you ran kdvi on the dvi file and be patient - it will most likely come up eventually (kdvi is a little slow).

Questions

Post your questions by editing the discussion page of this article. Edit the page, then scroll to the bottom and add a question by putting in the characters *{{Q}}, followed by your question and finally your signature (with four tildes, i.e. ~~~~). Using the {{Q}} will automatically put the page in the category of pages with questions - other editors hoping to help out can then go to that category page to see where the questions are. See the page for Template:Q for details and examples.