FAQs

FAQs


Contents


General Issues

Certificate Authority public key
The Department of Computer Science has its own Certificate Authority for use with secure connections. This will be used to authenticate the certificates used to secure https connections (such as webmail) as well as secure connections with POP and IMAP. Instructions for downloading and installing the Certificate Authority can be found here.

Account issues

What is my quota limit?
300Mb is the default quota limit.
How can I tell how much disk space I am using?
You can use the `quota -v` command to report your disk utilization and your quota allocation.
My class requires more space than I have available. How can I get my quota increased?
Talk to your Professor about your quota needs. They will request a quota increase from the System Administrators
Okay, I am in my account, and it is over quota. What do I do?
You can run findhog to see what the 20 largest files in your home directory are. Alternatively, findhog x will find the largest x files in your home directory
There is also a script called rm-junk that goes through your home directory and looks for caches and core files and asks you if you want to remove them. Just type "y" at the prompt and it will delete them for you.
I have changed some of my dot files, and now I have problems with my account.
You can get a copy of the default dot files (.bash_profile, .cshrc, .login, etc.) from /usr/local/pub/X/
Can I change my shell?
Currently you can not change your own shell, but if you want your default shell changed to bash you can contact the System Administrators (70-3590) and they can change it for you.
How do I change my password?
You can change your password with the command cspasswd. This is available on any DCS linux machine. Here is a reference document about good password practice.
My unix password does not work on the Windows machines. What do I do?
Your passwords are out of sync. You will need to see the System Administrators in room 70-3590 to get your passwords re-synced
When I run the cspasswd command it complains that it can not change my NT password. What gives?
Your passwords are out of sync. You will need to see the System Administrators in room 70-3590 to get your passwords re-synced
Help! I deleted some important files in my account! How do I get them back?/
If the files existed overnight, they can be backed up from that point in time. Send mail to problems@cs.rit.edu with the file name(s), the last time it was modified, and where the files existed in your directory.
I have a project that will take several hours of compute time, but I don't want to sit around and wait for it -- what can I do?
The best way to do this is to no-hup the process (see the nohup man page) so it continues to run after you log out, and nice the process (see the nice man page) up to 20.
Can I connect to the CS machines remotely?
You can use ssh to connect to any of the linux machines in the lab. Available tools for remote connection to the lab machines:
Can I remotely run programs that require a GUI interface?
Yes you can. Here is a series of HOWTOs for various client operating systems.
How do I copy files from my own machine to my CS account?
You can use a USB flash drive.

You can use various tools to securely connect to the CS lab machines:

Does the CS Department provide FTP access?
ftp.cs.rit.edu is available for anonymous downloads only.

Software and Configuration

Firefox won't start.
First make sure you're not already logged into another CS computer. You can only run Firefox on a single machine at a time.
If that's not the issue, then you will need to manually remove the lock file for the browser. When Firefox or Chromium crash, they will leave these files in your account which will keep you from opening them on any CS computer. The files you need to remove are:
Firefox
~/.mozilla/firefox/????????.default/.parentlock
~/.mozilla/firefox/????????.default/lock
where ???????? are random numbers and letters unique to your account (i.e. wed4pa82)

Mail

The Department of Computer Science provides mail for students taking CS courses. Many faculty and advisor messages will be sent to your CS account, and it i s assumed you are reading it.

Your mail address is username@cs.rit.edu.
What mail services are available for my Computer Science Account?
We provide webmail access, secure POP3, and secure IMAP.
Some basic configuration information:
  • pop/imap mail server: mailhost.cs.rit.edu
  • imaps (secure) port: 993 (use SSL)
  • pop3s (secure) port: 995 (use SSL)
  • outgoing smtp port: 587 (use TLS)
I want to connect to the CS Mail server, but I don't have the Signing Authority Certificate. What do I do?
You can go here and follow the instructions to include the CA to your trusted certificates.
Where do I get information on how to connect with my favorite mail client?
You can go here for a series of HowTos on mail client connections
Can I forward my email to another system?
To be able to forward your email to another account, you need the .forward file in your home directory. The .forward file should ONLY have the email address to which you are forwarding. And the .forward file should have the permission 600 otherwise the mail server will just ignore it.
Is mail filtered for spam and viruses?
Yes. Messages that contain viruses are quarantined. All other messages are ranked based on spam probability and an X-Spam-Status is added to your message headers. We will not filter it out for you.
Can I do any mail filtering?
Procmail is provided for mail filtering. In combination with Spam Assassin it makes an effective spam trap. Here is a good reference to doing this properly.

Window Managers

What is the default window manager on the CS systems?
The default window manager is Unity - it is a branch of Gnome managed by Ubuntu
What other window managers are available?
How do I set up my window manager to be something other than Unity?
Here is a series of HowTos for using window managers.

Regulations

What is contained in the Computer Science Department Code of Conduct?
Here are the security requirements for devices connecting to RIT's network.