Physics Department Unix Login Mini-Howto
The purpose of this Mini-HowTo is to familiarize you with the login procedures for the departmental UNIX machines.
Public
Access
Terminals

 There are currently two public access terminals available in Small 151. These terminals are both console terminals, the first is attached to spiffy.physics.wm.edu and the second is attached to morgana.physics.wm.edu. As you are probably aware spiffy is the departmental server and morgana is an IBM RS/6000.
The
Logon
Window 		The first window seen on the monitor is the xdm login window. This is where you enter your user ID and password to log onto the machine. Both morgana and spiffy then read several files that set up your login environment and start some clients. Most of the programs and services (mail, www, etc) are located on spiffy. Therefore if you log on to spiffy you immediately have access to these applications. If you log on to morgana you need to follow the instructions below after you have logged in.
The
Login
Process 		After the XDM window disappears the computer then looks for a variety of files in your home directory in order to set up your working environment. These files are explained in detail below. If these files do not exist in your home directory then the system default files are used. Thus you can customize your working environment by learning about and changing the startup files.
Spiffy The important startup files for spiffy are:
  • .my_xinitrc (determines what clients are run at login)
  • .twmrc (determines the behaviour of the window manager, twm)
  • .cshrc (determines the behaviour of the c-shell or tc-shell)
  • .Xresources (defines some default resources for X-applications)
Now you are logged in with your customized and evironment and are ready to work. Check the Installed Programs list for useful programs installed on the physics server.
Morgana The important login files for morgana are:
  • .xsession.aix (determines what clients are run at login)
  • .twmrc (determines the behaviour of the window manager, twm)
  • .cshrc (determines the behaviour of the c-shell or tc-shell)
  • .Xresources (defines some default resources for X-applications)
Now your are logged on to Morgana with your customized environment, but before you can use any of the programs listed on the Installed Programs list you have to log on to the server.

You can log on to the server using telnet, rlogin, or rsh. To do so, at your prompt type:
telnet physics.wm.edu
rlogin physics.wm.edu or
rsh physics.wm.edu

You will be prompted for your password. After entering your password you should get the login message and a prompt. You are now logged into spiffy.

Before you can start any X based programs you must tell spiffy what display you are using. This is done using the following command:

setenv DISPLAY morgana:0.0

Additionally you must tell morgana that it is ok for spiffy to use this terminal. To accomplish this, in a morgana window enter the following command:

xhost +spiffy.physics.wm.edu

Now from the window that you are logged on to spiffy, you may start any X program (ie xterm, emacs, xv, netscape, etc.)

Logging
Out 		Logging out is accomplished by termination the last program started in your .xsession.aix or .my_xinitrc file. Or by termination of the last program started by the system default xsession or xinit file. This is usually either the window manager or one of the xterms. When you are done working please make sure that you LOG OUT.