FAQ
- Standard Problems
- Login
- Computer / Unix
- Printing
- Door Access
- Known problems with common software
How do I get my login?
Please refer to the „User Accounts” page for details.
I just completed the registration form. How long does it take before I can actually use my login?
Since we are unfortunately somewhat busy with our own studies, it may take up to a week.
The registration form only asks me to supply a password. What about my personal login-name?
Your login-name is the same you use for everything else, e.g. in the RRZE, it should be printed on your student id. In most cases, its a random, cryptic combination of two letters, two digits followed by four letters. There is also an older type of login which starts with si for Student Ingenieurwissenschaften (engineering student), followed by the first two letters of your first name and the first four of your family name, e.g. sihamust for Hans Mustermann.
How do I change my password?
Use the command kpasswd.
Can you email my password to me?
Under no circumstances. Also, we do never need or request your password by mail or in person.
I have a valid login, but the system does not accept my password / I have forgotten my password.
Please come by during consultation hours. A new password has to be set with the help of the administrator and this cannot be done via e-mail or phone. You have to appear in person and bring a student and photo id.
How do I get access to the wireless LAN?
The universities wireless LAN is maintained by the RRZE, not by us. Please read the guidelines on their website. In case of problems contact their helpdesk.
I cannot read my e-mails under my CIP login, how can I change that? How can I re-direct my mail?
If you have already re-directed your mail as part of Felix (use RRZE-login) and you now want to read your mail, using your CIP-login, you need to change the target-mailbox in Felix to si......@stud.informatik.uni-erlangen.de You can also use other addresses here. It can take up to 24h for this change to actaully take effect. To forward mail from the CIP-Pool, you have to make the according changes in the .forward file. These will take effect immediately.
How do I access my mail with POP3?
The password for the POP3-service needs to differ from your normal CIP-Pool password as the server can be reached unencrypted over the internet.
To set your POP3-password run the following command on a CIP-machine: /local/bin/poppasswd
Now you can access the POP3 server by using the address cippop.informatik.uni-erlangen.de.
How do I access my mail with IMAP?
Our IMAP-Server looks for its INBOX and folders in the directory Maildir.
To have arriving mails delivered to this folder, change your .forward file in your home to include the following line (usually it should be the only line):
~/Maildir/
To create the initial Maildir, you have to execute the following commands
mkdir -p ~/Maildir/{cur,new,tmp}; chmod 700 ~/Maildir/{,cur,new,tmp}
Now you can reach the SSL secured IMAP-server at the address cippop.informatik.uni-erlangen.de, Port 993 . The password is your CIP-login password.
Can you teach me the basics of Unix?
No, you will learn everything you need to know as part of your tutorials. Our job is to keep the system running as smoothly as possible. If you want to learn more about Unix, you can also consult the WWW, e.g. http://www.linuxdoc.org. Here, you will find among other things, the Linux User Guide and Linux Installation and Getting Started.
Whom do I contact in case of problems with the computer?
This is a definite case for the CIP admins. You can either fill in and send the special form, write us an e-mail to problems@cip here or visit with us during consultation hour.
How can I change my login-shell?
You can change your login-shell with the program /local/bin/envcfg
How can I obtain a list of the installed software?
To achieve this, you have two commands available. lslocal shows you all available programs located under /local, and
dpkg --get-selections returns all installed debian packages. You can also search for a specific debian package by using
grep-available -P <package>.
Why are the computers shut-down each evening? Which machines are always reachable?
Having our machines run all the time in the computer pools causes a lot of expenses for the University. Because we know that only a few computers are really used during nights, we have decided to set up the following rules which ensure both saving a lot of power and also do not keep you from doing the work you intend to:
- During the nights (20:00 - 08:00), on weekends, and during the term holidays, we shut down major parts of the computer pool.
- Remote users (using ssh) will be able to use the faui00* and faui06* computers, for they will remain switched on.
- Local users in need for a computer can simply activate computers by pushing the power button or (where possible) by pushing a key on the keyboard. The computers will then come up to normal operation again.
- Computers involved in the powersaving cycle will shut down again when no local user is logged on for 30 minutes. This shutdown will be cancelled automatically by logging in locally.
So just don't bother if you see a computer deactivated. If you need one, switch it on as you see fit, as long as the computer is not explicitly marked as defunctional.
How do I login from remote?
All our machines have SSH enabled. You can login from Linux with the command "ssh yourloginname@hostname". The hosts faui00x, faui06x and all the SunRay-Servers (faui0sr0, faui0sr1) will never be shut down (see question above).
To login from a Windows system you'll need to install a SSH-Client, e.g. Putty.
Is there a way to see if a person is logged on, and where?
You can use the command woist username. The optional parameter -l shows only local logins.
How do I create my own homepage?
Please check out the guidelines for the creation of your own HTML-pages.
How much disk-quota (space) do I have as part of my CIP-login?
For the first two terms every student has 200MB as part of his Home. You can check how much of this you have in use / free, with the command. quota -v Home.stand is your home-directory and proj.stand are your projects (not relevant before the third term).
I played around with chmod and locked myself out of my home directory
Hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 on a regular Linux computer (no Sunray), log in, type chmod u+rwx ~yourlogin, log out via exit. You get back to the graphical login via Ctrl-Alt-F7.
Lately my desktop looks different and I get error and crash messages from kmix and policykit when logging in
After the end of winter term 2010/11 we upgraded our systems to Debian Squeeze. Among other software packages, our standard desktop environment was updated from KDE 3.5 to KDE 4.4.
At that point, we and others noticed a number of severe problems. Most obvious on a first glance, KDE starts with two crash messages from kmix and policykit-kde. The crash of kmix seems to occur when kmix can not open a sound device, e.g. because the sound device is still in use by a program from a previous user. While this leads to sound not working, it can be safely ignored if no sound output is required. The reproducible and 100% likely crash of PolicyKit-KDE occurs for reasons unknown to us. But since PolicyKit is useless for users without administrative rights this crash may also be safely ignored.
Because of those and other problems (akonadi: frequent crashes, filled quota due to its database, loss of data, problems on NFS, PIM applications beeing unusable because of this; nepomuk: extreme resource usage (disk space, I/O, CPU); usability of the whole KDE Desktop dubious) we have decided not to "impose the burden" of KDE 4 as a standard desktop environment upon us and our users.
Therefore GNOME 2 is the recommended standard desktop environment for all new users. For all users wanting to continue to use the KDE 3 environment they have become accustomed to we installed Trinity, which is a continuation of KDE 3. All users who have previously used KDE 3 will now automatically use Trinity. While this brings a slight change in appearance and unfortunately also has the (ignorable) problem with policykit-kde crashing, it works flawlessly on all other accounts. Using KDE 4 will of course be possible, but we strongly recommend against it for the reasons mentioned above.
To switch between the mentioned and some other desktop environments, you can always enter the command /local/bin/envcfg into a console. At your next login the changes will be active.
I can't logon. If I try a blue screen appears for a second and the logon prompt appears again.
It is very likely that you have to high diskusage. To delete some files it is possible to use the Console of a Linux box. You can access the console by typing 'Ctrl-Alt-F1'. Logon with username and password and you get a shell. Now you can check your diskusage with 'quota -v'. If you're over diskquota you can delete some files using rm. Most of the time it is enough to delete the Adobe fontcache using 'rm -rf ~/.adobe'. As soon as 'quota -v' tells you that your're no longer over diskquota you can logout from the console, switch back to the Xwindow system using 'Ctrl-Alt-F7' and continue your work.
How can I burn a CD in the CIP-Pool?
The easiest way to burn a CD/DVD is to use the graphical program brasero, which should guide you through the whole process.
Another way is to create a file containing an ISO9660-file system. You can then burn this on CD by using wodim.
Please see the commands in the following. For a more detailed explanation please see the mkisofs and wodim man pages:
- mkisofs -o output.iso file1 file2 .. directory1 directory2 ..
- wodim output.iso
Is there a possibility to mount usb-sticks in the CIP-pool?
Mounting of USB-sticks is only possible on machines with front-panel USB-connector (with exceptions being faui01*, faui07* and faui09*).
After pluggin in the stick, it can be mounted with the command mountusb. Do not forget to umount it before disconneting! This is done with umountusb.
As filesystem only FAT is available; NTFS or ext2/3 won't work due to technical problems.
Where can I pay into my printer account?
You can do so in the office of computer science. The office is located on the second floor of the computer science building, opposite the CIP-Pool.
How to print in the CIP-Pool?
There are five printers in the CIP pool, of which two are located on the first, and three on the second floor of our building. The printers are named as follows:
| 1st floor | 2nd floor |
|---|---|
| ps1bcip | ps2bcip |
| ps1ccip | ps2ccip |
To access a printer, you have to provide the program a string describing the
printer you want to use. If you are using lpr, the corresponding command line
might look like this: lpr -Pps2bcip skript.ps There is also a difference in
printing in oneside, twoside or twoside tumble (landscape) mode. E. g. for the
printer ps2bcip, there are following modifications:
| normal printing | ps2bcip |
|---|---|
| twoside | ps2bcipd |
| twoside tumble | ps2bcipt |
I have sent a document to the printer but nothing happens.
Probably your job or the one of another user, has caused a malfunction of the printer or the printer system (eg. paper jam).
Such problems may result from miscreated documents or any other paper format than Din A4.
In this case the job should be deleted from the printer queue. Otherwise it might happen that the job is printed after solving the problem and the credits are debited of the printing account.
The command lpq -P <printer> shows the printer queue with all jobs and their job numbers. A job can be removed from this queue with lprm -P <printer> <job>
Credit has been debited of my printer account without printing anything.
Likely the job was printed long time after sending it. (see section above)
Why does my printout look weird?
There are several common reasons for broken printouts, but unfortunately there is no simple common way to avoid them.
Wrong fonts, overlapping, mis-positioned Glyphs or overlong lines are mostly due to missing fonts in a PDF file.
This problem can best be avoided by generating the PDF-Files with the option 'PDF/A' or 'PDF for archiving' selected. When using TeX, try pdflatex instead of ps2pdf.
When printing slides, often the function to print 2, 4 or 8 slides on a page is misbehaving.
We recommend using pdfnup instead of psnup or the KDE printing dialog (which uses the broken psnup internally).
Generally best results are accomplished by printing or converting files using acroread while especially kpdf produces broken printouts very often.
I am a staff member and want to give a student/coworker access to a lab.
Please send an eMail to problems@cip in the following format.
allow <matrikelnumber|login> <doorgroup> <YYYY-MM-DD>
| doorgroup | description | doors |
|---|---|---|
| AQUARIUM | Seminarraum gegenueber Manlobbi | HH-LINKS 0.031 HH-RECHTS I4-NORD |
| AQUARIUM_UL | Seminarraum gegenueber Manlobbi UNLOCK | 0.031 |
| BELLOLABS | Bellolabs + I4-Zugang | 0.033 MANLOBBI-FLUR I4-OSTFLUR I4-WESTFLUR I4-SUED I4-NORD MANLOBBI |
| BELLOLABS_UL | Labor 0.033 I4 (Bello Labs) UNLOCK | 0.033 |
| EGPA | Informatik + EGPA | 02.151 HH-LINKS 00.157 HH-HINTEN 00.153 01.155 HH-RECHTS 01.155neben 00.156 |
| FABLAB | FAU FabLab | 02.171 01.1541 |
| FSI | Fachschaftsinitiative Informatik | 02.150 |
| FSICE | Fachschaftsinitiative CE (Computational Engineering) | 02.132 |
| HH-AUSSENTUEREN | Aussentueren des Informatik Hochhauses | HH-LINKS HH-HINTEN HH-RECHTS |
| HUBER-CIP | Aussentuer von Martensstr. 5a und CIP 0.01 | HUBER-AUSSEN HUBER-CIP |
| I1-MITARBEITER | I1 Seminarraum, Kueche | 12.150 12.110 |
| I1-MITARBEITER_UL | I1 Seminarraum, Kueche UNLOCK | 12.150 12.110 |
| I2-CIP | I2 05.125 | HH-LINKS 05.125 HH-RECHTS |
| I2-MITARBEITER | I2 05.130/05.132 + 05.125/05.150 | 04.150 HH-LINKS 05.130 05.125 05.150 HH-RECHTS |
| I2-MITARBEITER_UL | I2 05.130/05.132 + 05.125/05.150 UNLOCK | 04.150 05.130 05.125 05.150 |
| I3-02.153 | I3 02.153 (Multiprozessorlabor) | 02.153 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I3-LABOR | I3 Labor 02.170 | 02.170 |
| I3-MITARBEITER | I3 02.153,02.170,02.172,07.150 | 02.172 02.153 HH-LINKS 02.170 07.150 HH-RECHTS |
| I3-MITARBEITER_UL | I3 02.153,02.170,02.172,07.150 UNLOCK | 02.172 02.153 02.170 07.150 |
| I3-PRAKTIKUM | I3 Praktikum 02.153 | 02.153 |
| I3-PRAKTIKUM_UL | I3 Praktikum 02.153 UNLOCK | 02.153 |
| I3-ROBOT | I3 Robot 02.172 | 02.172 |
| I3-ROBOT_UL | I3 Robot 02.172 UNLOCK | 02.172 |
| I3-SEMINAR | I3 Seminarraum 07.150 | 07.150 |
| I3-SEMINAR_UL | I3 Seminarraum 07.150 UNLOCK | 07.150 |
| I4-ALL | I4-Aussen, alle Tueren, EGPA | 0.033 00.157 0.031 I4-RECHNER MANLOBBI-FLUR I4-OSTFLUR I4-WESTFLUR I4-SUED I4-NORD MANLOBBI |
| I4-AUSSEN | I4 Aussentueren | HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS I4-SUED I4-NORD |
| I4-FLUR | I4 Flur | I4-OSTFLUR I4-WESTFLUR I4-SUED |
| I4-FLUR_UL | Innentueren LS4 Sued UNLOCK | I4-OSTFLUR I4-WESTFLUR |
| I4-SERVER | I4-AUSSEN + Zugang zum Serverraum | I4-RECHNER MANLOBBI-FLUR I4-WESTFLUR I4-SUED I4-NORD MANLOBBI |
| I4-SERVER_UL | I4 Serverraum UNLOCK | I4-RECHNER |
| I5-ALL | I5 Labore 00.158 und 01.134 | 01.134 00.158 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I5-BILD | I5 Bildlabor 01.134 | 01.134 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I5-SPRACH | I5 Sprachlabor 00.158 | 00.158 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I6-01.152 | I6 01.152 (DB CIP) | HH-LINKS 01.152 HH-RECHTS |
| I7-CIP | I7 04.158 | HH-LINKS 04.158 HH-RECHTS |
| I7-KURS | I7 01.1541 | HH-LINKS 01.1541 HH-RECHTS |
| I7-LAB | I7 02.176 | 02.176 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I7-MITARBEITER | I7 01.1541 + 02.176 + 04.158 | 02.176 01.1541 04.158 |
| I7-MITARBEITER_UL | I7 04.158 UNLOCK | 04.158 |
| I7-RECHNERRAUM | INF7 Rechnerraum 04.158 | 04.158 |
| I7-STUDENT | I7 02.176 | 02.176 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| I8-MITARBEITER | I8 Labor, Seminarraum, Kueche | 11.125 11.125b 11.110 11.150 |
| I8-MITARBEITER_UL | I8 Labor, Seminarraum, Kueche UNLOCK | 11.125 11.125b 11.110 11.150 |
| INFORMATIK | Blaues Hochhaus Eingaenge + public CIP Pools | 00.152 HUBER-AUSSEN HUBER-CIP 02.151 HH-LINKS 02.152 02.133 02.134 02.135 0.031 HH-HINTEN 00.153 01.155 HH-RECHTS 01.155neben 00.156 00.151 01.153 |
| INFORMATIK-STUD | Blaues Hochhaus Haupteingaenge + public CIP Pools | 00.152 02.151 HH-LINKS 02.133 02.134 02.135 HH-HINTEN 00.153 01.155 HH-RECHTS 00.156 00.151 01.153 |
| INFORMATIK_UL | Unlock fuer Seminarraeume + Windows-CIP | 00.152 02.152 02.133 02.134 0.031 00.151 01.153 |
| ISER | ISER Zugang 01.135 | HH-LINKS HH-HINTEN HH-RECHTS |
| MANLOBBI | I4-AUSSEN + MANLOBBI | MANLOBBI-FLUR I4-OSTFLUR I4-WESTFLUR I4-SUED I4-NORD MANLOBBI |
| MEDTECH | Fachschaftsinitiative MedTech (Medizintechnik) | 01.150 |
| RRZE-CIP | Windows CIP Pool des Rechenzentrums | 01.153 |
| RRZE-CIP_UL | Windows CIP Pool des Rechenzentrums UNLOCK | 01.153 |
| SEMINARRAEUME | Seminarraeume Informatik + I4 | 00.152 02.133 02.134 02.135 0.031 00.151 01.153 |
| SEMINARRAEUME-HH | Seminarraeume Informatik Hochhaus | 00.152 HH-LINKS 02.133 02.134 02.135 HH-RECHTS 00.151 01.153 |
| SEMINARRAEUME-HH_UL | Seminarraeume Informatik Hochhaus UNLOCK | 00.152 02.133 02.134 00.151 01.153 |
| SEMINARRAEUME-I4 | Seminarraeume LS4 | 0.031 I4-NORD |
| SEMINARRAEUME-I4_UL | Seminarraeume LS4 UNLOCK | 0.031 |
| SEMINARRAEUME_UL | Seminarr. Inf + I4, UNLOCK | 00.152 02.133 02.134 0.031 00.151 01.153 |
| SEMINARRAUM-00.151 | Seminarraum 00.151 | HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS 00.151 |
| SEMINARRAUM-00.151_UL | Seminarraum 00.151 UNLOCK | 00.151 |
| SEMINARRAUM-00.152 | Seminarraum 00.152 | 00.152 HH-LINKS HH-RECHTS |
| SEMINARRAUM-00.152_UL | Seminarraum 00.152 UNLOCK | 00.152 |
| SEMINARRAUM-02.152 | Seminarraum 02.152 | HH-LINKS 02.152 HH-RECHTS |
| SEMINARRAUM-02.152_UL | Seminarraum 02.152 UNLOCK | 02.152 |
examples:
allow sithglan EGPA 2004-05-30
allow 12345678 I3-02.153 2004-05-30
allow 23489582 SEMINARRAEUME_UL 2006-12-31
Please only one statement per line. Doorgroups with a suffix _UL and 'UNLOCK' in their respective description have the additional right to unlock doors for some period of time (e.g. for seminar rooms during lessons). Every access right is granted immediately and expires on the date given.
How do I permanently unlock doors?
Touch the reader twice within 2 to 7 seconds with your card or token. Make sure, that you keep your card / token at a large enough distance in between.
Eclipse refuses to start or open my workspace
Most likely Eclipse wasn't shut down properly the last time you used it. Back up your data and remove the lock file in your workspace (location of workspace may differ):
cp -rf ~/workspace ~/workspace.bak
rm ~/workspace/.metadata/lock
Mozilla Firefox (or Iceweasel) complains about being alredy started as $PID on $HOST
Unfortunately Firefox doesn't play nice with shared homes over NFS.
You can terminate the old instance, so you can open a new one:
ssh login@$HOST
kill $PID
Or you can create a new Profile for each host you're running Firefox simultaneously:
firefox -ProfileManager
Warning: Manually deleting the lock files (.lock, .parentlock) in your Firefox-Profile will most likely break your profile!