CS250 Class Setup and Compute Resources

Piazza

We will be using Piazza as a sort of newsgroup to help facilitate discussion and share information.
You should have received an invitation to join the class Piazza group, please email me (rimas at eecs) if you didn't.

Instructional machine access

Every student needs a CS250 class account to get access to the machines you'll be using for your labs and project.
Class account forms were handed out in lecture, if you didn't get one, please email me (rimas at eecs) ASAP.
Once you have an account form, follow these steps to set up your account:

• Open an SSH session to cory.eecs.berkeley.edu and login using your class account
• Type "passwd" at the command line and follow the prompts to change your password
• Type "register" at the command line and answer the questions
• NOTE: We are only logging into cory to change our password!
• Logout, and open an SSH session to bcom11.eecs.berkeley.edu and login with your class account
• Type "cp ~cs250/tools/cs250.bash_profile ~/.bash_profile"
• Now log out. The next time you login, you should be able to run the CAD tools

Github

Github provides git repository hosting services, and they offer their services free of charge to educational institutions.
Please go to github.com and sign up for an account, if you don't have one already.

• Send me an email (rimas at eecs) with your github username and class account username
• I will create a private repository for each student in the ucberkeley-cs250 organization
• The name of your private repository will be your class account username
• To finish setting up git, open an SSH session to one of the class machines and run the following commands:
  • git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"
  • git config --global user.email "your_email@youremail.com"
  • git config --global credential.helper cache
• Use the email address associated with your github account as your email address
• To see if your git access is configured properly, try cloning your (empty) private repository and deleting it afterwards.
  • git clone https://github.com/ucberkeley-cs250/cs250-xx.git
  • rm -rf cs250-xx
• Replacing cs250-xx with your class account username
• If that works, you are ready to start doing Lab 1.
• Those of you who are new to git may find this tutorial to be helpful.

NoMachine

You will need to be able to run GUI apps remotely on the class machines.
NoMachine's NX Client is a fast remote desktop client that will allow you to run GUI apps remotely with minimal lag.

• Download NX Client or NoMachine Player
  • OS X: Lion (10.7) or later users need NoMachine Player http://www.nomachine.com/preview/download-package.php?Prod_Id=13
  • OS X: Snow Leopard (10.6) or earlier: http://www.nomachine.com/download-package.php?Prod_Id=3834
  • Windows: http://www.nomachine.com/download-package.php?Prod_Id=3835
  • Linux: http://www.nomachine.com/download-client-linux.php
  • Open NX (try if having problems with any other client): Any OS
    • Go to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/opennx/
    • Download and install
    • Use the new connection wizard to first make connection using steps listed below for NX Client
• For NX Client (everyone except OS X Lion or Mountain Lion)
  • Enter your username/password
  • Click "Configure"
  • For "Host", enter bcom11.eecs.berkeley.edu (or any of other machines reserved for the class)
  • Click "Key", and paste in the contents of "bcom.key" (posted on Piazza)
  • Make sure the display manager is Gnome (no other option will work)
  • If you have a problem with NX Client (eg. keyboard sends gibberish), try NX Player
• For NX Player (OS X Lion)
  • Enter bcom11.eecs.berkeley.edu (or any of other machines reserved for the class)
  • Click the button next to "Use NX Login"
  • Click on the "..." next to "Use NX Login", check "use an alternative server key", and select "bcom.key" (posted on Piazza)
  • Name connection
  • Click the "x" then double click on your connection
  • Login
  • "Create a new session"
  • "GNOME"
  • Note..if things appear blury/stretched, press ctrl-alt-0, then click on the 4th button from the left, then clock on 1:1. To change the resolution, go to System | Preferences | Screen Resolution
• To open up a terminal window once you've connected
  • On the top menu bar, click on Applications - Accessories - Terminal
  • You can drag the Terminal icon from the drop down menu to a blank spot on the menu bar to create a shortcut
• To log out
  • Click on the upper right corner of the menu bar
  • You should get a choice to suspend or terminate your session
  • Please terminate your session when you are done working, each session eats up a good bit of memory

Machines available:

• bcom11.eecs.berkeley.edu
• bcom16.eecs.berkeley.edu
• bcom17.eecs.berkeley.edu