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Athena FAQ
1. I typed 'logout' and it says there are suspended jobs. What do I do?
2. How do I lock the screen?
3. How do I copy and paste?
4. Can I get Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab on Athena?
5. Is there a spreadsheet? Like Excel?
6. How do I access Athena remotely?
Can I use telnet or ssh? How about ftp, sftp, or scp file
transfer?
7. How do I run the program "foo" in locker "bar"?
8. How do I check how much disk space I have?
9. How do I eject a floppy?
10. How do I use floppy disks on
Athena?
11. How about other media, like CD-ROMs?
13. How do I spellcheck my paper?
14. What's the name of that program that lets you see the people that are online?
15. How do I change my windowmanager?
16. Is there a way to load a program automatically when I login?
17. How do I change the volume on my workstation?
18. How do I compile a C program on Athena?
19. How do I compile a C++ program on Athena?
20. Is there a chemical modeller on Athena?
21. How do I access newsgroups (USENET)?
22. How do I kill a suspended job?
23. How do I find the number for a job?
24. What can I use to draw diagrams?
25. How can I look at Word documents?
1. I typed 'logout' and it says there are suspended jobs. What do I do?
To kill off all the suspended jobs and log out, type
logout again.
If you want to know what the suspended jobs are, type
jobs. You will see a listing like
[1] - Suspended su [2] + Suspended netscape
[n] is the job number of the job. Type fg %n to
foreground any job.
Type xlock, then click on the box
that appears.
In most applications, select by highlighting with the left mouse button. Then, paste by clicking the middle mouse button.
4. Can I get Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab on Athena?
Yes, all available. Here's how:
athena% add math
athena% mathematica &
athena% add maple
athena% maple &
athena% add matlab
athena% matlab &
5. Is there a spreadsheet? Like Excel?
Xess, which provides many Excel-like functions, may be found in the menu: choose Math/Plotting, then Spreadsheets, then Xess.
On Linux machines (e.g., the Dells at the front of m56-129) you can also use
Gnumeric: say add gnumeric, then gnumeric &
Since telnet is not encrypted, MIT doesn't allow you to access Athena using regular telnet. You have to use ssh instead, which encrypts your connection and keeps your password secure.
Use the hostname athena.dialup.mit.edu or
x.dialup.mit.edu if you want to have X forwarding
enabled. You can go to this webpage if you don't have an ssh
client on your remote computer.
To securely copy files between computers or networks,
run scp username@hostname:foo/bar.txt ~/baz/ where
username is your username on the remote computer and
hostname is the computer name you want to access
(athena.dialup.mit.edu if you are at work off campus). Be
careful, because bar.txt will overwrite any file named
bar.txt in your baz directory on the computer
you're currently using. As with telnet, FTP is not secure and you can't access
athena with FTP.
7. How do I run the program "foo" in locker "bar"?
athena% add bar athena% foo
8. How do I check how much disk space I have?
athena% fs lq
athena% eject floppy
10. How do I use floppy disks on athena?
For current Athena workstations such as those in W20, floppy disks just appear on the desktop! For older workstations, the following instructions still apply:
To list the files on a floppy:
athena% add mtools athena% mdir a:
To copy a file from the floppy to your Paper directory:
athena% add mtools athena% mcopy a:filename ~/Paper
11. How about other media, like CD-ROMs?
On current Athena workstations, such as those in W20, they just appear on the desktop! For older workstations:
Put your CD in the drive.
Type mount
/mnt/cdrom at your athena% prompt.
You can now
access your CD files in the directory /mnt/cdrom.
When you are finished, make sure that none of your
programs are using the CD and make sure your working directory is not
within /mnt/cdrom.
Type umount /mnt/cdrom
and then press the eject button on the drive.
12. How do I spellcheck my paper?
athena% ispell -t paper.tex
14. What's the name of that program that lets you see the people that are online?
There are many programs that let you see who's online.
- A text mode display can be run:
athena% znol. znol will also send you a zephyr each time someone logs in or out. To suppress those, runathena% znol -l. - A graphical display of who is online can also be run:
athena% xzul &
15. How do I change my windowmanager?
Just press the "Session" button on the login screen and choose the new windowmanager.
16. Is there a way to load a program automatically when I login?
Put it in .startup.X in your home directory. Don't forget
to put an & after graphical commands.
If you want the program to start when you are
remotely connected to Athena, put it in .startup.tty
17. How do I change the volume on my workstation?
On a Sun:
athena% add audio athena% audiotool &
On a Linux machine: Use the volume control in the toolbar, or run alsamixer.
18. How do I compile a C program on Athena?
You can use either cc or gcc depending on your personal preference:
athena% cc -o executablename source.cathena% gcc -o executablename source.c
19. How do I compile a C++ program on Athena?
athena% g++ -o executablename source.c
20. Is there a chemical modeller on Athena?
Only on SGIs:
athena% add molsim
athena% quanta &
21. How do I access newsgroups (USENET)?
Run xrn (graphical), trn (text), or tin.
22. How do I kill a suspended job?
athena$ kill %jobnum
23. How do I find the number for a job?
From the console where you started the job:
athena$ jobs
24. What can I use to draw diagrams?
athena% xfig&
25. How can I look at Word documents?
You can try this:
Say
mswordview filename.doc
to your prompt. This should make a file filename.doc.html.Open Netscape. Under the File menu, choose Open Page, then click the Choose File button. Select filename.doc.html and click OK, then Open in Navigator.
I am also told that FrameMaker can open Word files. To use it:athena% add frame; frame &
Finally, you can use StarOffice by running:athena% add soffice; soffice &