Science and Engineering at The University of Edinburgh |
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Section Contents
- FAQ
- "Phishing"
- Printing, Photocopying & Scanning
- Remote Connections (NX)
- Secure Shell
- Connecting to the School's file servers from Windows XP
- Connecting to the School's file servers from MacOS X
- Connecting to the School's file servers from Ubuntu
- Windows 7 Managed Desktop FAQ
- EndNote Styles
- Visitor Registration
- Departing and Retiring Staff
- Eclipse FAQ
- Thunderbird FAQ
- Anti Virus Software
- Matlab
- Storage Arrangements
- Buying storage for your research project
- Current basic PC prices
- Guidelines on costing computing in Research Grants
- Texmaker
- OpenOffice F.A.Q.
- GEOS Cluster quickstart
- GEOS Cluster FAQ
- eLearning FAQ
- PHP on Xweb
- Content Control with SVN
- Space Usage on Linux
- Accessing ISO9600 (CD/DVD) Images
- LaTeX template for a UoE PhD Thesis
- Wireless Access Points
- NTFS read/write on Linux
- ArcGIS
- Tidying your Windows Roaming Profile
- LCFG SL6 Desktops
Setting up Ubuntu
This page gives you some hints of how to make your own Ubuntu desktop/laptop play nicely with our system if you really insist on managing your own Linux machine.
- make sure you think about backups
- use your university username (UUN) on your ubuntu box, this will make connecting to our system more straight forward.
- setup Kerberos to access your home and data shares using samba
- setup cups to print to our printers
- setup ssh keys
Setting up Kerberos and Connecting to your Home Directory
First of all you need to install some packages. In a terminal runsudo apt-get install curl krb5-user krb5-auth-dialogThen, you need to download and install a suitable krb5_linux.conf by entering the following (then press return):
sudo curl -o /etc/krb5.conf http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/it/FAQ/krb5_linux.confGo to the system settings and configure the Network Authentication (which you can find in the Internet and Network section). In the Kerberos tab you need to set the Kerberos principal to
uun@EASE.ED.AC.UKNotice the capitals, they are significant. The uun is your university username.
You can now ssh into any of our managed Linux servers without entering your password
Use the file browser and open the connect to server dialog. Enter the server name, e.g. geoshome1.geos.ed.ac.uk and the name of the share, e.g. your uun. If you want to, you can create a book mark for the connection. The network share is mounted in ~/.gvfs which you can use to access the directory from the shell.
Cups Printing
Printing can also be configured in the Control Centre. Select Show printers shared by other systems in the settings dialog. Close the settings dialog and open it again. Expand the Advanced settings options and add cups.geos.ed.ac.uk to the list of servers to be browsed. A list of available printers should now appear. Make the nearest printer your default printer.Setting up ssh keys and backups
ssh keys together with keychain allow you to regularly do backups using rsync. You should keep your private key safe. Also use a good pass phrase which is essentially a long password. Ubuntu will remember that for you if you so choose and unlock it when you log in.
First, you need to create your ssh keys:
ssh-keygen -t dsa ssh-keygen -t rsaAccept the default file name and use the same pass phrase for both keys.
Now, you need to copy your public keys to our system, using
ssh-copy-id adder.geos.ed.ac.uk
Your hard disk will eventually die, so you should really think about backups. Your home directory on our system is backed up. So, one thing you could do is setup rsync or unison to synchronise particular directories on your Linux box with your departmental home space. Check the instructions for keychain for using rsync from cron.