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Windows Questions

How can I use Pexus X-Deep/32 on my own computer?

First, you will need to go to the Pexus_ web site and download and install the current version of X-Deep/32. Install this according to their instructions. Since X-Deep/32 changed to freeware, you no longer need to request a license from the systems administrators to use this product. The CIS Systems Administration staff will be reviewing our official policy concerning the support of X-Deep/32 versus other X-Server applications for Windows.

I need some software by Microsoft for a project, can you give it to me?

Possibly. Our licensing with Microsoft allows us to give students software and licenses to install software on their own computers. However, we will only do this for students who can demonstrate that their need is academic.

If you are going to be working on a class project, an honors project, or another academic project and you require software for which we can give out licenses, we may allow you to download and install software on your own machine.

In order to get software, you must fill out the "Personal Software Request" form on the CIS self-service website:

• https://selfserv.cis.ksu.edu/software/personal/

You must fill in all the required fields. Depending on the software and the nature of the request we may also make additional requirements.

How do I take a screenshot in Windows?

To take a screenshot (image of the screen) in Windows, follow the following steps:

1. Press "Print Scrn" on the keyboard (next to "Scroll Lock" at the top).

2. Open Microsoft Paint (Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Paint).

3. Go to Edit > Paste to paste the image.

4. Save the image as a BMP in your home directory by going to File > Save As...

5. Do with the image as you please.

How do I enable X forwarding in Windows?

The following explains the process of enabling X forwarding through SSH to view X applications in Windows.

1. Start XServer by going to Start > XServer

2. Open PuTTY by going to Start > PuTTY

3. In the Category menu for PuTTY, select Tunnels
4. Check the box next to "Enable X11 Forwarding"
5. In the Category menu for PuTTY, select Session
6. Under Host Name, type "cislinux.cis.ksu.edu"
7. Choose SSH as your Protocol
8. Now click "Open"
9. Enter your username and password when prompted
10. Enjoy

You can test to see if X forwarding is working by typing "xeyes", which should bring up an application with two eyes following your mouse pointer.

How do I transfer files to or from the CIS systems?

WinSCP (http://winscp.net) is one of the easiest programs to use to transfer files. The following steps describe how to use it to transfer files to and from the CIS systems.

1. Download the software and install it. When you run it, you will be prompted with a screen as shown below. Enter the host name linux.cis.ksu.edu and your user credentials and then click 'Login'.

   • 

2. Click 'Yes' to continue connecting and add host key to the cache.

3. Once logged in, you should see a window similar to the one displayed below. This is the "Norton Commander" interface. Your local files are displayed on the left and your files on the CIS system are displayed on the right. To transfer files between them, simply drag-and-drop them to the desired folders.

4. You may also choose to have a Windows Explorer interface by going to Options, Preferences, under the Environment section select Interface, and choose Explorer-like. You will need to restart WinSCP for the changes to take effect.

UNIX Questions

How do I get started with UNIX?

The basic commands you'll need are:

These are the most important commands. If you need more details on how to use them, you can type man cmd where "cmd" is the name of the command you want more information about.

How do I use CVS?

Repository

CVS may use either a local repository or a remote repository. In general, CVS provides access to several kinds of remote repository, but the CIS systems only support the remote shell remote repository. Whenever running CVS you must tell the program where to find the repository. You can do this either by specifying the -d option to the cvs command or by setting the CVSROOT environment.

If the repository is stored in a CIS home directory, you may use a local repository, which is specified with just the directory name::

   1 /research/lbs/cvsroot

If the directory will be used on a laptop or other "remote" machine, then you must specify a remote shell repository::

   1 :ext:tamtoft@cislinux.cis.ksu.edu:/research/lbs/cvsroot

I prefer the latter in all cases because I can then copy the entire repository or zip it up and place it on another machine and use it as is. You may do whichever you prefer. If you do this, you will also need to make sure the CVS_RSH environment variable is set to ssh::

   1 export CVS_RSH="ssh"

As I stated above, these must be given to the CVSROOT environment or to the -d option::

   1 export CVSROOT=":ext:tamtoft@cislinux.cis.ksu.edu:/research/lbs/cvsroot"
   2 cvs ...
   3 
   4 # OR
   5 
   6 cvs -d/research/lbs/cvsroot ...

Commands

After the cvs command (and other basic options, such as -d), you specify the name of a command. The most common commands are import, checkout, update, add, remove, commit, and export.

Import

Import creates a new project in the CVS repository. You must first create a simple project directory containing at least one file (or it could be a complete, existing project). Change into that directory and run:

   1 cvs -d... import -kkv projectname tamtoft start

This will use the contents of the current directory (and all it's subdirectories) to create a new package in the CVS repository. It will name that project projectname assign the branch vendor tag as tamtoft (probably don't need to worry about what that means), and sets the version as start. The -kkv also says that all files imported should be treated as text for keyword replacements. If this is not the case, you should use -kb instead. I recommend running:

   1 cvs -d... import -h

for more details or see the man-page for CVS or go to http://www.cvshome.org/ for on-line documentation.

Checkout

After import, you need to check out a version controlled directory (the import directory is unmodified). You can do this by changing out of the current directory into your work directory and then running:

   1 cvs -d... checkout projectname

This will create a directory named projectname in the current directory. This will be your local work directory for the project. At the start of each work cycle, you will want to use the update command to synchronize your work to the current repository (in case others have made changes). When you are done making changes, you will use the commit command to push your changes into the main repository.

Update

At the start of each work cycle you may use this command to synchronize your local copy to all the work committed to the central repository by changing into your local work directory and running:

   1 cvs update

Notice that you don't need to specify the CVSROOT with this command as it is specified by your local repository inside of the CVS metadata directory.

This command is also useful when used to check the status of the repository by turning changes off:

   1 cvs -n update

This will show you the current status of your local work directory giving you information about which files you have changed, which files in the central repository are different from local copies, and where conflicts exist.

Add

This command is used to add files and directories to the repository by calling:

   1 cvs add files...

You can add multiple files and directories at a time. You cannot add files until you have added the directory they are in. After adding, you will need to commit your changes using the commit command.

Remove

This command is used to remove files or all files in a directory from the repository by running::

   1 cvs remove -f files...

The -f tells CVS to remove the file at the same time as marking it for removal from the repository. You will need to commit your changes using the commit command when done.

Commit

This command is used to upload all of your local changes to the master repository. In the case of conflicts, it will give you instructions on how to merge changes and then upload a new copy. Most of the time it will just try to do the right the thing:

   1 cvs commit

Export

When you want to package up the project without the CVS metadata directories, you run an export. From a top-level directory run:

   1 cvs export projectname

You will now have a clean copy of the repository, but this copy should not be used for editing.

Other Information

For more detailed information, I recommend using the -h option to cvs to get help or see the documentation available at CVS Help

How do I remap keys in X?

There are two ways to remap keys within X. The simplest method is to use the built in functionalities of your window manager if they exist. Gnome will allow a user to take care of tasks such as swapping control/caps through its Keyboard Preferences window. KDE has a Keyboard Layout section in its control center.

The other method is to use xmodmap. For this method you will need to create a ~/.xmodmap file to remap keys. Following is an example of one that would swap backspace/delete and control/caps. A ! character comments out the line.

   1 ! Swap delete and backspace
   2 keysym BackSpace = Delete
   3 keysym Delete = BackSpace
   4   
   5 ! Swap capslock and left control
   6 remove Lock = Caps_Lock
   7 remove Control = Control_L
   8 keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
   9 keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
  10 add Lock = Caps_Lock
  11 add Control = Control_L

You can this load this by running xmodmap ~/.xmodmap when you start your X session. There is not a good way to automate this every time Gnome starts since gnome-smproxy overwrites all keyboard settings. If anybody knows of a way, please let us know, and we can update this document to reflect that.

How do I install applications under UNIX

Assuming that the application uses the standard autoconf and automake style of deployment, you should be able to install most applications into your home directory (or into another directory you have write access to, such as a /projects directory). To do so, you basically need to run the following inside the source package directory of the application:

   1 ./configure --prefix=/path/to/your/home/directory/local
   2 make
   3 make install

Make sure to set the path to something besides the root of your home directory (*not* like /home/grads/sterling) or you will have gobs of extra files in your home directory. Instead use a directory like local (e.g. /home/grads/sterling/local). If you have a /projects directory or other directory we've given you write permission to on the CIS filesystems, you may place your files there too.

What are "UNIX file permissions"?

All student and faculty files in the CIS department are stored on a Unix file server. However, not everyone needs or should have access to every file. Unix file permissions are how the file server decides who can access which files and what kind of access is permitted.

Ownership

Every file in Unix is assigned an user owner and a group owner. These form the basis of file security.

Each group may contain zero or more users. In the CIS department, every user has a special group which contains only their user (e.g., if your username were foobar, your group would be foobar_users).

You may not change the user ownership of your files. If you find that some of your files are owned by the wrong user, you will need to contact the systems staff to get that problem correct.

You may, however, change the group ownership of your files (or directories). You are only able to change a file's group ownership to another group to which you belong. You may change group ownership with the chgrp program:

   1 chgrp foobar_users file.txt
   2 chgrp foobar_users dir

File Mode

The second component of Unix file ownership is called "file mode." The file mode determines what access the user owner, group owner, or other user has to a file.

There are three kinds of access: read, write, and execute. The access granted by each of these depends upon whether they are applied to a directory or to a file. For files, read access gives the user permission to see the contents of the file, write access gives the user permission to change the contents of the file, and execute access gives the user permission to run the file as a program. For directories, read access gives the user permission to see what files are stored in that directory, write access gives the user permission to create files in that directory, and execute access allows the user to enter that directory (note that directory execute is required for read or write to mean anything).

Viewing File Permissions

To view the permissions on a file or directory you can use the -l option to the file list command, ls::

   1 foobar@camaro projects$ ls -l
   2 total 4
   3 drwx------   3 foobar foobar_users 4096 Mar 16 19:51 bin/
   4 drwxrwxr-x   4 foobar foobar_users 4096 Mar 16 19:51 lib/
   5 -rw-r--r--   1 foobar foobar_users  667 Mar 16 19:51 foo.txt
   6 -rwxrwxr-x   1 foobar foobar_users  408 Mar 16 19:51 a.out

Here we see two directories and two files. The permissions are shown in the first column of the listing. The user owner is the third column and the group owner is the fourth column. The permissions are shown via the 10-character string. The first character (either d or - here) tells us what kind of thing is shown: d for directory and - for regular file (there are other kinds of "things" in a Unix file system, but those are beyond the scope of this discussion). The rest of the columns show the file mode.

The file mode is divided into three sections. The first applies to the user onwer, the second to the group owner, and the third to all other users. These fields are then divided into three letters, one for each permission granted: r for read, w for write, and x for execute.

The first row above shows a directory that is only accessible by user foobar. This user is allowed to change to the bin directory, see what files are in that directory, and allowed to put new files into that directory. The second row shows a publically accessible directory that is both user and group writable. Here anyone can change to and see the contents of the lib directory. However, only foobar and members of foobar_users are allowed to create files in that directory.

The third and forth rows show files. The first file is readable by everyone, but only writeable by foobar. The second file is readable and executable by everyone, but is only writable by foobar or members of foobar_users.

Changing File Mode

If you need to change the mode of a file or directory, you may do so with the chmod command. The chmod command takes two or more options. The first option is the permission changes you wish to make and the rest of the arguments are the files to change. (The actual command is a lot more flexible, but you may find out more about that by typing man chmod.)

The permission changes are specified in three parts: (1) whose permissions are being changed, (2) stating that permissions are being added or removed, and (3) what access is being granted or revoked.

The first, or "who", part of the options are specified with one or more letters: u for user, g for group, o for other, and a for all.

The second part is specified with either the plus (+) sign to grant permission or the minus (-) sign to revoke permission.

The third part is specified with the same letters as were used by ls when viewing permissions: r for read, w for write, and x for execute.

For example:

   1 chmod a+rx script.pl
   2 chmod og-w file.txt
   3 chmod ug+rw source.c

The first line above would grant read and execute permission to all users on the file named script.pl. The second line would revoke write permissions on file.txt for other users and the group owner. The third would grant read and write permissions to the user owner and group owner on source.c.

Notice that this doesn't say anything about the existing permissions. For example, in the second line above, the user may not be allowed to write to the file either if the user was never granted that permission.

Absolute File mode

Advanced users may want to specify the mode quickly and exactly. This can be done by specifying the numeric file mode directly. The file mode may be specified as an octal number where the last three digits represent each of the three levels of access, user, group, and other, respectively. Each digit then specifies all three read, write, and execute for each of the three fields. Read is specified by the digit 4, write by 2, and execute by 1. Adding these together will get the overall permission.

For example:

   1 chmod 755 script.pl
   2 chmod 644 file.txt
   3 chmod 660 source.c

After running these commands, we would see something like the following listing (note the first column especially):

   1 foobar@camaro src$ ls -l
   2 total 3
   3 -rwxr-xr-x   1 foobar foobar_users   432 Mar 10 12:40 script.pl
   4 -rw-r--r--   1 foobar foobar_users  2590 Mar  8 17:22 file.txt
   5 -rw-rw----   1 foobar foobar_users   596 Mar 12  7:04 source.c

Again see the man-page for chmod for details.

How do I change my default JDK?

Gentoo provides the java-config utility to setup the default JDK. To list the available JDK's run java-config -L. Then to select one, run java-config -s jdk-name-version. For example, java-config -s sun-jdk-1.5. Be aware that when the JDK gets updated you will need to rerun java-config to point to the new location since your are now overwriting the system's setup which gets updated with each new JDK.

What about the /tmp directory?

Whenever working on a Linux system in the department, please be aware of the /tmp directory since it allows you to store files for a short time without affecting your quota. If you need to download a large file or work with some large files that you don't need to work with for long and can't fit into your home directory, you can place these files in /tmp, which is stored on the local disk of the current machine.

However, there are some things you should be aware of when using the the /tmp folder. First, filling up all space in the /tmp folder is a bad idea. You can cause certain programs on the system to freeze up if there is no room left on the drive, which may make working on that computer difficult. Second, the temporary folder is temporary and the systems staff clean up these folders regularly. Any file in the /tmp directory will be deleted after 24 hours. Finally, anything stored in /tmp will not be backed up during our nightly backup process, so when the files are deleted from the /tmp folder, they are gone for good.

Network Questions

How do I setup CGI on my web page?

This question has been answered in the CIS UserGuide. Please see the section on UserGuide/WebPages.

Why don't you have an FTP server?

FTP is a very old protocol. It was designed before security considerations were a major part of protocol design. As such, passwords to the FTP server are sent in plain text---any clever user on the network can snoop your packets and steal your password. This would allow that user to gain access to your account, which is an unacceptable violation of our security.

We actually do provide an FTP server, but only for anonymous access. Some faculty have published files on the FTP server, which is available at ftp.cis.ksu.edu.

If you need to access your home directory from a remote location, there are two different methods for doing so. See the documentation in the CIS Systems UserGuide for Remote Access or in the FrequentlyAskedQuestions about how to access your home directory from a non-CIS computer.

How do I backup data to CIS?

To setup an automated backup from a linux or OS X laptop to CIS filesystems follow these steps:

First, make sure that you have a $HOME/bin directory on your laptop.

mkdir -p $HOME/bin
chmod u+rwx $HOME/bin

Next, copy this script to $HOME/bin/backup_to_cis.sh on your laptop. You will need to change the DIRECTORIES variable to whichever directories from your home directory on your laptop that need backed up.::

   1 #!/usr/bin/env bash
   2   
   3 ###
   4 # Script to backup laptop home directory files to CIS home directory
   5 ###
   6  
   7 # These are the directories that will be backed up from your homedir.
   8 # For example: If I have ~/docs and ~/proposals that I want backed up,
   9 #              I would change the next line to:
  10 #              DIRECTORIES="docs proposals"
  11 DIRECTORIES="dir1 dir2"
  12   
  13 test_exists () {
  14     which $1 > /dev/null 2>&1
  15     return $?
  16 }
  17   
  18 die () {
  19     echo $1
  20     exit 1
  21 }
  22   
  23 CIS_BACKUP_DIR="~/laptop_backups"
  24 CIS_SERVER="linux.cis.ksu.edu"
  25 RSYNC_OPTS="--archive --delete --rsh=ssh --quiet"
  26 UTILITIES="ssh rsync"
  27   
  28 # Ensure that ssh and rsync exist
  29 for UTILITY in ${UTILITIES}; do
  30     test_exists ${UTILITY} || die "Couldn't find ${UTILITY}"
  31 done
  32   
  33 # Ensure that each directory exists locally; then copy it to CIS
  34 for DIR in ${DIRECTORIES}; do
  35     if [ ! -d ${HOME}/${DIR} ]; then
  36         echo "Could not find ${HOME}/${DIR} -- skipping"
  37     else
  38         rsync ${RSYNC_OPTS} ${HOME}/${DIR} ${CIS_SERVER}:${CIS_BACKUP_DIR}/
  39     fi
  40 done

Next, make sure your script is executable.::

chmod u+rwx $HOME/bin/backup_to_cis.sh

Next, setup ssh keys as outlined in this FAQ.

Next, setup a cronjob to run this script. Run crontab -e as your user and add the following line if you want to backup at midnight every day. Run man 5 crontab if you want a different time and do not know the crontab format.

0 0 * * * ${HOME}/bin/backup_to_cis.sh

Obviously, your laptop will need to be turned on with a network connection for a backup to take place. You can always run the backup script manually by executing this command.

$HOME/bin/backup_to_cis.sh

To setup an automated backup from a Windows laptop to CIS filesystems follow these steps:

First, you'll need to create a directory in your homedir to save backups. On a Windows lab machine, this is your U:. If you are doing this remotely, you can connect to our network remotely by following this document.

Map your remote homedir to your local computer by going up one directory, right Finally, customize whatever additional options you'd like for your backup click on your username and choose Map Network Drive.

After you've created your backup folder in your homedir, you will now need to download and install Cobian Backup.

Follow the on-screen instructions for installing Cobian Backup on your personal workstation.

After Cobian Backup is installed, a moon image should appear in your system tray (on the bottom right of your screen), or you may simply launch it by going to your `Start Menu > All Programs > Cobian Backup > Cobian Backup Interface`.

Click on the Tasks pane on your left to active that tab. Right click inside it's window and choose Add Task. Name your task in the Task Name field and modify other settings in that tab as needed. Click on the Files tab on the top of that window to add the files you'd like backed up on the CIS Systems. In the destination section under the Files tab click on the open folder (Add A Directory) and choose the folder inside the mapped network drive you just created.

Next you can schedule your backups via the Schedule tab (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.).

Finally, customize whatever additional options you'd like for your backup if you deem them necessary. Click OK.

Your backups will now run according to the schedule you indicated on the Schedule tab automatically (providing your computer is turned on during that time period).

How do I forward my CIS email somewhere else?

This question has been answered in the CIS UserGuide. Please see the section on UserGuide/Email.

How do I use HTTP authentication?

To setup password authentication for a directory in your personal web space follow these steps from a linux shell (you will want to change passwordProtectedDir to whatever name you want and use your own usernames).

   1 cd ~/public_html/
   2 mkdir passwordProtectedDir
   3 cd passwordProtectedDir
   4 htpasswd -c .htpasswd user_who_gets_access
   5 htpasswd .htpasswd other_user
   6 cat << EOF > ~/public_html/passwordProtectedDir/.htaccess
   7 AuthType Basic
   8 AuthName "Checking Password"
   9 AuthUserFile $HOME/public_html/passwordProtectedDir/.htpasswd
  10 Require valid-user
  11 EOF

Now create any files you want in the directory and run this command to make sure that the web server can read all of your files.

chmod -R o+rX ~/public_html/passwordProtectedDir

If you would like your files to only be password protected off-campus, use this command to make your htaccess file.

cat << EOF > ~/public_html/passwordProtectedDir/.htaccess
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Checking Password"
AuthUserFile $HOME/public_html/passwordProtectedDir/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Order Allow,Deny
# This restricts access without a password to the KSU network
Allow from 129.130.0.0/16
# This restricts access without a password to the CIS network
#Allow from 129.130.8.0/22
Satisfy any
EOF

Why am I getting 500 Interal Server Error on all my scripts?

We use programs named suexec and suphp to make sure that all of your scripts run as you. This allows your scripts to access files that would normally be private and inaccessible by the web server. However, for security these programs will not allow your scripts to run unless the permissions set on your files and on the directories containing them are safe.

For CGI scripts, you must make sure the following are true:

1. Your script must be stored in your home directory in the subdirectory named public_html/cgi-bin. You cannot place your scripts anywhere else.

2. You must make sure that your home directory, the public_html directory, and the cgi-bin directory are not group or other writable:

• chmod 755 ~
  chmod 755 ~/public_html
  chmod 755 ~/public_html/cgi-bin

3. Finally, you must make sure your scripts are executable, but not group or other writable:

• chmod 755 ~/public_html/cgi-bin/my-script.cgi

4. If you have problems, try checking the end of the logs for additional information while pressing reload on your browser:

• tail -f /web/logs/error_log /web/logs/suexec_log

For PHP scripts, you must make sure the following are true:

1. Your script must be stored in your home directory under the directory named public_html or a subdirectory of that directory.

2. You must make sure that your home directory, the public_html directory, and every directory above your PHP script is accessible but not group or other writable:

• chmod 755 ~
  chmod 755 ~/public_html
  chmod 755 ~/public_html/otherdir

3. Finally, you must make sure your scripts are readable, but not group or other writable:

• chmod 644 ~/public_html/index.php
  chmod 644 ~/public_html/otherdir/index.php

4. If you have problems, try checking the end of the logs for additional information while pressing reload on your browser:

• tail -f /web/logs/error_log /web/logs/suphp_log

How do I setup ssh keys?

To setup ssh keys for authentication between CIS Linux and Solaris hosts, follow these steps

chmod go-w ~
cd ~/.ssh/
chmod 700 .
ssh-keygen -t dsa
cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys2
chmod 600 *

How do I access the wireless network in Nichols?

The CIS Wireless network is now managed by the K-State Computing and Network Services (CNS) department. To gain access to the network, you will need to have a valid eID and follow these instructions listed on the CNS website.

How do I access the campus VPN?

Please see the K-State page on how to download, install, and use the VPN client for off-campus connection.

http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/networks/vpn/

Miscellaneous Questions

How do I connect to Oracle?

Before you can access your Oracle database schema, you must contact the system administrators to request an account.

Once the administrators have notified you that your account has been created, you may connect using the following instructions.

Connecting from Microsoft Windows

You can contact the Oracle server from any Windows lab machine by logging in as yourself (using your CIS username and password) on the machine. Then go to:

Start > All Programs > Oracle - OraHome90 > Application Development > SQL Plus

Now, logon to Oracle using your Oracle username and password. In the Host String: field you should enter oracle.

Connecting from Linux

You can connect to the Oracle server from any machine in the department using the sqlplus client as follows:

sqlplus username@oracle

where you put your username in place of username and then enter your Oracle password.

Connecting from Java

First, you will need to locate the JAR file for the version of Java that you will use to connect to the server. The drivers are available for download from the CIS Oracle web server.

The file you need will depend upon the version of Java you will be using:

classes111: Java 1.1
classes12:  Java 1.2, 1.3
ojdbc14:    Java 1.4, 1.5

The names of the files will have a trailing .zip or .jar. It makes no difference which you choose. Unless you know you need them, you can ignore the files labeled _g or named somethign else.

Once you've added that appropriate Java JAR file to your CLASSPATH, you will need to include this code snippet in your program:

   1 Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
   2 Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(
   3     "jdbc:oracle:thin:@oracle.cis.ksu.edu:1521:ORACLE", 
   4     "username", "password");

where you will replace username and password with your Oracle username and password.

Connecting from the web

You can find the iSQL*Plus web gateway at http://oracle.cis.ksu.edu/isqlplus. You will be redirected to a secure connection from URL.

General Connection Information

If you are connecting from another language or need more advanced support, you may find the following information helpful:

Oracle Host: oracle.cis.ksu.edu
Oracle Port: 1521
Oracle Home: /oracle/home/product/9.2.0.1.0
Oracle SID:  ORACLE
Oracle UID:  oracle.cis.ksu.edu

We also keep a local copy of the Oracle server documentation on the Oracle web server for your convenience.

If you have any other questions or problems, please send a request to the system administrators.

How do I change my Oracle password?

Connect to the Oracle server using sqlplus on the commandline, or via the iSQL*Plus web interface.

Once there, issue the following SQL statement:

alter user user_name identified by new_password;

Where user_name is your user name and new_password is the password you wish to use.

Oracle passwords must meet all of the following restrictions:

1. Passwords can be from 1 to 30 characters.
2. The first character in an Oracle password must be a letter.
3. Only letters, numbers, and the symbols “#”, “_” and “$” are acceptable in a password.

How do I connect to MySQL?

Before you can access your MySQL database, you must request an account. You will receive an email once your account has been created.

Once your account has been created, you may connect using the following instructions.

Connecting from Linux

To connect from Linux, you must first logon to one of the lab machines (or you may connect from your own laptop). Once logged in, you can connect to the MySQL server by typing:

mysql -p -h mysql.cis.ksu.edu

and then enter your MySQL password when prompted.

Using phpMyAdmin

To administer your database through a web interface, you can use phpMyAdmin from any Internet-connected computer.

How do I change my MySQL password?

There are a couple of ways to change your password:

• Connect using the command above. Once connected, type the following at the prompt

   set password = password("yournewpassword");

  Where yournewpassword is your new password.

• Or use this form to submit a request for change.

• Or you can change your password in phpmyadmin.

How do I reset my MySQL password?

Use the form at this link to submit a request for a new password.

General Connection Information

You may find the following information helpful:

MySQL Host: mysql.cis.ksu.edu
MySQL Port: 3306

A copy of the MySQL 5.0 documentation can be find at the MySQL homepage.

If you have any other questions or problems, please send a request to the system administrators.

What happens when I leave? How long do I keep my account?

Please see the "Alumni Accounts and Account Removal" section of UserGuide/Accounts.

Can you guys help me with my homework?

We want to make our policy on helping students clear. The CIS support staff is responsible for making sure the computing systems, networks, services, and programs on those systems function. We will help anyone who has a problem using these systems.

However, we draw the line at looking at any source code or server or program configurations students themselves have installed. This is due to the fact that CIS faculty are frequently asking students to configure and manipulate software on their own as part of homework assignments. As such the CIS support staff explicitly do not examine source code or other issues for students.

If you are convinced that this problem is indeed an issue related to a CIS systems bug or misconfiguration, you may contact your professor and ask for assistance. At the specific request of faculty members we will look into source code or other issues, but only in order to determine the location of the problem.

As an additional clarification, this policy doesn't preclude us from answering questions and giving advice to students. The systems coordinator and students may volunteer to render help or give advice at their discretion. Please be sure your requests for advice are keeping with your professors' honor code requirements for the applicable course.

What do I do when the printer is out of paper?

If one of the printers runs out of paper, you just need to contact the system administrators. We get paper and load the printers on request.

Alternately, if no one is available at those locations you may either email support or talk to one of the staff members in the main CIS office, Nichols 234.

How do I use VMWare in the Computing Labs

Please read our guide for full details on using a VM image for classwork.