MathLab Usage Notes For Math 434

Spring 2003

• Most machines (13) in the lab are dual booting 1.4 gigahertz Pentium 4's Windows 2000/linux machines. Usually most machines are in Windows 2000 mode and two machines (erie and indian) are in linux mode. At certain times when large classes are in (e.g. Friday 12-4:30) all machines will be in Windows mode.

• Gap is installed on the Windows side of all thirteen Pentium 4's (dark colored machines) and on the linux side of twelve - all but aral in the second row next to the window.

• You do not need an account to use gap on either the Windows 2000 or Linux sides of machines in the lab.

• To start gap in Windows mode, use the gap icon on the desktop. The program will be running in a command shell where you can use up and down arrows to cycle through your commands. You can also copy and paste to other programs. In windows shell quickedit mode, copying involves selecting text with the left mouse and hitting enter. One can paste into a shell by right clicking on the title bar and selecting paste from the edit menu.

• In all modes of using gap, it will be convenient to load commands from a textfile. The syntax within gap (e.g. from Windows) would be
  Read("C:/tmp/gapinp.txt");
  You can use a Windows editor like notepad to create this file, Winedt (on the start menu - also great for latex), or emacs (icon on the desktop) including its shell mode (started by meta-X shell.)

• Temporary files can be stored below C:$\backslash$tmp or C:$\backslash$users. You are welcome to create a temporary folder with your name or initials there. The Windows 2000 machines also have 250 Mb zip drives and floppies. Or after launching sidecar from a desktop icon and logging in you can access Cornell travelers mail (webmail) at tmail.mail.cornell.edu.

• You do not need a linux account to use gap or xgap.sh in linux within the lab. On the twelve machines where gap is installed on the linux sides, any lab consultant can log you into the guest or guest2 accounts. Once there (in the gnome environment for Redhat 7.1) you can click on the terminal icon at the bottom (a screen) and then launch xgap.sh in the resultant window.

• Further information will be available at the course website
  http://pi.math.cornell.edu/$\tilde{\ }$web434/
  and the lab support website
  http://www.mathlab.cornell.edu/support/m472_support/
  .

• If you wish to use linux in the lab, if possible please use one of the two machines erie and indian which are automatically in this mode. If they are not available, please ask a consultant to reboot one of the other Windows 2000 machines into Windows mode and log you into the guest account.

• If you are running an X server on your Windows or linux machine at home, it is potentially possible to remotely login to erie and indian. We can create optional linux accounts for you to facilitate this. However network security is a big problem and we routinely use TCP wrappers to prevent this from working unless special arrangements are made. You'll need to give us a machine name and IP address where you will be coming from. This is so we can configure tcp wrappers to let you login. Please send this information to back@math.cornell.edu.

• If you have any questions or run into any difficulties, please do contact lab director Dr. Back at back@math.cornell.edu.