Linux for CSE 374

Basic info for getting started with Linux for CSE 374 WI 2023 (may be different than other quarters).

Please let us know if anything is missing, incomplete, confusing, etc. so we can improve :)

This quarter, for your assignments you will need to log into the CS Department's computers as explained below. We specifically require logging into these computers because of the exact system set up. Other Linux and Mac OS X systems are very similar, and Windows machines also use the same underlying processors and memory organization. But for projects in this course, the department's Linux is our reference system and assignments need to work on, and will be graded on, those systems. Further, if you are using a different Linux system we cannot guarantee that we will be able to help you with problems that cannot be reproduced on our reference systems.

(Note: In the past, CSE 374 was able to support using the CS department's Linux VM (Virtual Machine). Due to some changes in the VM version, this will unfortunately not be supported this quarter.)

cancun.cs.washington.edu

Remote access to cancun from other Linux or Mac OS X machines

If you have a command-line (terminal) interface on your system, you can use ssh to log in. You can open the command-line (terminal) by searching for the "Terminal" app, or googling to see what terminal is available on your system. 

$ ssh your_uwnetid@cancun.cs.washington.edu

You'll need to enter your password to log on. If this is the first time you've accessed cancun you'll receive a warning that it is a previously unknown system name. Answer yes or ok or whatever is needed to accept the connection.

Note that cancun will not echo your password as you type it, so you won't see any visible indication that it is being typed. This is a security feature so that nobody can look at your screen to discover your password. The system is still reading the characters you type and will process them when you hit return after you've typed the entire password.

You can use the scp command to transfer files between cancun and your local machine. Usually this is easiest to do by issuing the commands on your local machine to copy files to or from cancun, rather than trying to run scp on cancun itself. cancun has a well-known internet address, while your machine may have a different dynamically allocated address each time you use it, so it is easier to set up the connection starting from your local machine. For example, to transfer a file foo.txt from your home directory on cancun to the home directory on your mac, open a terminal window on your mac and type in the following command:

$ scp user@cancun.cs.washington.edu:~/foo.txt .
(Don't forget the . at the end, which says to copy the file into the current directory - or you can replace that with whatever destination filename you wish. You can omit user@ if your userid on your local machine is the same as your cancun userid.)

Remote access to cancun from Windows

There are many graphical and command-line applications for Windows that can be used for ssh logins and scp file transfers. Feel free to use whatever you want, but we recommend Putty for remote logins and WinSCP for file transfers.

These programs are pretty intuitive to use. Rather than typing a command line, you need to fill in fields in dialog boxes to specify the machine name (cancun.cs....), your userid, and password. WinSCP has a particularly convenient dual-pane window view that makes it easy to drag files between your local machine and the remote one. Once you log in we suggest using the passwd command on cancun to change your password. As mentioned in the mac section, for security reasons, cancun will not display your password as you type it, but it is receiving the characters and will process them when you hit return.