Logging in to the ER4 Computers

Logging in to the HPs

This document covers these subjects

Where to Go and When You Can Go There:

If you've never logged in before:

How to log in:

How to change your password:

How to log out:

Where to go and when you can go there
If you've never logged in before
How to log in
How to change your password
How to log out

The Electrical & Computer Engineering Department HP computers are available for students to use at four sites, Caldwell 260, Dreese 557, Dreese 517, and Dreese 817.

Information on lab access is available here.

Everybody enrolled in the ECE department or taking an ECE course has an account on the HPs. To use the account, you need to know your username and password.

Your username is assigned to you by the system administrators and is unique. No one else has the same username. Usually, it will be your last name followed by your first initial, all in lower case. For example, Joe Smith's username should be smithj.

If you have a long last name, or a common one, the system may have to assign you a slightly different username, so that the usernames are all unique and not more than 8 characters long. If you've tried your last name and first initial and it didn't work, check with a site consultant in Caldwell 260 or Dreese 557 to confirm your username.

Your password is used to protect your account and should only be known to you. Initially, the system assigns you a password, but you should change it as soon as possible. Your initial password is the string "EE" followed by the last four digits of your Social Security number, followed by your first and last initials, in lowercase. Joe Smith's Social Security number is 123-45-6789, so his initial password was EE6789js. He changed it to something else the first time he logged in, so that now no one else can use his account.

Sit down at one of the machines. If the screen is blank, move the mouse to turn it back on. It should display something like this:

Type your username, then press <ENTER>
You'll see it echoed on the screen, like this:

Type your password, then press <ENTER>. Your password is not echoed, so the screen should look like this:

Now you're logged in. You should see 3 windows appear on the screen. At the upper left is a small clock window, and below it is a window showing a little mailbox. The large window in the lower left is an xterm window.

If this is the first time you've logged in, the xterm window will contain a message announcing the hours the machines are available and other system news. At the bottom of the window, it will say:

Press RETURN to continue:

Using the mouse, move the cursor into the window. You'll see the cursor change to I. Hit enter and you will see a UNIX prompt appear. The prompt will be the name of the machine you've logged into and your username, like this:

taliesin-smithj>

If you couldn't log in:If the screen looks like this:

Login Incorrect, try again
	Ok

then you may have mis-typed your password or your username. Use the mouse to click on the Ok button, then click on the Clear button on the login screen. Make sure that you are not using uppercase letters - most Unix commands are in lowercase, including usernames. Then try to login again. If you continue to have problems, talk to a site monitor.

The first time you log in, you should immediately change your password. Using the mouse, move the cursor onto the `xterm' window in the upper right. Now enter the command

# npasswd

(When you are instructed to "enter" something, it means to type the command, then press the <ENTER> or <RETURN> key. The # sign shown above is meant to indicate that this is a Unix command and should NOT be typed.)

The machine will prompt you to enter your old password, to confirm your identity. Then it will display some instructions on how to select your password. These instructions are too long to fit on a single page, so it will display a colon (:) in the lower left corner. This indicates that there is more to come. When you've finished reading the instructions, press enter and the next page of the instructions will appear. There are only two pages, so this time the lower left corner shows

(EOF):

indicating that this is the end of the instructions. When you've finished reading, press enter again and you'll be prompted for your new password:

New password (? for help):

Type the new password you've selected, and press enter. The system will ask you to repeat your new password:

New password (again):

This is to make sure that you didn't mis-type the password. Type your password again and press enter. If it doesn't work, or if you have any questions, ask the site monitor for help.

Engineering Computing
Region 4

Using the mouse, move the cursor out of the windows onto the grey area of the screen. You'll see the mouse cursor change to X. Press and hold the right mouse button down, and you'll see a menu appear. While holding the mouse button down, slide the cursor down to the last entry in the menu, which is logout. With the cursor sitting on the word logout, release the mouse button.

Now a small window will appear in the center of the screen, looking like this:

Quit Mwm?
Ok		Cancel

Using the mouse, position the cursor over the OK and press the left button. The screen will blank and then the login screen will appear again. Now you have logged out.

Be careful not to leave a machine unattended while you are still logged in. Also, note that you are not completely logged out until you have clicked on the OK. It's best to wait until you see the login screen come up before you leave the machine.