Mathematics F. A. Q.

This is an collection of Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for the UC Davis Math Dept.

Emergency related questions

• How do I recover files I accidently deleted?
• What do I do if I cannot save my files in my home directory?

General Questions

• How can I use Mac OSX ssh to connect to the math servers?
• How can I use VNC on the math servers?
• How can I use putty ssh to connect to the math servers?
• How do I FTP files to and from my math account?
• How do I combine two PDF files into one?
• How do I connect to the campus network from home?
• How do I edit text files on my math account?
• How do I find contact information for someone on campus?
• How do I get an SSH client for Windows, MacOS, etc?
• How do I keep /etc/resolve.conf from being overwritten by DHCP?
• How do I make my dualbooting Linux/Windows system have the right time in both?
• How do I make sure other people cannot read files in my home directory?
• How do I obtain a central campus account?
• How do I obtain a math account?
• How do I read files off my floppy disk?
• How do I reduce or remove the DHCP timeout delay if my computer cannot find a DHCP server?
• How do I use SmartSite ( https://smartsite.ucdavis.edu ) under Linux?
• How do I verify the md5 checksum of a file?
• How do I write a good trouble report?
• So I'm teaching a class which meets outside of the math building, what should I do?
• What department servers can I log into with ssh?
• acroread compains about UTD-8 charset not supported, how do I fix?

LaTeX Related Questions

• How do I do TeX under OSX?
• How do I generate a PDF version of a LaTeX document?
• How do I make TeX do ______ ?
• Where can I find the UCD letterhead in latex format?
• Why does the PDF I made with ps2pdf or dvipdf look so blurry in Adobe Acroread?

Mail Related Questions

• How can I use Thunderbird 2.x with my Math Department email account using IMAP/SSL
• How can I further restrict my spam-score threshold? (pine/mutt)
• How can I make a thunderbird email filter?
• How can I make mutt display html files as text, or make it not run netscape?
• How do I forward email from my math account to elsewhere?
• How do I make pine use a high constrast display?
• How do I set the reply-to field in pine?
• How do I set up an automated vacation message?
• How do forward mail from my @ucdavis.edu address to my @math.ucdavis.edu account?
• How does Mathematics filter spam and virus email?
• Is there authenticated smtp? How can I send mail from outside the department?
• Is there web-based email?
• OSX Mail keeps asking me about an SSL certificate.
• What are the math mail servers?
• What email clients do you support or suggest using?
• Why do I get these strange bounced messages about messages I never sent?
• Why does finger say I read my mail at 3am when I didn't?

Math Sofware Related Questions

• How do I get started using matlab?
• How do I use random .m files with maple?
• I get the error "The mathematica fonts are not properly installed in your system." What is wrong?
• What campus labs have the MyMathlab plugins installed?
• What do the load, save and diary commands in MatLab do?

Printing Related Questions

• How can I add printers to my Mac using cups?
• How can I add printers to my Mac? (non-cups)
• How do I add a printer to my Windows XP system?
• How do I fix margins in CUPS?
• How do I print 2, 4, or 8 pages per page?
• How do I print a file from the command prompt?
• How do I set my default printer on point/plane/tangent?
• What printers are available in the math department?

Web Related Questions

• How do I make my own math homepage?
• When I start Firefox, it complains that my profile 'username' is already in use. How do I fix it?

Emergency related questions

If you lost a file please write email to help@math.ucdavis.edu and include

• full path for files lost
• when the files were created
• the last time the files were edited
• when the files were lost

[zdj]

If you suddenly cannot access your home and need to write a file or data you are working on you can write it to the /tmp/ directory and then move it to your home directory once your home directory is available again.

[zdj]

General Questions

Mac OS X comes with a terminal program that is located in
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal

1. Open the Terminal program.
2. Enter the command 'ssh <math username>@round.math.ucdavis.edu
   Replace <math username> with your math username.
3. You will be prompted for your password. No letters or characters will appear as you type your password. This is for security purposes.
4. Once connected, you can start matlab, mathematica, etc.

[Leng]

There are two parts to using VNC. You have to initiate a VNC server on the math server you want to connect to. Once that server is started, you can connect to it with a VNC client program as many times as you want as long as that VNC server is still running.

1. Using an ssh program, connect to a math server (e.g. point.math.ucdavis.edu)
   
2. Use the command 'vncserver'
   
3. If this is the first time you are starting vncserver, you will be prompted for a password. This password will be needed when you connect with the VNC client program.
   
4. The vncserver program will give you a line similar to:
   New 'point.math.ucdavis.edu:3 (leng)' desktop is point.math.ucdavis.edu:3
   
5. Make a note of that line. You will need it for your VNC client. The above line tells you that your vnc server is on the host point.math.ucdavis.edu with a session number of 3.
   

Connecting with a VNC client:

1. Start your VNC client program.
   
2. Enter the hostname of the server followed by the session number. This may be in the form of 'point.math.ucdavis.edu:3' although this may vary depending on the VNC client you use.
   
3. When connected, you can run X11 programs from the server and they will show up on your computer in the VNC window.
4. Optional: You may want to start a gnome-session with the command 'gnome-session &' from the console window that first appears. This will give you the gnome desktop with menus, window widgets, etc. If this is troublesome try running 'gnome-wm &' instead

Download the putty SSH program (for windows) from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html and save it to your desktop.

The first time you use PuTTY, you will need to set it up to connect to the math servers.

Start the putty ssh program.

You will get the 'PuTTY Configuration' window.

1. Enter 'round.math.ucdavis.edu' for 'Host Name'.
2. Enter 'round' for 'Saved Sessions'.
3. Click 'Save'.

You have now created a profile for the math server 'round' in putty.

Now when you want to connect to the math server round.math.ucdavis.edu, you can do the following:

1. Open the putty ssh program that you saved to your desktop.
2. Select the profile for 'round' you created under 'Saved Sessions'.
3. Click 'Open'.
4. An ssh window will now appear connecting you to round. You will be prompted for your username and password. No letters or characters will appear as you type your password. This is for security purposes.
5. Once connected, you can start matlab, mathematica, etc.

[ls]

FTP is not supported for security reasons (login, pw, & data all being sent as plaintext). Instead we urge you to use Secure Copy (SCP), which is based on Secure Shell (SSH). You can use scp just like cp. For example to move a file from your math home dir to the current directory on your Linux computer at home you could type:

# scp myusername@round.math.ucdavis.edu:~/myfile.txt .

If you have MacOSX you can use scp from the terminal window just like Linux.

If you have MacOS8 or 9 you can use MacSSH or MacSFTP which can be found using google.

[mw]

One way is to convert them into postscript files, conbine them, and then turn back into a PDF. Example:

$ ls
frogs.pdf
tiger.pdf
$ pdf2ps frogs.pdf frogs.ps
$ pdf2ps tiger.pdf tiger.ps
$ cat frogs.ps tiger.ps >> frogs_and_tiger.ps
$ ps2ps frogs_and_tiger.ps frogs_and_tiger_fixed.ps
$ ps2pdf frogs_and_tiger_fixed.ps frogs_and_tiger.pdf

As requested Philip Sternberg submitted a more spiffy way (this should work on any system with gs installed):

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=merged.pdf source1.pdf source2.pdf source3.pdf etc.pdf

[zdj]

Use the UCD modem pool. Connection instructions can be found at: http://www-noc.ucdavis.edu/remote.php
For further help with connecting to the UCD modem pool, please contact IT Express at 754-HELP.

Central Campus Pools:
Faculty         754-7701
Student         754-7720
Staff           754-7711

Two popular text editors on linux are vi and emacs. They can be started with

# vi filename.txt

or 

# emacs filename.txt

There are many online tutorials available for the two editors. We suggest looking through a few and finding one that suits you

vi tutorials from google

emacs tutorials from google

Go to the UC Davis Directory or use the whois command.

example whois command:

[zjohnson@after zjohnson]$ whois Vanderhoef@whois.ucdavis.edu
[truman.ucdavis.edu]
Name                     UCD MailID                       UCD LoginID
Larry Vanderhoef         (lnvanderhoef)                   lnvander
Rosalie Vanderhoef       (rsvanderhoef)                   rsvander
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/zjohnson
[zjohnson@after zjohnson]$ whois lnvanderhoef@whois.ucdavis.edu
[truman.ucdavis.edu]
Name:               Larry Vanderhoef
Email Address:      lnvanderhoef@ucdavis.edu
Delivery Host:      mulan.ucdavis.edu
UCD LoginID:        lnvander
UC NetID:           47808
Title:              Chancellor
Department:         Chancellor's Office
Mailstop:           0550 Mrak Hall
Telephone:          (530)752-2065
[zjohnson@after zjohnson]$ 

[zdj]

Usually by going to a search engine say google.com and typing in "free ssh" and your operating system ie: "free ssh windows", or "free ssh macos" will get you some links to help you find a free ssh client.

For windows I like to use putty along with PSCP or WinSCP.

For Mac OS I like Nifty Telnet SSH

For Mac OSX, you can use the built in OpenSSH program. Just open the Terminal program found in Applications/Utilities and use ssh from the command line.

For Linux I like OpenSSH, which is included with most Linux dists.

For other operating systems please check http://www.freessh.org/

Also if you are unsure of which servers you should log into:

Undergraduates: round.math.ucdavis.edu, point.math.ucdavis.edu, line.math.ucdavis.edu, plane.math.ucdavis.edu
Everyone else: fuzzy.math.ucdavis,edu, logic.math.ucdavis.edu

[zdj]

Make a file named /etc/dhclient-enter-hooks
It should be executable, and contain:
                                                                                
# tell function that re-writes resolv.conf to do nothing
make_resolv_conf() {}

[zdj]

In /etc/sysconfig/clock change line that reads "UTC=true" to "UTC=false".

[zdj]

If you want to restrict access to all of your existing files except files located in public_html, and make it so files created by you in the future will not be readable by anyone but you please run the following commands: (you can cut and paste them directly into another terminal window to run them).

echo "umask 077" >> ~/.bash_profile
chmod 700 ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
chmod -R 700 ~
chmod -R 755 ~/public_html
chmod 755 ~ 

If you are new to the university and have not gotten a central campus login (sometimes called a kerberos account) here is how you get one.

With photo ID in hand go to IT-Express walk-in which is located in 182 Shields Library. A map showing where Shields Library is can be found here: http://www.cevs.ucdavis.edu/map/map_detail.cfm?assetInfo=112

[zdj]

If you are enrolled in a class which requires use of the math lab go to:

http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/comp/class-accts

If you are a..

undergrad math major faculty graduate student instructor

Please see any of the staff to request an account (bring proof of identity). [zdj]

Windows floppies:

Use mtools, type the command man mtools for complete usage information.

examples:

mdir a:                     (list contents of floppy)
mcopy a: .                  (copy all files on floppy to current directory)
mcopy a:filename.txt        (copy filename.txt on floppy to current dir)

OSX floppies:

need info...

[Admins]

To reduce this timeout under Red Hat Linux:

first make a file named /etc/pump.conf containing:

retries 1
timeout 5

Then copy /sbin/ifup to /sbin/ifup.orig

Edit /sbin/ifup and replace the following 2 lines:

if [ -x /sbin/pump ] && /sbin/pump ${PUMPARGS} -i ${DEVICE} ; then

and

elif [ -x /sbin/dhcpcd ] && /sbin/dhcpcd ${DHCPCDARGS} ${DEVICE} ; then

with

if [ -x /sbin/pump ] && /sbin/pump ${PUMPARGS} -c /etc/pump.conf -i ${DEVICE}+; then

and

elif [ -x /sbin/dhcpcd ] && /sbin/dhcpcd ${DHCPCDARGS} -t 12 ${DEVICE} ; then

On the diskless terminals or desktop systems with Ubuntu installed you can connect to a webdav server by navigating through the menus Places -> Connect to Server... Once there fill out the information needed for a connection. Here is my information as an example (be sure to change zjohnson to your own SmartSite id):

Service Type                =  Secure WebDAV (HTTPS)
Port                        =  8443
Folder                      =  /dav/users/zjohnson
Name to use for connection  =  SmartSite

Under Linux simply run

# md5sum file

If you are running windows check out http://www.iay.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/threel/tech/tools/md5.htm

[zdj]

Write email to help@math.ucdavis.edu

Be as detailed as possible. If you answer the following questions it should be an excellent report:

What room and building are you sitting in?
What is the name or IP address of the computer you are using?
Did you get an error, if yes, can you cut and paste it into the report?
On which system did you attempt to perform the function which failed?
What time did the problem occur?

[mw]

1. Find the building where it is located with the map found here: http://www.cevs.ucdavis.edu/map/
2. Check the registrar website for information about the room here: http://registrar.ucdavis.edu/schedule/html/sum_display.cfm?sort=1
3. Register your laptop's MAC address so it can be used with the ethernet network connections in the class rooms here: https://computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin/services/index.cgi
4. If it happens to be in a computer lab this site may be useful: http://lm.ucdavis.edu/

[zdj]

The following department login servers are for general use. You can also reach them using the alias round.math.ucdavis.edu

• point.math.ucdavis.edu
• line.math.ucdavis.edu
• plane.math.ucdavis.edu
• sine.math.ucdavis.edu
• cosine.math.ucdavis.edu
• tangent.math.ucdavis.edu

• fuzzy.math.ucdavis.edu
• logic.math.ucdavis.edu

[ls]

Add the following line at the starting of the "acroread" file.

LANG=C; export LANG

LaTeX Related Questions

TeXShop is nice and can be found at http://math.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html
It is also possible to install TeTeX which is used from the terminal window. It can be installed with fink which can be found at http://fink.sourceforge.net

Use the latex command to generate a DVI file, then use dvipdf to convert the DVI file into a PDF file.

example:

# latex file.tex
# dvipdf file.dvi file.pdf

or

# latex file.tex
# dvips -o file.ps file.dvi
# ps2pdf file.ps file.pdf

[Zachariah Johnson]

or

# pdflatex file.tex         #usually produces more attractive fonts, 
                            #allows doccument navigation to work, and 
                            #URL's to work, and cut and paste. 
[Bill Broadley]

The UCDavis Galois Group has written a great tutorial for using LaTeX in the Math Department:

• Galois Group Intro to LaTeX

• LaTeX Tricks
• LaTeX Symbols
• Including Images in LaTeX

LaTeX: A Document Preparation System (2nd Edition) by Leslie Lamport
ISBN: 0-201-52983-1
Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional

Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly
ISBN: 0-321-17385-6
Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional

The LaTeX Companion, (2nd Edition) by Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams David Carlisle and Chris Rowley
ISBN: 0-201-36299-6
Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional

The UCD letterhead is available in /opt/tex/ucdletter/ on our main application servers.

Because Adobe Acrobat Reader does a bad job of displaying bitmaped Type3 fonts.

Solution: Force dvips to use Type1 fonts.

Example:

[52]zjohnson@point:~$ dvips -o talks.ps -Ppdf talks.dvi
[53]zjohnson@point:~$ ps2pdf talks.ps
[54]zjohnson@point:~$ acroread talks.pdf


[Zachariah Johnson]

Mail Related Questions

The instructions below are for using Thunderbird 2.x with your Math Department email using IMAP/SSL.

Basic IMAP Setup

1. Go to the 'File' menu, select 'New', then select 'Account...'. The 'Account Wizard' window will appear.
2. You are now at the 'New Account Setup' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Select 'Email account'. Click the 'Next' button.
3. You are now at the 'Identity' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Enter your full name as you want it to appear in outgoing messages in 'Your Name:'.
   2. Enter your math department address in 'Email Address:'.
   3. Click the 'Next' button.
4. You are now at the 'Server Information' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Select 'IMAP'.
   2. Enter 'mail.math.ucdavis.edu' in 'Incoming Server:'.
   3. Enter 'smtp.math.ucdavis.edu' in 'Outgoing Server:' if prompted.
   4. Click the 'Next' button.
5. You are now at the 'User Names' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Enter your math username in 'Incoming User Name:' and 'Outgoing User Name:'.
   2. Click the 'Next' button.
6. You are now at the 'Account Name' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Leave the 'Account Name:' at the default. Click the 'Next' button.
7. You are now at the 'Congratulations' pane of the 'Account Wizard'.
   1. Verify your settings. Click the 'Finish' button.

Turn on SSL for IMAP (incoming mail)

1. (Linux) Go to the 'Edit' menu and select 'Account Settings...'. The 'Account Settings' window will appear.
   (MacOSX/Windows) Go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Account Settings...'. The 'Account Settings' window will appear.
2. Select 'Server Settings' for your math account in the 'Account Settings' window.
3. Under 'Security Settings', select 'SSL'. The 'Port' above should change to '993'.
4. Click the 'Advanced...' button. The 'Advanced Account Settings' window will appear.
   1. Uncheck 'Show only subscribed folders'.
   2. Uncheck 'Allow server to override these namespaces.
   3. Make sure that 'IMAP server directory', 'Personal
   4. namespace', 'Public (shared)', and 'Other Users' are blank.
   5. Click the 'OK' button. You are now back at the 'Account Settings' window.
5. Click the 'OK' button. You are now back in the main Thunderbird window.

Turn on SSL for SMTP (outgoing mail)

1. (Linux) Go to the 'Edit' menu and select 'Account Settings...'. The 'Account Settings' window will appear.
   (MacOSX/Windows) Go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Account Settings...'. The 'Account Settings' window will appear.
2. Select 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)' in the 'Account Settings' window.
3. Select your SMTP server for math 'smtp.math.ucdavis.edu'.
4. Click the 'Edit...' button.
5. Under 'Use secure connection:', select 'SSL'. The 'Port' above should change to '465'.
6. Check 'Use name and password'.
7. Enter your math username for 'User Name:'.
8. Click the 'OK' button. You are now back at the 'Account Settings' window.
9. Click the 'OK' button. You are now back in the main Thunderbird window.

You can set up a filter for the "X-Spam-Level" header our mail server puts into your messages.

The two headers we add are "X-Spam-Score" and "X-Spam-Level".

The following is an example .procmailrc file that filters mail with an X-Spam-Level header with 5 or more asterisks to the folder spam/system-spam-assassin. This .procmailrc file would go in your home directory. It is most useful for those using pine or mutt.

PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/local/bin:.
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail # You had better make sure it exists
DEFAULT=/var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
LOGFILE=$HOME/proc.log

# Catch SPAM
:0
* ^X-Spam-Level: \*\*\*\*\*
spam/system-spam-assassin

You can set up a similar filter in other email programs such as Thunderbird or Mail.app. The proc.log file keeps a record of what email it filters, and where it gets put.

~/mail/spam/

OSA has a great tutorial on creating thunderbird email filters.

http://opensourcearticles.com/thunderbird_15/english/part_07

Create a text file in your directory called .mailcap with the following:

################ CUT HERE TOP ###########################################

text/html; w3m -dump -T text/html; copiousoutput

############# CUT HERE BOTTOM #######################################

Here is a procmail rule that will forward your mail if you paste it into a file named .procmailrc in your home directory. Be sure to change THIS_ADDRESS and FORWARD_ADDRESS variables in the USER_DEFINED_VARIABLES sections.

################ CUT HERE TOP ###########################################
PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/local/bin:.
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail # You had better make sure it exists
DEFAULT=/var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
LOGFILE=$HOME/proc.log

#### USER_DEFINED_VARIABLES
THIS_ADDRESS=your-mailid-here@math.ucdavis.edu
FORWARD_ADDRESS=some-other-mailid@somewhere.else.dom


####    Utility recipe
#       - Forward all mail to FORWARD_ADDRESS
#       - Also stops mail loops
# :0 h b forwards without storing a copy in your math account.
# To forward and save a copy in your math account, use ':0 h b c' instead

:0 h b
* !^X-Loop: $THIS_ADDRESS
| /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi $FORWARD_ADDRESS

:0:$HOME/.lockmail
$DEFAULT
############# CUT HERE BOTTOM #######################################

> Hi,
> When using pine the contrast of the text is rather low, which
> makes it hard to read. Outside pine (in the same terminal) the contrast
> is fine. Do you know how to fix this?

Run pine
Choose S setup
Choose K color
Check no-color
Choose E exit
Choose Y to commit changes

[Zachariah Johnson]

1) Go to your Pine SETUP CONFIGURATION menu by typing 'S' and 'C' at
Pine's Main Menu. 

2) Search (using 'W'hereIs) for the string "customized-hdrs". You should
find the following line: 

	customized-hdrs          = 

3) Change the value by pressing 'C' and enter the string "Reply-To"
followed by . 

4) Exit and save your changes.

5) Now when you compose an email message, type ^R (Rich Hdr) while your
cursor is in the message header and you should see the Reply-To line. Fill
in the address you would like people to respond to. 

Make sure that the Mail directory exists in your home directory, and that you have two plain text files:

• .vacation with your vacation message
• .signature with your mail signature

################ CUT HERE TOP ###########################################
PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/local/bin:.
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail # You had better make sure it exists
DEFAULT=/var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME
LOGFILE=$HOME/proc.log

# This is actually two recipies. This is meant to go at the END of your 
# .procmailrc so it doesn't trigger on mailing lists that you're filtering 
# above.

# Will add the sender to the vacation cache if not already in the vacation
# cache
# FROM_DAEMON is a macro for a lot of "system" addresses. see the
# procmailrc man page for details

:0 Whc: vacation.lock
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^X-Loop: $LOGNAME@math.ucdavis.edu
| formail -rD 8192 vacation.cache

# Only run this rule if the last rule didn't match, meaning it will only mail 
# each user once.

:0 ehc         # if the name was not in the cache
| (formail -rA"Precedence: junk" \
-A"X-Loop: $LOGNAME@math.ucdavis.edu" ; \
cat $HOME/.vacation; \
echo ""; \
echo "-- "; cat $HOME/.signature \
) | $SENDMAIL -oi -t

############# CUT HERE BOTTOM #######################################

You can do it through the web with the UC Davis Computing Account Services Page

Choose the option: "Redirect your email address"

or

write email to postmaster@ucdavis.edu.

Dear Postmaster, 

Please forward all email from my central campus email account to my
math email account. 

dakouba@ucdavis.edu --> kouba@math.ucdavis.edu

Thanks!

Currently we use Spam Assassin to score spam, ClamAV to identify email containing viruses, and SpamCop to block email from IPs which are known to be spamming. We also block email which contains attachments with the file extensions exe, vbs, pif, scr, bat, cmd, and com.

This is subject to change as needed without notice.

[zdj]

We have authenticated smtp available with the server smtp.math.ucdavis.edu

We have a webmail system available at:

Mail asks if you want to accept an SSL certificate for each IMAP account. This happens each time Mail opens, even if you click Remember My Decision.

As a workaround, follow these steps. You need to log in using an administrator account first.

1. Click "Show certificate" when Mail asks if you want to accept the certificate.
2. Press the Option key while dragging the certificate to the desktop. The certificate's icon appears on the desktop.
3. Add the certificate to your keychain by dragging its icon on top of Keychain Access. Tip: Keychain Access is located in the Utilities folder (/Applications/Utilities).
4. When Keychain Access opens, you may be prompted to select which keychain to import to. If this happens, choose a keychain and also select X509 Anchors.

Originally from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25593

For incoming mail (POP and IMAP), your mail client should be set to the server: mail.math.ucdavis.edu

For outgoing mail...
...if you are in MSB use the server: smtp.math.ucdavis.edu

...if you are elsewhere on campus, or are dialing in to the core campus modems, use the server: smtp.ucdavis.edu

...if you are connecting through an ISP, use the outgoing mail server provided by your ISP.

Our favorite and best supported email clients are:

• Mutt - One of the very best email clients with a text user interface. This is run by opening a terminal window and running the mutt command.
• Thunderbird - One of the very best email clients with a graphical user interface. It should be installed on all math systems and can be run on the diskless systems by navigating the menus Applications->Internet->Thunderbird Mail. It can also be downloaded for free from http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
• Webmail - The Math Dept Webmail program is really SquirrelMail which is a decent webmail program. It can be reached by going to https://webmail.math.ucdavis.edu/

These messages are a side effect of many of the Windows worms/viruses going around. Usually this is the scenario:

• A Windows computer out there has your email address on it as well as many others. Typically in the addressbook of the installed email program. This could be a computer used by any of your correspondents.
• That computer is infected with one of the thousands of email worms/viruses going around.
• The worm/virus harvests email addresses from the infected computer.
• The worm/virus sends out email to the addresses that have been harvested. It also forges the From address to be one of the other harvested addresses. This is to increase the likelihood of the recipient opening the message and attachment becuase it comes from a possibly familiar correspondent. The message has an attachment that, if opened, can infect the (usually Windows) computer receiving the message.
• Many mail servers scan and block infected email. They may also reply to the "From" address to notify the sender that their computer may be infected. However, in the case of forged messages, you would get the warning below even though you never sent the original infected message.

The best course of action when you are sure you did not send the original message is to delete the warnings.

Finger is just reporting the last time your mail spool was read, which normally would be only done by you. However our backup system reads the mail spool at night so it can copy it to tape. And the time it was accessed by the backup process is being reported.

Math Sofware Related Questions

The makers of matlab, Mathworks, have a Getting Started page for matlab

Make a directory in your homedir to contain your m files, say... 'maple'

mkdir maple

download the m file and place it into that dir

create or edit a .mapleinit file in your homedir so that it contains something like:

#
read(`/h/zjohnson/maple/kronprod.m`);

to read kronprod.m and make it available for use in maple.

[zdj]

This means that your current X session cannot find the fonts needed to run Mathematica. This is usually due to a fontserver being down or not defined. You can almost always get it to work by running:

xset fp+ tcp/fs1.math.ucdavis.edu:7100
xset fp+ tcp/fs2.math.ucdavis.edu:7100
xset fp+ tcp/fs3.math.ucdavis.edu:7100
xset fp rehash

The following campus labs have MyMathlab plugins installed:

• 1131 Meyer Hall
• 177 Memorial Union
• 75 Hutchinson
• 163 Shields

[ls]

My most common problem is confusion between the following commands:

diary

Diary will append a log of your session to a text file, this will show all the work done, is human readable. The default file is calleddiary, but you can name a file and it will append to it. Matlab can NOT read this file.

load/save

Load/Save will save all the memory contents to a binary file, that completely overwrites the previous contents of the file. This file will contain all the array and variables in memory. It does NOT contain a record of work done, commands used etc. The default file is matlab.mat, but can be any file.

The most popular problem I see is students running:

>> diary matlab.mat

load/save diary, foo.tex, or similiar

Doesn't work, only files "saved" can be "loaded", any file "saved" to will delete any previous contents.

[admins]

Printing Related Questions

To add all the printers we have you will need to edit the client.conf file used by the printer daemon in OSX. This will need to be done as the root user or using sudo.

Warning: This is not recommended if you will be using this Mac to connect to printers outside of the department. Please use the non-cups method elsewhere in this FAQ.

Add the following line to the end of the file /private/etc/cups/client.conf

ServerName print.math.ucdavis.edu

I recommend opening a Terminal window and using the following command:

sudo su - 

echo "ServerName print.math.ucdavis.edu" >> /private/etc/cups/client.conf

Then restart. The printers broadcast by our print server should now be displayed in the Printer menu from the standard print dialog.

1. Open 'System Preferences' from the Apple menu
2. Click on Print & Fax icon if not already selected
3. Select the 'Printing' tab if not already selected
4. Click on the '+' sign. A new window with a list of printers will appear
5. Select the printer you want to add. Here are some common ones you should add:
   • grad_bw
     
   • grad_color
     
   • under_bw
     
6. Click 'Add'. A new window will appear
7. Check the 'Duplex Unit' option for grad if necessary and click 'Continue'
8. The printer will now be listed in the printer list under "Print & Fax"

You can use the Add Printer Wizard to add a network printer.

When prompted for a printer location, enter the following URLs for the printers you want.

• http://print.math.ucdavis.edu:631/classes/grad_bw_raw
• http://print.math.ucdavis.edu:631/classes/under_bw_raw
• http://print.math.ucdavis.edu:631/classes/grad_color_raw

[Leng Siakkhasone]

CUPS uses a poorly documented filter called texttops. This filter needs margin information. However, the default CUPS ppd file for my printer (a LaserWriter 5MP) not only incorrectly assumes zero margins, it also does not offer the user any margin options in the web interface to CUPS. Solution: set margins with lpoptions and then copy ~/.lpoptions to /etc/cups/lpoptions.

[Greg K]

Use the mpage command. An example to print 8 pages on a page:

npage -8 -P under myfile.ps


[zdj]

The math department printers accept jobs that are either Postscript or Text. If you have another type of file that you would like to print you will need to convert it or print it with an application that will convert it for you.

To print a PS or Text file use the following commands:

# lpr -P  

# dvips -P  

lpoptions -d under_bw

lpoptions -d grad_bw

MSB 3114 3rd Floor Grad Lab

Queue                  Notes                         Model
---------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------
grad_bw                Double Sided                  HP Laserjet 4350
grad_bw_raw            For use with local driver     HP Laserjet 4350
grad_bw_short          Double Sided (short edge)     HP Laserjet 4350
grad_bw_simplex        Single Sided                  HP Laserjet 4350

grad_color             Single Sided                  Xerox Phaser 8550
grad_color_raw         For use with local driver     Xerox Phaser 8550
grad_color_duplex      Double Sided                  Xerox Phaser 8550
grad_color_short       Double Sided (short edge)     Xerox Phaser 8550



MSB 2118 2nd Floor Undergrad Lab

Queue                  Notes                         Model
---------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------
under_bw               Double Sided                  HP Laserjet 4350
under_bw_raw           For use with local driver     HP Laserjet 4350
under_bw_short         Single Sided (short edge)     HP Laserjet 4350
under_bw_simplex       Single Sided                  HP Laserjet 4350


MSB 2201 2nd Floor Copy Room

Queue                  Notes                         Model
---------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------
copy_bw                Double Sided                  Xerox Workcentre 245
copy_bw_raw            For use with local driver     Xerox Workcentre 245
copy_bw_short          Double Sided (short edge)     Xerox Workcentre 245
copy_bw_simplex        Single Sided                  Xerox Workcentre 245

copy_color             Single Sided                  Xerox Phaser 8400
copy_color_duplex      Double Sided                  Xerox Phaser 8400
copy_color_short       Double Sided (short edge)     Xerox Phaser 8400

$ mkdir public_html

$ pico ~/public_html/index.html

<HTML>
<BODY>
Hi this is my homepage.
This is <B>bold</B>.
</BODY>
</HTML>

$ chmod go+x ~
$ chmod -R go+rx ~/public_html

find .mozilla | grep lock