Getting Around the Common Desktop Environment (CDE)

IEEE Pizza-Talk Series --- October 8, 2004

Dr. Nickels

First Things First: Getting logged on:

• Before you enter your username, you can choose (Sessions) between Sun's CDE (Common Desktop Environment) and GNU's Gnome Desktop. The icon on the right tells you what's chosen now. The default is “whatever you used last”
• As with most logins, the username comes first, then the password.

Passwords

• UNIX is case sensitive. This gives you more options when choosing a password, but you must be careful to remember the case of your username and password.
• The Engineering UNIX network uses a different password system from ITS. You have the same UNIX password for all the departmental Sun and Linux machines.
• To change your UNIX password, open a terminal (more later) and type yppasswd .
• For guidelines for choosing a good password, check out the Computer Science department password page, and the ITS department password page.

The Button Bar:

• Mozilla - web browser
• Calandar
• File Manager
• Sub-Menu - Voice Note / Text Editor / etc
• Email
• Screen Lock / Exit / Workspaces / Exit
• Print Manager
• Style Manager
• Applications
• Help Menu
• Trash Can

CDE Window Controls

• The three buttons in the top of a CDE window allow you to manipulate that window.
• The left side button when clicked once gives you a menu of potential actions to perform on the window. Double clicking this button closes the window.
• The first right side button will minimize the window to the desktop.
• The second right side button will maximize the window to the full screen dimensions.
• A minimized window on the desktop can be restored by double clicking on the icon. A single click on a minimized icon will give you a menu of options.

Getting on the internet:

• The world with the clock, the first button on the left, is Netscape (Mozilla).
• You can use Netscape to check your e-mail, access BlackBoard, and browse the internet.

Getting your engineering e-mail:

• Check your engineering e-mail account by clicking on the mailbox icon, the fifth from the left.
• To send a message, use the Compose menu, and choose New Message.
• To reply to a message, use the Compose menu, and choose Reply.
• To attach something to a message, use the Attachments menu in the message window, and choose Add File. Alternatively, you can drag your desired attachment from the file manager onto the attachments area of a message window.
• You can retrieve your engineering email remotely via our POP server (see Dr. Gilma's Help Pages for details)

Getting a terminal:

• In the pop-up menu for the CPU/Disk monitor, there is a “This Host” icon; use this for a terminal. Alternatively, use Console.
• To get a more convenient terminal, move the terminal icon up to the main bar, right click on it and choose Promote to Front Panel. This replaces the button on the panel.
• 

Getting a text editor:

• To access a plain text editor, open the applications pop-up menu (the one with the note pad icon) and choose Text Editor. To make this icon more convenient, right click on it and choose Promote to Front Panel.
• Other text editors available from the command line include vi and emacs.

Getting at your files:

• The Front panel icon that looks like a file folder (it is the third one from the left) gives you access to your home directory. This file manager gives you a (hopefully) familiar look into your personal file space. It allows you to create directories, drag and drop files, delete files by dragging them to the Trash icon on the front panel (it's the last one on the right), and many other possible actions.
• Alternatively, use the terminal to manipulate files, and directories.

Getting help:

• You can press the Help key on the keyboard to get help. This will launch a context sensitive help window if one is available. Also, the books and question mark icon on the right hand side of the front panel will give you the general help system browser.
• The help system includes a searchable index and it keeps a history of past visited help topics.
• man pages are also available from the terminal (type "man man" without the quotes).

Workspaces