15-213 Introduction to Computer Systems
Lab Machines

Fish Machines That Are Available to Students

Technical Specs

Intel engineers traditionally use the names of North American rivers as internal names for their processor projects. So it seems fitting that we, as denizens of the Intel cluster, name the machines after freshwater fish of North America.

flounder.ics.cs.cmu.edu grouper.ics.cs.cmu.edu kingfish.ics.cs.cmu.edu mackerel.ics.cs.cmu.edu
marlin.ics.cs.cmu.edu pompano.ics.cs.cmu.edu sailfish.ics.cs.cmu.edu seabass.ics.cs.cmu.edu
seatrout.ics.cs.cmu.edu swordfish.ics.cs.cmu.edu tarpon.ics.cs.cmu.edu tuna.ics.cs.cmu.edu

Fish Machines Available to Teaching Staff Only

bluefish.ics.cs.cmu.edu bonito.ics.cs.cmu.edu cobia.ics.cs.cmu.edu (autolab.cs.cmu.edu)

Quick Start Login

Suppose your user name is bovik. Login to an Andrew Linux or Unix machine and go to your Andrew home directory.

  • unix> /afs/cs/academic/class/15213-s07/bin/checkin   (very first time only)
  • unix> ssh -x -l bovik@ANDREW.CMU.EDU tuna.ics.cs.cmu.edu

then type your Andrew password to the prompt.

The uppercase 'ANDREW.CMU.EDU' is significant. The string "-l" is dash el, not dash one. Your top level Andrew home directory needs to be at least world listable: "system:anyuser l".

Getting Help

Information about the CS computing environment is at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~help.

If you are having trouble logging in, please send mail to your instructor (fp@cs).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I get an account?
A: Accounts will be created for you automatically.

Q: Are the accounts ready yet?
A: No (as of Sat, Dec 16, 2007).

Current student account status
If you're not on the list, please request an account from the instructor (fp@cs).

Q: What do I need to do before logging in for the very first time?
A: From your Andrew home directory on an Andrew Unix machine (e.g., linux.andrew.cmu.edu or unix.andrew.cmu.edu), run the following one-time checkin script:

    unix> /afs/cs/academic/class/15213-s07/bin/checkin
Your top level Andrew home directory needs to be at least world listable: "system:anyuser l".

Q: What does the checkin script do?
A: The checkin script activates your account so that you can login to the fish machines using your Andrew password. It creates a hidden directory called ~/.15213 with login credentials for the fish machines. If you don't have one already, it also creates a protected directory ~/213hw where you can safely do your assignments without other students being able to see them. You only need to run the checkin script once, before your very first login to the fish machines. However, you can safely run the checkin script as often as you like.

Q: How do I login to one of these machines once I have run the checkin script?
A: If your Andrew login is bovik and you want to login to the fish machine called tuna.ics.cs.cmu.edu, then type the following while logged in to an Andrew Unix machine:

    unix> ssh -x -l bovik@ANDREW.CMU.EDU  tuna.ics.cs.cmu.edu
    [type your Andrew password to the prompt]
Note: The uppercase 'ANDREW.CMU.EDU' is significant.
Note: "-l" is "dash el".
Note: The "-x" option disables X11 forwarding, which interacts poorly with the new 64-bit FC3 boxes. It's not always necessary, but we suggest using it just to be sure.

Q: I did everything you said but I still can't login. Now what?
A: Here are the most common reasons students can't login:

  • You're not logging in from an Andrew Linux or Unix machine.
    FIX: ssh to linux.andrew and login from there.
  • You're logging in as user or user@andrew.cmu.edu instead of user@ANDREW.CMU.EDU
    FIX: Run ssh using "-l user@ANDREW.CMU.EDU"
  • You forgot to type -l ("dash el") before your user name on the ssh command line.
    FIX: Run ssh using "-l user@ANDREW.CMU.EDU"
  • Your Andrew ~ (home) or ~/.15213 directories are not accessible.
    FIX: Make them accessible:
        unix> cd 
        unix> fs sa -dir ~ -acl system:anyuser l
        unix> fs sa -dir ~/.15213 -acl system:anyuser rl
    
  • You've somehow deleted the .login and .klogin files in your ~/.15213 directory.
    FIX: Rerun the checkin script.
  • You've changed your Andrew password after you ran the checkin script.
    FIX: Logout from the Andrew machine, log back in, and try again.

If you still can't login, please send mail to your instructor.

Technical Specs

Each node on the cluster runs a 64-bit version of Fedora Core 3 (Linux kernel 2.6.11) and consists of the following hardware:


[ Home | Schedule | Assignments | Exams | Lab Machines | Resources ]
[ Textbook | Autolab ]
[ Newsgroup | Blackboard ]

fp@cs
Frank Pfenning