Helpdesk FAQ

How do I logon to Redbrick?

Click http://redbrick.dcu.ie/~haus/helpdesk/logging_in.html for all the login information.

I forgot my password, how do I get it back?

Email the admin team by clicking http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=admins with your username from an account we can clearly identify as yours(i.e: your dcu mail account), and ask us to reset your password. Your password can only be reset, not recovered. But you can set it to whatever you like after it's reset :)

What's chat and how do I get into it?

Redbrick uses IRC(Internet Relay Chat) to host chat. To jump straight in just type chat at the prompt and hit enter. You'll be brought straight into the #lobby channel, which is redbrick's main channel.

How do I stop my Redbrick mail going to my DCU mail account?

Type "noforward" at the prompt and hit enter. It won't go to your DCU mail account anymore \o/

Now that my Redbrick mail doesn't go to my DCU mail account where can I get access to it?

You can get it as web interfaced(like gmail etc) through: http://webmail.redbrick.dcu.ie Or by typing mutt into your prompt.For more information on using mutt go to: http://wiki.redbrick.dcu.ie/mw/Mutt or email the helpdesk team by clicking: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=helpdesk who'll be more than happy to help you with your queries.

What's hey? How do I use it?

Hey is like command line Instant Messaging between you and another user. To hey somebody type "hey user" this opens up the message (we'll use receive for this example) haus@minerva(~) hey receive This hey thing is pretty cool (hit ctrl + d when you've finished typing your message) When your message has successfully been sent you'll see "hey: receive - groovy" His reply might look like: Message from receive@minerva on pts/1 at 05:28 ...

<---- RECEIVE THIS! ----->

Yeah, and easy to use too

<------------------------->

EOF

Note: EOF = end of file. This means there's no more text left to display. The message is the "Yeah, and easy to use too." The stuff around it is called the Border. You can find out more about Hey and Hey Borders here: http://redbrick.dcu.ie/mw/Hey Or you can email helpdesk by clicking http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=helpdesk with any queries you may have.

What's slrn? How do I use it?

slrn is the Redbrick Newsgroup boards available by logging in through putty and typing "slrn". Everything you need to know about using it is available here: http://wiki.redbrick.dcu.ie/mw/Redbrick_Newsgroups If your query isn't covered there, email helpdesk by clicking here: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=helpdesk and we'll be more than happy to help

How do I set up a MySQL/PostgreSQL account?

Email the admins with your username by clicking: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=admins and ask them to set you up with an account for it.

Now MySQL has been set up, how do I connect?

The easiest way to do it is to type: rbmysql into the prompt and hit enter. You'll be asked for your password and then connected to the MySQL server. You can view MySQL's online docs by clicking http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/

How do I change my username?

Email the admins with your current username and what you would like to change it to by clicking: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=admins

How do I change my password?

Type passwd into the prompt and hit enter. It'll ask for your current password. Type that in and hit enter. Then you'll be prompted for what you want to change your password to. Type that in and hit enter. You'll be prompted to confirm your new password, type it in and hit enter again. in full it should look like this:(except with your account name) haus@minerva (~) passwd Enter login(LDAP) password: New password: Re-enter new password: LDAP password information changed for haus passwd: password updated successfully

(It doesn't show your password or how many characters it has as you type it. It's just a linux security feature.) Any queries email helpdesk, and they'll help you with anything you need.

What's vim? How do I use it?

Vim is a text editor. To learn how to use it, type vimtutor and hit enter at the prompt.

How do I add a comment about my webpage on the member webpage listing?

You need to setup a directory in your public_html directory called ".utils". Next type "chmod 755 .utils" In this folder you need to create a file called "comment.txt" and type "chmod 744 comment.txt" Next add the description of your website to the "comment.txt" file.

If you have any queries email the helpdesk team by clicking: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/cgi-bin/writemail.pl?username=helpdesk

How do i stop myself getting logged out of redbrick in res?

This happens after 2 hours automatically, for security as well as keeping the number of sessions on the system down. If you want to keep yourself logged in there is a script you can place in your home directory to reset your idle status every hour. First thing you have to do is make sure that your home directory is in your PATH. Add this line to your .zshrc file to do this.

PATH="$HOME:$PATH"

Then source your .zshrc file. Next thing to do is create the shell script. First of all we are going to open a file called noidle in our text editor.

nano ~/noidle

Next we are going to place the following code in it. Many thanks to Dizer for this code. You can cut and paste this part.

1. !/bin/sh

echo "Starting no autologout script." while true #while true do touch `tty` #wake your tty sleep 3600 #wait 1 hour done #loop and do it again

Now close your file and save it. Now when you want to leave your computer unattended. just start this program by typing "~/noidle". When you want to come back and use your terminal you can just turn it off by using CTRL-C