Index->Introduction to EOS Introduction to EOS Overview and Goals At the completion of this lab, you will be able to... Log into the EOS lab using your personal account Describe what Linux is and what it does Change your password Log out of your EOS account The following utilities are used in this lab: passwd(1) Logging In In order to use the EOS lab, you must have an account. Everyone in this lab already has an account, and your instructor will provide you with the account name and password. The very first time you log into the EOS machines, you must do so from the terminal, not from the graphical interface. Therefore, press "Ctrl-Alt-F1" and you should see a black screen with a login prompt. Enter your login name (aka username, userid) and your password. You will then be forced to change your password. Choose a non-permanent password for your initial login, later you will use the passwd command to change your password (again) to a permanent one. After changing your password, hit "Ctrl-Alt-F7" to return to the GUI login screen. Enter your username and new password. If you successfully entered both, then you should see a desktop with icons and a control bar somewhat similar to Windows. Welcome to Linux! What is Linux? For this section, you will be reading some materials on-line. In the control bar at the bottom of the screen, you should see the "red hat" icon or the "Applications" button. From this button, you can start many different applications. When the button is clicked, a pop up with different categories of applications will be displayed. Start one of the web browsers found under Applications->Internet (Firefox, Epiphany, Konqueror, ...) and go to to www.linux.org. Opening a Shell In the control bar at the bottom of the screen, you should see a terminal icon. If you don't, try the "Applications->System Tools-> Terminal" menu item. Click on it, and you will be presented with a new shell window. Recall, that the shell is a command-line interface to Linux. In future labs, you will get extensive experience with the shell. However, for now, you will just change your password. Changing Your Password As you discovered from your readings, Linux consists of hunderds of utilities that each do one particular thing. In this lab, you will use one of them, passwd, that allows you to change your password. Type passwd at the shell prompt. Enter your current password, then enter a new password twice. You should choose a new password that: is at least 6 characters long, has a combination of lower-case, upper-case, letters, and digits, and special characters, isn't based on a dictionary word, isn't easy to guess, and is one that you will remember. So, don't choose your [boy,girl]friend's name, the kind of car you drive, your favorite sport, etc. Be more creative than that. For security, passwd does not show the characters you type when it prompts for password. Closing a Shell To close an open shell window, type "exit" at the command prompt. You can also do this by selecting the "Quit" menu item from the "Session" menu. Exercise The purpose of this exercise is to help you become familiar with the menu structure of the Gnome desktop. Click the Applications button in the task bar and answer the questions using the following format: Applications -> menuitem -> menuitem For instance, the menu path to the Terminal program is Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal What is the menu path to IM? What is the menu path to the Emacs Text Editor? What is the menu path to the KBackgammon? What is the menu path to the Screen Capture Program (KSnapshot)? What is the menu path to a Calculator? What is the menu path to "Lock Screen"? What is the menu path to the Firefox Web Browser? How do you change the Desktop Background? Logging Out The last thing before you leave is to log out of your account. Before you logout it is a good habit to make sure there is no open windows/applications running on your desktop. To close an application, choose the "Exit/Quit/Close" menu item in the application and avoid clicking the close button on the upper right corner of the window whenever possible. Clicking the close button may not terminate the application properly. To logout from the system, select the "Desktop->Log Out" menu item or click on the icon at the bottom of the screen. Confirm that you really want to log out using the dialog box. ALWAYS BE SURE TO LOG OUT EVERY TIME YOU LEAVE THE EOS LAB Top