Laptop User's Guide

• Power On/Off
• Windows 2000
  • Logging in
  • Wireless
• Redhat Linux
  • Logging in
  • Wireless

Power On/Off

The location of the power is button is not completely obvious if you're not familiar with IBM thinkpads. Press the small white button near the middle of the left hand side of the machine and slide the switch away from you. The machine will boot up into the OS menu where you can choose linux or win2k.

Windows 2000

Logging in

I'm still not clear on how the logins for windows are setup for first time users. If anyone finds out, please add the information to this web page. In the meantime, the following seems to work. Find someone who does have a working login and ask them to edit your password for you. This can be done by clicking My Computer and then clicking the Users/Passwords icon. Click on the user's username if it exists and click Edit Password.

Wireless

Note: This information assumes that you're using one of the lab Lucent WaveLAN Gold wireless cards.

1. Plug in the wireless card into one of the PCMCIA slots (located on the right hand side of the laptop).

2. We have installed the latest version of the driver from ORiNOCO, 7.4, for the Lucent Technologies WaveLAN Gold card. Therefore, the card should automatically be recognized and a set of green bars should appear in the bottom right hand corner of the screen (hereafter referred to as the orinico icon). If the network you want to connect to accepts everybody and has no encryption, your wireless connection should be up without having to make any modifications. Otherwise, see the notes below.

Adding a new configuration:

The default connection is to connect to any network. So, if you are in Lindley Hall, you won't have to change a thing. If you are traveling and need to connect to a specific network, you'll need to create a new profile.

1. Right click the orinoco icon and click Configuration Profile and then Add/Edit Profile (optionally you may get to this menu by clicking Start->Programs->ORiNOCO->Wireless Network Settings.
   
   
2. Click the Add button.
   
   
3. Type in a new name for the Profile Name field and make sure the Network Type is set to "Access Point". Click the Next button.
   
   
4. Type in the network name in the Network Name field or click Scan to search for the network. Click Next.
   
   
5. If the network requires encryption keys, click Enable Data Security and enter the encryption keys in the given fields. Click Next.
   
   
6. Depending on what you want, choose either On or Off to accept/decline Power Management. Click Next.
   
   
7. Click the checkbox next to Renew IP Address when selecting this profile. Click Finish.
   
   
8. Once back in the Add/Edit Configuration Profile menu, make sure your new network is selected in the Select Profile box. Then click OK. Your network connection should now be up.
   
   

Redhat Linux

Note: When linux boots up, you may see a red screen. Click 'Keep configuration' and it should continue to boot.

Note: Everyone who has an account on this machine has sudo access. Therefore to execute anything as root, type sudo <command> and <command> will be executed by root.

Logging in

If you are new to lab (after 11/2001), you will need to have someone in the lab create an account on the machine for you. This can be done by executing sudo adduser <username>. Otherwise, log in using the same username and password as you do on the extreme machines. Also ask them to add you to the /etc/sudoers file.

Wireless

Note: This information assumes that you're using one of the lab Lucent WaveLAN Gold wireless cards.

1. Plug in the wireless card into one of the PCMCIA slots (located on the right hand side of the laptop).

2. The card should be automatically detected by linux. If the network you want to connect to accepts everybody and has no encryption, your wireless connection should be up without having to make any modifications. Otherwise, see the notes below.
   
   

Adding a new configuration:

The default connection is to connect to any network. So, if you are in Lindley Hall, you won't have to change a thing. If you are traveling and need to connect to a specific network, you'll need to create a new scheme.

1. The configuration files for wireless are located in the /etc/pcmcia directory. Change to this directory.

2. If the network you're connecting is named and/or has encryption, you will need to add this information into the wireless.opts file. Open the file. In there is an example entry of a named network labeled NCSA.

   ncsa,*,*,*)
         INFO='NCSA'
         ESSID="NCSA"
         MODE="Managed"
         RATE="auto"
         RTS="off"
         FRAG="off"
         IWCONFIG="power on"
     ;;
   

   'ncsa' indicates the scheme name. The INFO field contains a comment that we use to remember information about this configuration. The ESSID field contains the name of the network we want to connect to (in this case NCSA). All other fields do stuff too and should remain the same for any configuration.
   
   

3. Add a new configuration by just copying the ncsa entry (including the ';;') and paste it above or below the entry.

4. Change 'ncsa' to a new scheme name.

5. If you want, edit the INFO field (not required).

6. Edit the ESSID field (this is the equivalent of Network Name in Windows 2000).

7. If the network requires encryption, append the keys to the IWCONFIG field. For example,

   IWCONFIG="power on key XXXXXXXXXX [1] key XXXXXXXXXX [2] key XXXXXXXXXX [3] key XXXXXXXXXX [4]"
   

   where 'XXXXXXXXXX' are the keys.
   
   

8. Save the wireless.opts file and exit.

9. Type sudo /sbin/cardctl scheme <scheme name>. Verify your connection (e.g. ping school.cs.indiana.edu).

10. If nothing seems to work, restart pcmcia by typing /etc/init.d/pcmcia restart. Verify connection.

11. Once back at Indiana, type sudo /sbin/cardctl scheme home to reset it back to its home configuration.