General Account Questions FAQ

To change ones password use the following command:

passwd

You will then be prompted for your current login password, to verify that you are the correct user. After verification, the shell will ask for the new password that you would like to change to.

Unix is an operating system that originated in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs. It was first widely used in 1975 and is designed as a mulit-user, multi-tasking, high-performance operating system with networking in mind.

Unix is a text-based operating system that uses terse commands and messages to reduce typing and output. It is the operating system of choice for most scientific and engeineering workstations. Unix is hardware independent -- it can be transferred easily from one hardware system to another. Many companies produced their own versions of Unix, for example, SunOS, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, IRIX, MACH, and Linux.

Default quotas for home directories are set as follows:

You can see your quota usage by running:

showusage

This usually means that you have exceeded your disk quota and your account has been "locked". Try doing either a command-line login, logging in on the Windows machines, or doing a remote login using ssh, etc. If you are able to log in any of these ways, try typing

showusage

to see if you have exceeded your disk quota. If this is the case, erase some files, return your account to below quota levels, and the problem should be solved. You may want to check your internet cache directories for large, unneccessary files that might be stored there. For more information on CIMS disk quotas, go here.

Windows and Linux store the Desktop in different locations.  Fortunately you have the option of linking your desktops if you want.  The easiest way to do that is to login to a Linux computer, copy all your files from your Linux Desktop to your Windows Desktop, replace your Linux Desktop with a link to your Windows Desktop, and re-login to see the changes.  Here's how to do it:

[Login to a Linux Computer]
mv -i ~/Desktop/* ~/.windows/Desktop/
rm -r ~/Desktop/
ln -s ~/.windows/Desktop ~/Desktop
[Re-Login]