EGR 103 Startup

This page will be a guide to how to get working on things for EGR 103. It has been updated for Spring 2019.

Resources

The main resources for EGR 103 are listed on the bottom of that page. There is also Pratt Pundit's Category:EGR 103, which collects page of special interest to EGR 103 students.

Getting Work Done

See the page How To Get Work Done

One-time-only activities

There are a couple things you will do during the in-lab time part of lab 1 that you (should) only have to do once. They are:

• Setting up your UNIX account - this will be done in lab.
• Setting up permissions for your directories - this process is described at User:DukeEgr93/WindowsPermission and will also be completed during lab.
• Setting up the default paper sizes for LaTeX. This must be done since he default case for the dvips and dvipdf commands is to use A4 paper. To correct this, log into a Teer machine (login-teer.oit.duke.edu) and type

texconfig

Press return to continue, then in the window that comes up, arrow down to the second row, PAPER. Hit return, then arrow down to LETTER and hit return. You may need to press return to continue after some configuration files have been changed. When you get back to the colorful window, hit return to EXIT.

Other activities

To work on the lab from your own computer, follow these steps:

• If on Windows, start MobaXterm
• If on Mac, start the Terminal program in the XQuartz package. Use it to connect to the login-teer machines.
• Test the graphics connection by typing xterm &
  • If the xterm window comes up - great! If not, note the following:
    • For Macs, you need to type xhost + in a terminal window once -- this generally stays in place for the rest of the time you own that computer...
• Once connected to a terminal and testing the graphics, change into your lab 1 directory with:

cd EGR103
cd lab1

Note: the EGR103 directory will be created during Lab 1.

• Edit your lab report with emacs using

emacs lab1.tex &

Don't forget the &!

• After saving the file with emacs, process the LaTeX file with

latex lab1.tex

Make sure LaTeX compiles! If not, check what kind of error there is:

• • If LaTeX can't see lab1.tex or sits there with two asterisks, hit CTRL-D and figure out where the file is.
  • If it is some other error, hit CTRL-D and identify the error. Fix the problem in emacs and run again.
• Once LaTeX succeeds, run dvipdf with:

dvipdf lab1.dvi

to create a PostScript file.

• Finally, use evince to view the pdf file:

evince lab1.pdf &

Don't forget the &! There may be a bunch of little warnings and errors that pop up.

• To print, use the print command in evince and select the "lp0" printer. If your documents are not showing up in your ePrint queue when you swipe your card, see the ePrint page for troubleshooting info.

As you are editing your document, you should add a little to the .tex file in the emacs window, save the .tex file, and process it with LaTeX. If that works, then run the dvipdf command -- if evince is open and viewing the PDF file, it will detect a change in the PDF file and automatically load the latest version.

Troubleshooting

Blank Document

If

emacs lab1.tex & 

command brings up a blank document! You probably forgot to get into your lab1 directory. Be sure to type both parts of

cd EGR103
cd lab1

Windows Don't Show Up

The

emacs lab1.tex &

command doesn't seem to do anything. You probably do not have graphics set correctly. To check, type

xterm

without an ampersand. If you get an error message about the display not being set or localhost not working or something like that, you need to re-do your session to accept graphics. For both MobaXterm and XQuartz, make sure you have the -XY part of the line of code you are typing in to connect to a Teer machine.

The File is Locked

If you try to open a file in emacs and at the bottom of the window you get a message:

 ".../EGR103/lab1/lab1.tex locked by NetID@login-t... (pid nnnn): (s, q, p, ?)?" 

This usually happens if your connection closed unexpectedly while editing the document. Navigate to the folder and type:

ls

If there is a file similar to the one you are editing but surrounded by hashtags, that is what is causing the problem. The easiest solution is, in that little emacs window with the message above, type "s"

Questions

Post your questions by editing the discussion page of this article. Edit the page, then scroll to the bottom and add a question by putting in the characters *{{Q}}, followed by your question and finally your signature (with four tildes, i.e. ~~~~). Using the {{Q}} will automatically put the page in the category of pages with questions - other editors hoping to help out can then go to that category page to see where the questions are. See the page for Template:Q for details and examples.