School of Computing Resources

Students enrolled in courses (CSCE, SOFT, and RAIK) taught by faculty of the School of Computing, (CSCE, SOFT or RAIK) automatically have accounts on the cse-linux-01.unl.edu server. To access this server, the easiest way is to open a terminal window in MacOS, or the Command Prompt or PowerShell in Windows 10 or 11, and use the ssh command:

ssh jdoe2@cse-linux-01.unl.edu

Substituting your MyRed login for jdoe2 in the command and entering your MyRed password when prompted. If you have never logged into the cse-linux-01.unl.edu server, a new home directory will be created for you. The cse-linux-01.unl.edu server offers a variety of software development tools, frameworks and services including MySQL server accounts. You can also access cse-linux-01.unl.edu using the NoMachine application if a GUI interface to the server is needed.

Some students may need a School of Computing (SoC)  account (refered to as your CSE account)  if they are doing research with faculty or accessing legacy software that is only available on the legacy CSE systems. This CSE account is used to access legacy SoC servers, websites, and network shares. A CSE account is separate from a My.UNL account (e.g. jdoe2) which is used to access UNL services like Canvas, Box, and Microsoft 365, and a TrueYou account (e.g. 12345678) which is used to access NU (system-wide) services like MyRED and Firefly. Usernames for CSE accounts do not contain any numbers, and the password for your CSE account is not synchronized to your My.UNL or TrueYou account password. If you have been told by an instructor or faculty member that you need to access the legacy systems using a   CSE account, you can create one online at https://cse.unl.edu/claim by entering your full @huskers.unl.edu email address. After submitting your Huskers email address, you’ll receive a confirmation email at that address; click the link in the email to verify your identity and set up your new CSE account. This process will prompt you to choose your own password for your account, complete the consent form to agree to the university’s computer use guidelines, and then provide you with the username (or LoginID) for your CSE account. Make note of the username/LoginID for your CSE account, as it will be different than the My.UNL account username you use to access Canvas and other UNL services.

If you already have a CSE account (e.g. from a previous CSCE/SOFT/RAIK course) but don’t remember your username, go to https://cse.unl.edu/lost_login. If you have forgotten your password, go to https://cse.unl.edu/reset_password. Both links will prompt you to enter your full @huskers.unl.edu email address to have your CSE login sent to you or request your password be reset.

Below is a quick start guide on resources available for students enrolled in SoC courses.


Printing: A printer is available for all SoC students in Avery 15. To print to a printer, then follow the appropriate instructions below:

Printer access is dependent on having the correct settings for your connection to the EDUROAM network on campus.


Storage: While OneDrive can be accessed through a web browser on our lab computers, when developing code on lab computers, we recommend using a thumb drive or mapping a network share.  One is made available to School of Computing students (referred to as your home directory) You will first need to claim your CSE account by visiting the link at the top of this document, then follow the instructions below.

Mapping your home directory to lab computers: https://computing.unl.edu/faq/labdrv

Access your CSE home directory from a personal device:

Accessing OneDrive on lab computers: https://computing.unl.edu/faq/onedrive


Handin: If your course requires you to submit code or use the web grader you might be asked to use handin. The handin application: https://cse.unl.edu/handin uses your MyRed login and password to submit assignments.


Remote Linux Access: A lot of classes in the School of Computing will require you to access our remote Linux server using Secure Shell (SSH). The links below show the step-by-step process of using SSH to connect to the servers.


Helpful links and getting additional support:

PDF version of this document.

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How do I change my CSE password?

Your CSE login and password are synchronized across various School of Computing (SoC) hosted Windows, Linux, and Web services. Changing a synchronized password on one SoC system will change your password across all SoC systems.

We highly recommend you change your password on Windows or using the account management utility portal. The password synchronization works better from this side.

From the Web: Log in to the School of Computing Account Management Utility (AMU) (https://cse.unl.edu/account) with your CSE account credentials and then clicking on the change password link from the navigation links on the left.

From Windows: In order for you to change password, first login with your old password, then press Ctrl + Alt + Delete at the same time. You will be presented with a set of options, one of which will be to change your password. Click on "Change Password" then enter your old SoC password and your new password as requested by the system.

From Unix/Linux: To change the passwords on a Unix or Linux command line, open a terminal and login to your account. At the shell prompt enter the command "passwd". Enter your current CSE password and press enter, then enter your new CSE password when prompted.

Please take the time to select a good password. When you change your password, the system will reject any password that does not meet the following complexity requirement: A password much be at least seven characters long; a password must contain at least three of the following four character sets:  lowercase, uppercase, numbers and punctuations; a password cannot contain your login or your first or last names as part of the password.

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Disabling forwarding from UNL email

The simplest way to disable forwarding from your UNL email account is to access your outlook mailbox using a web browser. Point your browser to mymail.unl.edu.

After you have logged in, make sure you are in the mail application, then click on the settings cog and then on "View All Outlook Settings" link as shown in the first figure below.

Then go to Mail -> Forwarding, remove an email address if present, and uncheck the "Enable forwarding" checkbox if checked as shown in the second figure below.

accessing outlook email settings

disabling email forwarding control location on settings panel

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Connecting to cse.unl.edu and other Unix servers with SSH from Windows

You can connect to the School of Computing (SoC) CSE server (cse.unl.edu) and other UNIX servers in the department using the PuTTY SSH client.

PuTTY can be downloaded from the this web site. After you have downloaded and installed PuTTY, you can use it to connect to cse.unl.edu.

Double click the PuTTY icon on the desktop or enter "putty" in the search bar to start PuTTY:

putty secure shell connect example ip or host name specify.

Enter "cse.unl.edu" in the Host Name (or IP address) field and hit enter.

The first time you connect to a remote host, you will receive a message stating: "The server's host key is not cached int the registry. You have to guarantee that the server is the computer you think it is." You should click "Yes" here.

putty secure shell connection accept message

Next, you will be prompted to enter a user name and password.  This is your SoC user name and password; this example uses "sac" as the user name and cse.unl.edu as the login server:

putty secure shell connection to the School of Computing CSE (cse.unl.edu) server completed view.

If you are prompted for a Verification code: after entering your password, examine the user name you supplied. User names that end digits (1 through 9) are not SoC user names that can be used to login to CSE and other SoC servers.

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Prerequisites for hosting web content on your cse account.

School of Computing (SoC) users can host web content such as HTML or PHP pages on the cse.unl.edu server. There are a few prerequisites such as required directories and permissions on these directories. This section will go over these.

Before we get started, a word on directory permissions. We'll need to grant others execute permissions on certain directories. Granting execute permission on a directory, allows others to access (traverse/come into) your directory, in this case the web server will need to access the HTML files you wish to publish. Note: This is not the same as granting read access on a directory. Read access allows someone to list the content of the directory. When execute but not read access is granted, the user can only access files they know the full path to, and in addition, they must have read access to the particular file in question.

  1. You will need to open a Unix command line session to cse.unl.edu. Since the steps are different for Windows and Mac users, this topic is covered in the respective FAQ sections.
  2. Make sure your home directory has execute permission for everyone(others). Note: the "~" symbol is a shortcut to "My Homedirectory". Enter "chmod o+x ~" in the command prompt as shown below.
     > chmod o+x ~ 
  3. Create a public_html directory in your home directory by issuing the command below. The public_html directory is the root of your Web documents. A world readable file placed in this directory will be accessible on the web by using the URL http://cse.unl.edu/~login_id/file where you would replace ~login_id with "~"+ your login id.
     > mkdir ~/public_html
  4. The public_html directory must also have execute permission for everyone(others). Enter the command shown below.
     > chmod o+x ~/public_html 
  5. You can now setup a index.html page (the default page serviced by the web server) to test your web site.

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Connecting to cse.unl.edu and other Unix servers with SSH from a Macintosh

  1. Launch a terminal window. Type ⌘-K to launch spotlight. Type "Terminal" and you should see the "Terminal" application. click to launch.
  2. Type inssh cse-login-id@hostname where hostname would be cse.unl.edu or another server running an SSH server and cse-login-id is your login id (credentials) for the School of Computing (SoC) systems.

An example of this using the Terminal application: The user's SoC login id is 'jsmith'

Last login: Mon Jul  1 14:41:39 on ttys003
macbook-prompt> ssh jsmith@cse.unl.edu
Password:

Last login: Tue Jul  2 10:25:18 2019 from 101.431.103.46
******************************************************************************
                               Welcome to CSE
******************************************************************************
The operating system on this computer was upgraded on March 18, 2018.

Please contact "manager@cse.unl.edu" to report problems, request software
or ask questions about this system.
******************************************************************************
cse.unl.edu-prompt$ 

On your first connection to a server, you may see a message from SSH indicating that the host authenticity is unknown.

macbook-prompt> ssh jsmith@cse.unl.edu
The authenticity of host 'cse.unl.edu (10.211.11.120)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 3f:1b:f4:bd:c5:aa:c1:1f:bf:4e:2e:cf:53:fa:d8:59.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Password:
Last login: Tue Jul  3 11:05:12 2019 from 101.231.303.416
******************************************************************************
                               Welcome to CSE
******************************************************************************

The operating system on this computer was upgraded on March 18, 2018.

Please contact "manager@cse.unl.edu" to report problems, request software
or ask questions about this system.

******************************************************************************
cse.unl.edu-prompt$

This only occurs on the first connection to a host and you should respond to the question with a 'yes' (as shown above) so the host becomes authenticated.

If you are presented with a Verification code: prompt after entering your password, examine the cse-login-id you supplied to the ssh cse-login-id@hostname command line. If the cse-login-id supplied ends in a digit, e.g. fred4, the login id is not a valid School of Computing CSE login.

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How do I print from a Windows PC on campus?

New! Printing has changed, please use the updated instructions below.

To print documents from computer lab Windows PCs or your personal Windows PC laptop you will need to install a network printer.

Please note:   Printing generally only works from on campus.

Launch File Explorer. Go to search in task bar and search "File Explorer" or select the File Explorer from the Windows System menu.

file explorer access via windows system menu

In the File Explorer address bar, type in \\its-acadprt-unl.unl.edu as shown.

Printing using CSNT is being decommissioned and no longer supported
Entering \\its-acadprt-unl.unl.edu in explorer bar
Printer access now uses your MyUNL credentials, not your CSE credentials

When you are asked to enter your network credentials, you will need to login with your MyUNL credentials. Your user name must be provided as MyUNL_ID@unl.edu where MyUNL_ID is your UNL login ID.

The Remember my credentials box must be checked for printing to work properly.

Provide @unl.edu login credentials

Once successfully authenticated, you will be presented with a list of printers. Printers are generally named by the building and room they are in. Now click on the printer you want to connect to and select connect.

selecting a printer from list

NOTE: Only the below printers are available for students:

  • SoC_Avery15
  • SoC_Avery12
  • SoC_Avery12color

Alll other SoC printer have access controls for specific users in those areas.

Common Issues

On your personal device, make sure you are connected to eduroam and eduroam must be configured as a  private network.

Norton Anti-virus and certain other anti-virus vendors will prevent outgoing SMB connections. Please use the UNL provided anti-virus software CortexXDR offered thru UNL ITS.

If Windows does not prompt you for credentials, or if you cannot browse the \\its-acadprt-unl.unl.edu network, the problem lies in the Windows configuration. Verify eduroam is a private (local) network, verify your system is fully updated to the latest Windows updates and then verify that the SMB client is enabled.  Here are some Instructions for how to determine if your SMB Client is enabled, and how to enable it.

There are many caveats to windows printing. If you need help please email support@cse.unl.edu. You may be asked to bring your personal device (laptop) in to the support office if your problem cannot be resolved via email.

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Where is my SoC (CSE) email forwarded to?

As of May 20, 2019, university policy requires that all university communications be forwarded to the student's @huskers.unl.edu email. As such, all email sent your School of Computing (SoC) account will be forwarded to your @huskers.unl.edu email. No action is required on your part to enable this forwarding. For more information on this policy or if you are a new students and need to claim your @huskers.unl.edu email, please visit https://its.unl.edu/helpcenter/student-email-migration/.

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Connecting to cse.unl.edu and other unix servers with ssh from Linux

Open a Terminal window.  The instructions that follow are for Ubuntu Linux.  Other distributions are similar.

Click on the grid button in the lower left corner.

ubuntu search icon

Enter "Terminal" in the search dialog that appears.

ubuntu terminal command search window view

In the window that appears when you click on the Terminal icon shown above, enter "ssh -Y username@cse.unl.edu".  Substitue your cse user name for "username" in this command.  You can omit the "-Y" flag if you do not want to use ssh X forwarding (and if you don't know what this is, you can safely omit it).  The examples below use a user name of "sac".

ubuntu terminal secure shell connection initial system connection prompt

The first time that you connect to cse.unl.edu, or any other Linux/Unix server, a dialog like that shown above will appear.  Answer "yes" to this.

Then enter your cse password.

ubuntu terminal window showing successful secure shell connection to remote host

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Connecting to the Windows Terminal Server from Mac OS

How to connect an Apple MacOS system to the School of Computing (SoC) Microsoft Windows Terminal Server:

1. On Your Mac open the "App Store" application and install the "Microsoft Remote Desktop" application.  Please be sure to install version 10 of this application.

2. Launch Microsoft Remote Desktop.

3. Click the button labeled "Add Desktop".

microsoft remote desktop window showing add new desktop

4. Complete the Pop-up Connection Dialog as described below:

      i. PC name: csnt-ts.unl.edu

     ii. User Account: You can either choose "Ask me every time" or "Add User Account ..." (see below)

    iii. Freindly Name: SoC Terminal Server

remote desktop window selecting terminal server and account info

5. If you chose "Add User Account ..." above complete the Add User Account as described below:

    Username: CS.UNL.EDU\username (where "username" is your SoC login ID)

    Password: your cse-password

    Friendly name: SoC Terminal Server or csnt-ts  The choice is up to you

certificate warning acceptance message on connection to terminal server

6. Click the Add button for the "Add User Account Dialog" and for the "Add Desktop" dialogs.

7. You will now see a window that looks like the following:

add user account for remote desktop window view

8. Double click the Desktop you just added "csnt-ts."

9.  When you connect you will get a dialog like the one below. Click Continue.

confirmation message for connection to terminal server

10. You will either bet presented with a login screen or your csnt-ts desktop, depending on whether your selected "Ask me every time" or "Add User Account..." in step 4.

11. When you disconnect the  blank preview or your "Saved Desktops" will be changed to a thumbnail of your actual desktop.

saved desktops view in microsoft remote terminal application

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How to reset your MySQL password on cse.unl.edu

Resetting MySQL Password 

If you have forgotten your MySQL password, reset your MySQL password by going to https://cse.unl.edu/account. Log in using your School of Computing (SoC) credentials and click the 'Reset MySQL Password' link. A new randomly generated password will be sent to you via email.

Changing MySQL Password from the MySQL CLI

If you know your old MySQL password, the password can be changed from MySQL workbench or from the MySQL command line interface (CLI). To chance your password from the CLI, connect to cse.unl.edu, run the MySQL client, once connected, enter the following command at the MySQL client prompt: 'set password=password('####');' and hit enter. Where '####' denotes the password you wish.

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Connecting to the Windows Terminal Server (Windows)

  1. The Remote Desktop Client appears in different locations in the start menu in different versions of Windows. If you are able to locate the Remote Desktop Client in your start menu, launch this application. If you are unable to find the client, then either search for "mstsc.exe" in the metro tiles screen or type it into the Run dialog.
  2. Once launched, on the first dialog, enter csnt-ts.unl.edu in the Computer field and click on Connect.
  3. You should see a dialog to enter your credentials. Enter your School of Computing (SoC) credentials here, however your user name must be of the form CS.UNL.EDU\login_id. Where login_id would be your SoC login ID. Then, click on "OK."
  4. You may be presented with a certificate warning. Go ahead and accept the self signed certificate.
  5. This should connect you to the remote terminal server. The remote desktop will likely replace your local desktop, to return to the local desktop, move your mouse to the middle of the top few pixels on the screen. A control bar will slide down, allowing you to iconify our remote desktop.
  6. When you are finished working on the remote desktop server, please log off the remote server and don't simply disconnect the session. Disconnecting the session still leaves it running on the remote server and continues to utilize resources.

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Accessing your email through a web browser

The School of Computing (SoC) accounts have an email address associated with your SoC account which is hosted by the cse.unl.edu server. All new student accounts are configured to automatically forward incoming email messages to their @huskers.unl.edu email account, and faculty/staff will have email forwarded to their @unl.edu email account.

We also do not recommend publishing or using your SoC email address, as these will no longer forward to @huskers.unl.edu or @unl.edu once your SoC account expires.

Webmail for Huskers Users (Students and Alumni)

All university students can set up an @huskers.unl.edu email account, which is hosted by Microsoft's ExchangeLabs. Unlike SoC email addresses, students can keep their huskers.unl.edu account after graduation, so this can become a permanent email address. Students also get to choose the email address when setting up a huskers.unl.edu account. To log in to the huskers.unl.edu webmail interface, visit https://mymail.unl.edu.

University alumni are also eligible for a lifelong huskers.unl.edu email account, see the University of Nebraska (UNL) Alumni association email for life for additional details.

Webmail for Office365 Users (Faculty and Staff)

The university's primary email service for faculty and staff is hosted by Microsoft's Office365. The Outlook Web App (OWA) is available at https://mymail.unl.edu.

Webmail for CSE-Mail Users (Legacy users)

SoC hosted web email services are provided by the CSE-Mail server. CSE-Mail is the email server for most SoC users who have an email address that ends in @cse.unl.edu.

Either interface can be used interchangeably.

Webmail for CSE-Cyrus Users (Legacy users)

Some SoC faculty and staff have been migrated from the cse-mail server host to a separate, closed IMAP server called cse-cyrus.  This server handles simultaneous connections from multiple email clients better than cse-mail does, but there is no shell (or any other non-IMAP) access to this server.

Web email account access for users with mail on cse-cyrus is available through the Roundcube interface at https://cse-cyrus.unl.edu/roundcube.

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Connecting to the Windows Terminal Server from Linux

The instructions that follow are for Ubuntu Linux. Other Linux distributions are similar except for installing the "Remmina" program.

Click on the grid icon at the lower left of the screen.

ubuntu search icon

In the search dialog that appears enter "rdp".  The Remmina application should appear in the results. Click on that icon.

ubuntu search window for Remmina application

In order to connect to our terminal server you need to add a customized connection.  Click on the green "+" symbol in the Remmina program and enter the following information:

Profile name: csnt-ts (or another name that you'd like to use).

Server: csnt-ts.unl.edu

User password: your CSE password

Domain: cs.unl.edu

Color depth: True color (24 bpp)

And then click the "Save" or "Save as Default" button.

Remote desktop settings window of Remmina application

Double click on the session you just saved.

Remmina session view

A dialog may appear asking you to accept a certificate for csnt-ts. You should accept the certificate.

Remmina certificate acceptance window

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How to forward your SoC/CSE email (faculty/staff)

Email support@cse.unl.edu asking a forward be setup for your account. Please include your School of Compting (SoC) email (e.g. login@cse.unl.edu) and the desired destination email address.

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Accessing School of Computing systems using NoMachine - Remote X11 GUI access

NoMachine is a fast, multi protocol remote access client which allows RDP and X11 type connections to a variety of servers. We have a NX server installed on two servers; cse-linux-01.unl.edu and cse.unl.edu, which allows GUI X11 Desktop access to either of these systems. Below are steps on setting up a noMachine connection to cse-linux-01.unl.edu.

You can download and install NoMachine from https://www.nomachine.com/ 

To configure a new connection, after you launch noMachine: 

  1. from the Recent connections pane,  click on ‘New’ 
  2. for Protocol select NX 
  3. In the Host input enter ‘cse-linux-01.unl.edu’
  4. for Authentication method select Password
  5. select the Don’t use proxy radio button.
  6. Name your connection and finally click on Done

Once you have configured a connection to establish a connection:

  1. from the Recent connections pane,  double click on the named connection
  2. Enter your MyRed login credentials for the cse-linux-01.unl.edu server (username and password)
  3. Double click on the Create a new virtual desktop  icon new virtual machine
  4. Click thru the next four dialogs that provide you an overview on using noMachine

For connection to the legacy cse.unl.edu server you must use a CSE login and password, which is separate and distinct from your MyRed login and is only used to connect to SoC legacy servers and web applications. You will not need a CSE login unless an instructor or faculty member has told you that you need one to access legacy research or instructional tools and/or data.

Tip: You can save your password, the connection type, and click on Don’t show this message again on the dialogs for one-click connection to cse.unl.edu

Note: Please log off when you are done working on cse.unl.edu. Simply disconnecting the NoMachine client will consume resources on the server and your session will be forcefully quit at somepoint, possibly resulting in loss of any unsaved data or settings.

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Requesting a Virtual Machine (VM) for research and/or classwork

The School of Computing can provide students and faculty remote Windows or Ubuntu Linux virtual machines (VMs). These machines can be used by students needing a PC to run Altera or Xilinx to program FPGA boards who do not have a Windows system. If you have a research or instructional use case for a VM send your request for a VM to support@cse.unl.edu.

Can I save files on my VM or load software?  

Yes. You can save your files on your system itself or access your network drive (Z drive). However, at present, we do not have the capacity to backup virtual machines. It the end user's responsibility to store their files on the Z: drive which is backed up or to store a copy of important files on their local storage by sharing their remote device with the VMs.

Can I access resources on my VM such as an external drive or Altera or Xilinx Board?

 Yes.  You will have access to USB devices.  You can load and save data from an external hard drive or program an Altera or Xilinx Board

How Do connect an Altera or Xilinx Board to my VM ?

 The software to program your board has already been loaded on your virtual machine.

You plug the board into your system running the virtual machine. The USB redirection set on the VM allows you to see your connected physical devices. You select your specific board both on your Horizon client and in the design software which then reads your board and allows you to program it.

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Linux SMB Printing

Notice:   Due to network security changes by UNL ITS, printing from personal Linux systems to shared network printers in Avery and Schorr is not working. The instructions below are now obsolete and will not result in a functioning print service. We are working with ITS to develop a new procedure for printing to the network printers under the latest ITS administrative restrictions.

The example provided depicts the GUI interfaces provided by the Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS distribution. Note: Printing only works when you connected to a University of Nebraska network.

Prior to setting up printing, you need to install some prerequisite programs.  This can be done with the shell-prompt command "sudo apt install python3-smbc smbclient" there will likely be a number of dependencies that also need to be installed when you issue this command.

  1. Open System Settings by clicking on the icons in the upper right corner and select "Settings".
    settings icon location
  2. Select Printers on the left and then click "Additional Printer Settings..."
    additional printer settings location
  3. Click on Add:
    add printer icon
  4. Select "Windows Printer via SAMBA"  Enter csnt/ and the name of the printer that you want to add such as "Avery-ps15" and select "Set authentication details now" if the option is presented. For your login credentials, you should use your CSE login username inserting cs.unl.edu\ before your CSE username, e.g. cs.unl.edu\username. Complete the administration of the printer by entering your password and click Forward:
    credentials entry example
  5. Select Generic and click Forward on the next window:
    selecting generic on driver choice menu
  6. Select PostScript in the Drivers column of the next window and select Generic PostScript Printer Foomatic/Postscript [en] (Recommended) column and then click Forward:
    selecting postscript foomatic menu item
  7. Enter a short name for the printer, such as "ps15", and a "Human-readable" name for the printer such as "Avery-ps15" and then click Apply. The short name can be used later for command-line printing and the "Human-readable" name will show up in print applications that use the system's GUI.
    entering a name for a new printer
  8. You can click Cancel on the popup window or click Print Test Page. The test page will be deducted from your print quota if you choose to print it.
    test page menu page
  9. If everything worked as expected you should see the printer.
    system printer menu showing new printer

If you encounter the error: CUPS server error "client-error-not-possible" or a similar error from the CUPS subsystem, you will need to install the smbclient package, and perhaps additionally the samba or smb-common package, using the package manager provided with your Linux distribution.

Linux Mint uses very much the same procedure except instead of being called "System Settings" the system configuration application is called "Control Center". Other Linux distributions are similar.

If you want to take advantage of more advanced printer features, such as duplexing or stapling, you can use a printer-specific driver for the printer models as seen at the bottom of Printing from Mac via SMB 10.8+ section of this FAQ

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How do I access the VM which has been provisioned to me?

Download the VM Horizon client on to your system using the appropriate link below. Install and launch the Horizon client. Create a new connection to https://cse-vmcs-01.unl.edu. Login to the connection server with your School of Computing (SoC) credentials. When you are connected, the server will open a window that contains the virtual machine(s) that are provisioned to you. Once you log in, the virtual machine will function as a separate system running on your current one.

You can download the Vmware Horizon Clients from:

For Windows: Vmware Horizon client for Windows

For Mac: Vmware Horizon client for MAC

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Accessing and Using Microsoft One Drive

Microsoft OneDrive Storage

Microsoft OneDrive is free cloud storage for programs and data.  Students, faculty and staff are eligible for this service. 

OneDrive storage offers the advantages of cloud-accessible content, so your files are always available where you have cloud access. You can share folders (directories) on OneDrive with members of your project teams, thus enabling a simple shared project document space.

  • All UNL users will begin with 5 Terabytes of storage. 
  • UNL users can access and use Microsoft OneDrive within a browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) from the lab computer systems.
  • On your personal devices you can access the browser-accessible version or download the OneDrive client application. Users who have installed Office365 provided by UNL have the OneDrive client installed as part of the Office365 suite.
Access Microsoft OneDrive in Computer Labs

To access Microsoft OneDrive from a lab computer, open a web browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox) and enter the URL:

https://portal.office.com

office365 login page

Enter your UNL credentials, e.g. jsmith2@unl.edu, and press Next

You will be redirected to the UNL two-factor login page:

UNL shibboleth login page

After completing two-factor authentication you will be redirected to the main Office365 page. From there you will need to select the OneDrive application from the menu:

Select the Office applications menu via the top-left corner of the page:

office365 selecting applications menu

and select the OneDrive application:

office365 highlighted location of onedrive application in menu

The OneDrive application will open in a new tab or window depending on your browser settings.

office365 onedrive view

File Transfer to OneDrive

Transferring your files up or down from OneDrive is performed using the Windows File Explorer application. To upload, select the file you want to upload using the File Explorer, and drag-and-drop it onto your OneDrive browser window.
To download, select the file you want within the OneDrive browser window, and choose the Download option from the menu:

selecting a file for download in onedrive window selecting the download option from the onedrive menu

The Download option presents a Save As window allowing you to save the downloaded source file anywhere on the Windows system, including other network drives.

OneDrive with MacOS

Using OneDrive on a personal Mac OS laptop can be done using the web interface or the Office365 OneDrive client application. The web browser access outlined above also works for Mac OS and the ability to drag-and-drop files from the Finder application offers easy upload capability while downloading mechanisms are identical. The OneDrive client application integrates the OneDrive files into the Finder:

Mac OS finder with onedrive application installed and configured

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VMware Installation using D2L Brightspace

VMware Installation

Local Virtual Machines in the School of Computing (SoC) are generally run under VMware Fusion or Workstation. This and other VMware products are available to SoC students through VMware's Academy Software Licensing program (which is hosted by D2L Brightspace). This service replaces our previous subscription service to VMware OnTheHub.

Downloading VMware Products

Start by requesting a subscription to the VMware Academy Software Licensing Program via the SoC account management portal as outlined below.

  1. Visit https://cse.unl.edu/account.
  2. Login with your cse.unl.edu credentials.
  3. Click on the Account Settings link.
  4. Check the "VMware Academic Software Program (D2L Brightspace)" checkbox and save your settings.

This will initiate an account request using your huskers.unl.edu email address. You should receive an email with a link by the next business day. Once you receive the email, click on the link provided for download access.

vmware access account request granted email example

The link leads to a following page. Click on the 'Click here' button to proceed.

vmware login page view

If you already have a D2L account, click on Log In, otherwise click on the Register button.

login or register on site

Complete your registration if you clicked on the Register button above, otherwise skip this step.

vmware registration view

On the next page, select the "Click Here to Redeem" button.

vmware redeem permission code for license


Click on the "Software Products and License Keys" button presented on the next page.

license key issuance

The left column of the screen shows the steps to request the VMware software and obtain the 1-Year License Key. The right column contains the download links for your software. VM Workstation is for PC's and VMware Fusion is for MAC.

At this point, you will install the downloaded VMware client and apply the license.

Notes:

  • Product licenses issued through the VMware Academic Program are valid for one year from date of issue.
  • Access to VMware Academic Program subscription (D2L) site are reset every October.

– In effect, if your VMware product license has expired, you will need to re-request a subscription to the VMware Academic Software Licensing program by following the instructions on this FAQ Section: Downloading VMware Products, in order to access new versions of VMware products or licenses.

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How do I change my Linux systems login shell?

Your School of Computing (SoC) systems login shell defines how the department Linux workstations and servers (CSE and CSCE) will behave when you login. The shell is the user's interface to the Linux operating system allowing program execution along with capabilities to create, edit, and examine files and directories on the server. Shells also incorporate the elements of programmability by providing control flow statement-commands. This statement-command syntactic format varies with different shells, and some programs are sensitive to the shell in which they are launched. The choice of login shell can also affect the behavior of client applications that establish SSH protocol connections to the SoC servers.

Changing your login shell can be done anytime by logging into the SoC Account Management Utility (AMU) and selecting your shell under the Account Settings
menu.

Like your password, your choice of login shell is synchronized across all School of Computing Linux workstations and servers.

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Code development on the SoC Linux servers with Visual Studio Code

If you are developing C or C++ code on the School of Computing's CSE server (cse.unl.edu) and using a Windows PC or Mac, you may benefit from using Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/windows (Links to an external site.)) as an editor. While not as full-featured as a true IDE, VS Code does give you syntax and code error highlighting which can be beneficial.

To use Visual Studio Code to edit your files stored on the CSE server, you will need to attach (mount) your CSE home directory as a remote drive. The instructions on the How do I access my home directory on campus? page will tell you how to mount your home directory as the Z: drive on a Windows system. A similar procedure for Mac allows mounting your home directory using Mac OS.

After mounting your CSE home directory, you can open Visual Studio Code to Explore your Z: drive, and open a workspace. Project directories located in your CSE home directory or subdirectories can be selected using the VS Code Explore tool. Selecting the Open Folder link in VS Code also opens the Explorer tool.

VS Code Explore panel showing Z: drive
Figure 1. VS Code - Explorer tool view showing a mounted CSE home directory

You can use Windows Explorer to copy or move source and/or project files and directories from your local laptop hard drive into your Z: drive, and create any directories or sub-directories in your CSE home directory. If you are using Git to store your project, you can clone it directly into your Z: drive by selecting the directory on the Z: drive where you want to clone the project.

To Clone a Git repository project using VS Code, choose the Clone Repository button:

example of a cloning a git repository via the interface
Figure 2. VS Code selecting a Github project repository to clone

Choose a directory on Z: drive to save the git project:

specifying the directory as the remote mount Z: drive
Figure 3. Selecting a directory on the CSE server using the mounted Z: to save the Github project repository into

This example clones a project from Github, and saves the project within the directory ~/git on the CSE server. The tilde character, ~ refers to your home directory on CSE, and the git directory is an arbitrary directory that I have chosen to save all my git projects.

For MacOS, after following the instructions to mount your CSE home directory, you can use the Mac Finder application to navigate into your CSE home directory (remote location) and copy files and directories to and from your MacOS machine. Opening files and projects in VS Code is the same in MacOS using the VS Code Explorer tool, including the cloning repositories by selecting your CSE home directory remote location.

Attaching to your CSE home directory on from an off-campus network may require using a VPN connection. The VPN is a service of UNL Information Technology Services, visit the UNL ITS Global Protect VPN page for instructions on installing and connecting to the UNL network using the VPN client.

Disk Usage Considerations

The prior version of this article instructed users to load the Remote - SSH extension into VS Code and connect to the CSE server via that extension when running VS Code. The instructions above supersede those, and make the need for a .vscode-server directory in your home directory unnecessary.
If you have used VS Code using the old instructions, you may reach or exceed your quota of disk space on CSE. Using the Remote - SSH extension triggers the installation of a 100MB+ image of the VS Code Server into your home directory. With prolonged use of VS Code and Remote - SSH, you may have multiple copies of the VS Code Server application being placed in a subdirectory of your home directory. This is caused by VS Code and the update mechanism, resulting in extra copies of the executable files in ~/.vscode-server/bin. These old/extra copies count against your disk quota on the CSE server, and may result in you receiving disk quota exceeded emails from CSE Systems Support. These old/extra copies can safely be removed, an easy way to tell is if the date reported by ls -lt is the most recent, that is the copy to keep. All older copies can be safely removed.

Below is an example of what you will find in the VS Code Server directory, ~/.vscode-server and how to remove extra copies of VS Code executable files:

wmotycka@cse:~> ls -l ~/.vscode-server/bin/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 6 wmotycka staff 4096 Oct 26 07:54 d2e414d9e4239a252d1ab117bd7067f125afd80a  # NOTE OLDEST DATE
drwxr-xr-x 6 wmotycka staff 4096 Jan 16 08:55 ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523
drwxr-xr-x 6 wmotycka staff 4096 Nov  8 09:00 fcac248b077b55bae4ba5bab613fd6e9156c2f0c    # NOTE OLD DATE
wmotycka@cse:~> cd ~/.vscode-server/bin
wmotycka@cse:~/.vscode-server/bin> du -hs
317M    .
wmotycka@cse:~/.vscode-server/bin> du -hd1
112M    ./d2e414d9e4239a252d1ab117bd7067f125afd80a
104M    ./ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523
103M    ./fcac248b077b55bae4ba5bab613fd6e9156c2f0c
317M    .
wmotycka@cse:~/.vscode-server/bin> cd ../..
wmotycka@cse:~> # Remove the extra/oldest copy/copies of the VS Code Server using 'rm -rf'
wmotycka@cse:~> rm -rf ~/.vscode-server/bin/d2e414d9e4239a252d1ab117bd7067f125afd80a
wmotycka@cse:~> rm -rf ~/.vscode-server/bin/fcac248b077b55bae4ba5bab613fd6e9156c2f0c
wmotycka@cse:~>

The last two commands above remove the oldest copies of VS Code Server images while retaining the most recently dated copy present.

Latest Notes

Unless you have a particular need, we recommend completely removing the ~/.vscode-server directory and instead access files on CSE using the method above. The ~/.vscode-server directory is necessary for operation using the Remote - SSH extension but is unnecessary when using VS Code on remote-mounting files to your personal Windows or Mac machine. There is also a performance improvement to VS Code by using remote-mounted files instead of the Remote - SSH method since all of the editing work is done on your local system. Disk usage reduction and performance improvement together justify changing to the method described above. If you want, remove all the contents of the ~/.vscode-server/bin/* and then use the instructions above to connect to your project. The only change you should see may be the need to install extensions locally that you originally had installed on the CSE server.

The Remote - SSH extension can also cause performance issues on the CSE server. Features of the extension like file search spawn processes that can linger in the CSE process table, becoming "zombie" processes that can only be removed by manual intervention (reboot or using 'kill' on each.) These lingering processes reduce available processing time, which you experience as slow compiles and program execution.

VS Code on a Linux client

Running VS Code on a Linux client (for example running Ubuntu on your own laptop) the way you mount the drive is important. You will need to use the fuse filesystem and the base SAMBA client packages samba-client and samba-common. For more specifics follow (or search) the instructions for your Linux distribution regarding installing SAMBA client. For my installation (Kubuntu 22.04), I also installed samba-common-bin, samba-libs, samba-vfs-libs, smbclient, cifs-utils, and winbind packages.
The Gnome Virtual Filesystem gvfs facility, if properly configured, will mount your CSE home directory to one of the two the default locations, ~/.gvfs or /run/user/<user-number>/gvfs. This gvfs facility is easy to use from the Gnome Files application, but doesn't work properly with all file managers like Dolphin, where the mounted CSE filesystem is not being exposed into the ~/.gvfs or /run/user/<user-number>/gvfs directory, as the gvfsd-fuse documentation describes. Using the Gnome Files application, the /run/user/<user-number>/gvfs directory contains the mount point directory that allows access to your CSE home directory. Later instructions provide the Linux shell command-line necessary to mount your home directory without the use of a file manager application.
After installing the appropriate packages, the following steps will mount your CSE home directory:

  • Launch the Files application, and select Other Locations from the left-side menu:
    Gnome Files application view of other locations
    Figure 4. Gnome Files application Other Locations page
    In the Connect to Server field enter the URL for connecting to the the Samba server, smb://cse-smb1.unl.edu/%lt;cse-login%gt; where cse-login is your username on the CSE server. Finish this step by pressing the Connect button.
  • You will next be prompted to enter your CSE username (login id), network domain, and password. Enter cs.unl.edu for the Domain, and your CSE username and password:
    CSE credentials prompt
    Figure 5. Network connection prompt for CSE login credentials
  • Your CSE home directory is now mounted and can be accessed from within VS Code using the Explore Open Folder action:
    CSE home folder in Explorer view
    Figure 6. VS Code Explore panel offering your CSE home directory under the Networks heading

You can also mount your CSE home directory using the Linux command-line shell. The following outlines the basic steps:

  • Open a terminal window and execute the command: gio mount smb://cse-smb1.unl.edu/cse-login replacing cse-login with your login id on the CSE server
  • You will be prompted for you CSE login id and credentials:
    CSE credentials prompt
    Figure 7. Mounting my CSE home directory from command-line
    If your login credentials on your Linux client (laptop) are not the same as your CSE credentials, enter your CSE login username to the User prompt. The Domain is cs.unl.edu as shown in figure 4. Enter your CSE password to the Password prompt. If successful, the shell command prompt is returned.
  • You can then create symbolic links from the mount-point directory under /run/user/<user-number>/gvfs/ into a place in your home directory that will help navigate to it:
    ln -s /run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share\:server\=cse-smb1.unl.edu\,share\=wmotycka ~/Documents/CSE
    creates a symbolic-link (directory path), /home/wmotycka/Documents/CSE, to the CSE home directory of the user wmotycka that can be accessed from within the VS Code Explorer, Open Folder action.
    CSE home directory mount point navigation using symbolic link
    Figure 8. Navigating to the ~/public_html/homepage_jekyll project path on the CSE server using the symbolic-linked CSE path
  • Projects and source files that require compilers like C and C++ source will still need to be compiled from a shell command-line on CSE, since the compiler and libraries on your local Linux client system may not be compatible with the libraries installed on CSE. This does not preclude compiling and running your code on your local Linux client system, which you can do for testing and development.
  • Project management tools like git have extensions in VS Code that allow managing shared code projects and cloud-based source repositories through the VS Code application. The CSE server supports git and maven (mvn) source management as well as svn source version control. Code-base management can be performed from both within the VS Code application and using CSE server shell commands.

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How do I get access to Microsoft software available to students.

Azure Dev Tools for Teaching provides higher-education STEM departments with additional Microsoft software and services. To access the Education Hub Store visit https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools and log in with your My.UNL credentials. 

The Azure Dev Tools for Teaching replaces the Microsoft Imagine web portal that was hosted on OnTheHub.

Please Note: With this change, do not log in with your cse.unl.edu credentials. Do not login with your personal Microsoft account you might have established. You must log in with your My.UNL credentials instead, which generally looks like jsmith3@unl.edu. When you provide your My.UNL login, you will be redirected to the UNL's single sign-on portal to authenticate with your My.UNL password.

 

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