Old FAQ Questions
This page is dedicated to questions that used to reside on the main FAQ, but are now less relevant or have answers that are no longer accurate.
Bill Gates is promising me a trip to Disneyworld. How can I mass-forward nifty chain letters? What do I do with chain letters?
Chain letters are bad. They’re annoying, they interfere with work and take up resources that can be put to better use. (By the way, they don’t actually take you to Disneyworld. They collect winners in a bus and send them off a cliff.) Also, forwarding chain letters is a violation of the Usage policy.
How do I access my CS mail with a third-party application (Apple Mail, Thunderbird, etc...)?
We provide alpine and mutt on our Linux shell servers for reading/sending
@cs.brandeis.edu email from the command line.
If you would like to read or send email from your @cs.brandeis.edu account
using a desktop or mobile application, enter the following into your email
client settings:
| Server | Hostname |
|---|---|
| imap | imap.cs.brandeis.edu |
| smtp | smtp.cs.brandeis.edu |
For login name or user name, use the short form of your CS Account. (eg:
If you were guru@cs.brandeis.edu, your login name would be guru.)
See the Mail page for details.
For instructions on accessing @brandeis.edu email accounts see ITS’s Email & Calendar page.
How do I manage printers and print jobs?
Point your browser to port 631 on the CUPS print server for the printer you wish to manage. For the Berry Patch printer, ‘McNally’, this is printing:631. For other printers, ask guru for the name of the print server. From here, you can view the status of printers, cancel jobs, and so forth. Check here if a printer is not working, or to cancel a job in the queue.
How do I read my email?
All accounts are automatically configured to use the ‘pine’ and ‘mutt’ email clients.
We suggest that you use pine, which is beginner friendly and easy to use. It is also a powerful mail client with many features that keep advanced users using it year after year.
Experienced users, or those with a desire for adventure, may prefer using ‘mutt’, though we suggest that those who are not already familiar with mutt seek out its documentation before trying to use it.
If you would like to configure a GUI desktop client to read your mail (such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple’s Mail.app, or others), directions can be found below, in addition for directions on how to forward your CS email to another email account.
How do I read newsgroups on the Macs in the Berry Patch?
Download a Macintosh-compatible Usenet client, or configure pine to talk to the nntp server of your choice.
How do I switch from ELM to Mutt without losing any of my aliases?
The following nawk script converts
the ELM aliases. Just append your .muttrc file. For more information see the
Mutt homepage.
How do I use the scanner in the Patch
First, make sure that the scanner is on. (The power buttons is on the front.)
Next, open ImageCapture.app in the /Applications folder. Click “Overview,”
then select which section of the image you wish to scan by dragging the
selection box. Click “Scan.” When the scanner is finished scanning, you image
will be in ~/Pictures.
I minimized a window and now I can't find it. Where did it go?
This is a problem that appears under the Gnome desktop manager. Windows are minimized to the Gnome Pager, which has been known to vanish mysteriously. To restore it, right-click on the Gnome taskbar, and select the menu option Add Applet→Utility→Gnome Pager.
I tried to start Firefox, Mozilla, or Seamonkey, but got an error message saying that it's already running, and I don't have it open. What's going on?
The Mozilla family of browsers checks to see if another process is already
using a profile by looking for the existence of a file named .parentlock in
your profile. If a browser process dies or otherwise fails to exit cleanly, it
can sometimes leave this lock file behind (the lock file should be present
while the browser is running).
In Linux, this file will exist at ~/.mozilla/$BROWSER/$PROFILE/.parentlock,
in OSX it exists at ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/$PROFILE.
$PROFILE usually takes the form of eight random characters followed by a
‘.’ and the string ‘default’ or ‘Default User’.
On Linux you may locate this file by hand (cd; ls -Ra .mozilla | less, use
‘/’ to enter a search query, look for .parentlock), or with the following
command (NOTE: This will remove all instances of .parentlock in your
.mozilla directory. Do not use this command without first exiting all Mozilla-
family browser sessions on any machines you may be logged into.):
cd; find .mozilla -name \.parentlock -exec rm -v {} \;
On Mac OS X you may locate this file by hand (ls -Ra ~/Library/Application\
Support/Firefox/Profiles/ | less, use ‘/’ to enter a search query, look for
.parentlock), or with the following command (NOTE: This will remove all
instances of .parentlock in your .mozilla directory. Do not use this
command without first exiting all Mozilla-family browser sessions on any
machines you may be logged into.):
cd; find ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles/ -name \.parentlock
-exec rm -v {} \;
What Mac software is available for use on the Berry Patch systems?
Brandeis has licensed a number of Apple applications for use on university- owned systems. As of fall 2010, this includes current versions of iLife and iWork. These applications can be installed on any of the Berry Patch workstations, if they aren’t already; ask the Gurus for details. Please note that this software is not licensed for use on student-owned systems or any privately-owned systems; we cannot and will not install it on computers not owned by the University.
What do I do with .pdf files?
PDF (portable document format) files are viewable documents. You can view a
.pdf file using evince on Gnome, kpdf on KDE, or Preview on Mac OS X.
To convert a .pdf file to a PostScript file, run pdftops <input>.pdf
<output>.ps
What do I do with .ps files?
PS (PostScript) files are viewable documents. If you are running Windows or MacOS, you will need to download the proper software to view these files. You will need to get AFPL or GNU Ghostscript and either MACGSView or GSView depending on your OS.
What happened to the FTP server?
FTP is turned off on all department machines, and has been for the past few years. If you have suddenly discovered that your file transfers are no longer working, it may be because the machine you were connecting to is down. Try using SFTP or SCP to connect to any other machine in the list of public workstations.
What is FTP, and how do I use it?
FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol,” and it is designed for transferring files between computers. However, plain text FTP is inherently insecure, and so we have turned it off. To transfer files between computers, please use either SFTP or SCP.
Why is rsh not working?
Don’t use rsh - use ssh instead. ssh does the same thing as rsh, but in a much more secure manner.