Using a home Linux system for cmsc212

This document describes the steps required to get a Linux system on your home computer ready to do the assignments for cmsc212. Several students have reported getting this to work. If you enconter problems (or if you get it working too), feel free to send email to hollings@cs.umd.edu.

  • Start by installing a Linux distribution (Fedora Core 3 is a good starting point). Make sure you backup any files you care about on the machine before installing Linux. Chances are good that it will not be a problem, but its best to back things up first!
  • Save the sumbit.tar tar file to your home directory.
  • In your home directory, type 
    tar xvf submit.tar
  • If you use the csh shell, edit your ~/.cshrc file and add the following: 
    setenv CVSROOT jh212XXX@wam.umd.edu:/homes/jh212001/cvs/jh212XXX
setenv CVS_RSH ssh
set path = (~/bin $path)

    You will need to replace XXX in two places in the above lines by the last three digits of you course wam login.

  • If you use the default bash shell, you should modify your .bashrc to be 
    CVSROOT=jh212XXX@wam.umd.edu:/homes/jh212001/cvs/jh212XXX
CVS_RSH=ssh
PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
    You will need to replace XXX in two places in the above lines by the last three digits of you course wam login.
  • You should be able to type 
    cvs co lab1
    and then 
    cd lab1
submit
    to verify everything is working.

  • After this, all assignments should work the same as on the OIT Linux cluster.

    • If you are having trouble with the submit command working, check that the path to find the java interpretor is correct (its specified ~/bin/submit).