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Getting Started on an SGI Workstation

This document is designed to help new users get started on an SGI Workstation. It is

written with the assumption that the user understands basic computing concepts such as

directories (folders), files, programs, windows, icons, etc. A version of this is alsoavailable online at:

http://structbio.vanderbilt.edu/comp/unix/sgi.phtml

Before beginning this tutorial, you should be familiar with the Introduction to UNIX

documents that are available online at:

http://structbio.vanderbilt.edu/comp/unix

IntroductionSGI workstations run a version of the UNIX operating system called IRIX. Its window

manager is called 4dwm or the IRIX Interactive Desktop. You can find out more about

IRIX and the IRIX Interactive Desktop at SGIs website:

http://www.sgi.com/software/irix6.5

and

http://www.sgi.com/software/irix/desktop.html

There are a number of other online resources, including the comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups,

SGIs technical publications website (http://techpubs.sgi.com), and the SGI Freeware

website (http://freeware.sgi.com).

Logging In

The login screen on an SGI workstation presents you with a place to enter your username(there may also be a list of icons to choose from, one per user). Type your username and

press . You will then be prompted for your password. After entering your

password, press again, and you will be logged in. If this is the first time youve

logged in to this particular workstation, you may be asked if you would like to create anew desktop or share an existing one. This is so the window manager can save your

personal preferences, window placements, running programs, etc. If you can, choose toshare an existing one. If that option is not presented, choose to create a new one.

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At this point, the login screen will be replaced with your desktop environment. It should

look something like the following:

Figure 1: The SGI Desktop

The Desktop (Window Manager)

There are several elements to note about the IRIX desktop in the photo above.

The Toolchest

The Toolchestappears in the upper left-hand corner. The Toolchest is a set of menus

from which you can select various applications and utilities.

Desktop Icons

Next are the Desktop Iconsthat are lined up along the right. These give you instant

access to your files and any peripherals that may be attached to the workstation.

Application Icons

Third are the Application Icons,which in the photo above are located along the left side

(these may also appear across the top depending on your configuration). Application

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icons appear when you minimize windows (see below). Clicking an icon brings the

window back.

Windows

In the center of the screen, you see a Window. Windows appear around any application

that runs on your desktop. In this case, the window contains a terminal. Across the topof the window, you will find several control elements:

Figure 2: An IRIX Window

From left to right, you see the window frame, the window menu button, the title bar, the

minimize button, the maximize button, and finally at the far right, the window frame once

again. Windows can be moved by dragging the title bar with the mouse. They can be

resized by dragging anywhere in the window frame.

One important note about windows in IRIX is that, by default, you must leave your

mouse in the windowfor the window to remain selected. If your mouse leaves thewindow at any time, the window will be deslected and it will lose they keyboard focus

(i.e. you wont be able to type in the window). This behavior is customizable (see

below).

The Toolchest in More Detail

The Toolchest contains the programs you need to get started. Of particular interest will

be the Desktopmenu. Here you will find tools to customize your desktop environment.To customize your desktop, make a selection under the Desktop->Customizemenu.

Here you can change things such as the keyboard focus as discussed above, the

appearance of the toolchest, the desktop background, icon sizes, and a myriad of otheroptions.

You will also find the Open UNIX Shellitem under the Desktopmenu. This item startsa terminal window with a UNIX command prompt. The Extra Desksitem may also be of

interest. This is a small application that allows you to manage multiple desktop desks.

This creates additional logical screen real estate which allows you to keep more

application windows open at one time.

Finally, when you have finished your session at the workstation, you will need to log out.

The Log Out item is also found in the toolchest under the Desktopmenu.

The other item in the Toolchest that will be of immediate interest is the Internetmenu.

This menu contains the selection to start a web browser. At the time of this writing, IRIX

uses Netscape Navigator 4.x as its default web browser.

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The Desktop Background

The desktop background holds the Desktop Icons (which are separate from Application

Icons), usually down the right side of the screen. You will typically see a folder with

your username on it. Double-clicking this icon will start the graphical file browserapplication in your home directory. There is also a dumpster icon which works similar to

the Recycle Bin or Trashcan in your favorite PC operating system.

There is a context-driven menu available on the desktop that is separate from the

Toolchest. Right-clicking on the desktop background itself will display this menu. The

contents of the menu change based on what is currently selected on the desktop.

For example, if nothing is selected, you will see a Log Out item and some other items

that allow you to create and select desktop items. If you have the CDROM drive selected

(which appears only if your workstation has a CDROM drive attached), then the menu

will contain items that relate to the CDROM drive.

Hands-on at the Command Line

Youve now had a basic introduction to the window manager so its time to have some

hands-on time. If you havent already, open a UNIX shell by selecting the

corresponding item under the Desktopmenu of the Toolchest. Place your mouse in the

terminal so that the keyboard focus is on that window.

For starters, we are going to create a directory under the home directory, move into this

new directory, create and edit a text file, and subsequently view the contents of that file.

At the shell prompt, type:

% pwd

This command, print working directory will tell you what directory the shell is

currently working in. Since it is a new shell, it should be in your home directory which is

named like /home/ where is your UNIX username. We

should take a look at whats in your home directory. To do this, use the list command,ls:

% ls

This shows the contents of your home directory. If you are logged on for the first time,

it may be empty, or nearly empty. So now we will create a new directory under your

home with the make directory command, mkdir:

% mkdir tutorial

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This command makes a new directory calld tutorial inside the current working

directory. Lets take a look at it now:

% ls

You should now see the directory you just created called tutorial in your the listing.Now lets move to the new directory with the change directory command so we can

create some files there:

% cd tutorial% pwd

% ls

Your shell should now be using /home//tutorial as its working directory,and the directory should be empty as reported by ls. Lets start our text editor and create

a file called helloworld.txt:

% nedit &

A nedit window should open. If you see an error message like Command not found,

this means that nedit is not in your PATH. For now, you can use the explicit location of

nedit:

% /usr/sbin/nedit &

If you still see Command not found, that means nedit is not installed on this machine.

Contact your system administrator. For now, use the jot program instead and use the

analogous procedure discussed below.

By the way, the & character after the nedit command we typed above puts nedit in the

background so that you can still use your shell prompt while nedit is running. Lets

create the file:

1. Place your mouse in the nedit window so that nedit now has the keyboard focus.

2. Type hello, world! (without the quotes) in the nedit window. This will be the

content of the text file.

3. Now, save your text to a file with the File->Save As command from the neditmenus. A file dialog will appear.

4.

Again, place your mouse cursor in the file dialog so that the dialog gets thekeyboard focus. You should see a flashing cursor in the Save File As box. The

current directory appears in front of the cursor, so you only need to type thefilename of the file you wish to create. Lets call it helloworld.txt.

5. Once youve typed the filename, press the OK button to commit the action.

Now lets look at the tutorial directory again. Place your mouse in the terminal windowand type:

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% ls

You should now see the file helloworld.txt in your new directory. Now, lets take a

look at the file directly from the command line:

% more helloworld.txt

This command should have printed the contents of the file to your terminal window.

Now, lets go back up to your home directory:

% cd /home/

% pwd

% ls

The shell should now be back in your home directory. Lets take a look at the text file

you created from here:

% more /home//tutorial/helloworld.txt

% more tutorial/helloworld.txt

These should both print the contents of helloworld.txt to your terminal window. Noticehow we had to include the tutorial directory in the path to the file this time. That is

because our shell was in a different directory than the file. The first command used the

explicit path, starting with / (the top level directory). The second command used therelative path. That is, the path relative to the shells current working directory, which

in this case was /home/.

Lets edit the file again:

% nedit tutorial/helloworld.txt

Nedit will open the file, and you will see the contents. You can now edit the file usingthe mouse, keyboard and nedit windows.

Summary

You should now be familiar with the IRIX desktop and window manager. You should

also be familiar with navigating the UNIX directory structure, creating directories, andediting text files. These are common operations when working under UNIX. Foradditional topics, be sure to read the Introduction to UNIX linked to at the beginning of

this document.