U of T Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering / University of Toronto
Department of Civil Engineering
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Where to get HELP


ADVISORS
ECF does not provide any sort of advisory service. Your department has agreed to assume this responsibility for their own students. Problems with assignments should be handled by the course instructor and tutors.

PROBLEMS IN DEPARTMENTAL LABS
 Some departments have their own computing facilities. Some of these facilities have their own servers while others use the ECF servers to provide an environment identical to the ECF labs. Problems in departmental labs should be brought to the attention of those in the department responsible for the lab. ECF is not responsible for the equipment in these labs.

HARDWARE PROBLEMS
 Anyone experiencing problems with ECF equipment should notify the ECF staff. The preferred method of notification is E-mail. For problems within ECF UNIX labs(sf1012, sf1013, sf1106) send E-mail to trouble@ecf. For problems within ECFPC WINDOWS labs(GB144, GB150, WB316) send E-mail to ecfpc@ecf. If E-mail is not available then notification can be made in person at the ECF offices in EA212K or by phone 416-978-4604 for UNIX labs or 416-978-2455 for WINDOWS labs. Please remember to include information about which room and which station in that room. A typical message could say

"in SF1012, the floppy drive in p36 does not work"

"the printer in WB316 is jammed".

"the 4th year disk is full"

"the license for MATLAB has expired"

PROBLEMS WITH YOUR ACCOUNT
 Problem: Cause:Action

Cannot Login

  • Incorrect password: Do not use the numeric keys at the side of the keyboard. Try many times to remember before going to the relevant ECF office.
  • Servers are unavailable:if many others are having the same login problem then a server may be down. Try another station to login to. If that doesn't work wait 5 minutes and try again. Inform relevant ECF staff of your problem if it persists.
  • Account has been locked by ECF Staff: Go to relevant ECF office.
  • Account does not exist: Go to the  ECF office, Engineering Annex, Room 212..

Unsolicited E-mail

  • Advertising:Delete it and move on.
  • Abusive Email:If it makes you feel uncomfortable then go to EA212.

Files are missing

  • Accidentally deleted files: If the deleted files were on the UNIX systems look first in the daily backup area for your files. If they are not in the daily backup area go to EA212 and fill out the form for getting files from a backup tape. To recover files from ECFPC send email to trouble@ecf.utoronto.ca  in order to make arrangements to have the files restored from tape backup.

PRINTING PROBLEMS
 When printing from the UNIX systems you need to know the name of the printer. Each lab has a laser printer that is named to match the building and room number. The printer names are sf1012, sf1013a, sf1013b, sf1106, ba1120, ba2124, ba2128, wb316.

To print from UNIX using the lpr command:

lpr -Pprinter_name file1 file2 file3....

Example:

lpr -Psf1106 assignment1.c data1 output1

To print from a web browser like NETSCAPE you click on the Print icon which will bring up a Print Window. In this window you enter the Print Command lpr -Pprinter_name as above, but with no following file names.

If you are accessing postscript documents with a web browser then it has started a program called gv. To print from gv you click on the Print button or use the File pull down menu. This will start a Dialog window which requires that you enter the Print Command lpr -Pprinter_name as above, but with no following file names.

If you are accessing pdf documents with a web browser then the browser has started a program called xpdf. To print from xpdf you click on the Print button at the bottom. This will start an xpdf: Postscript output window which requires that you enter the filename you want the document saved to or the printer you want it sent to. To send to a printer then enter the Print Command lpr -Pprinter_name. To check where your print job is in the queue you use the lpq command. You must pick a printer or else the document will not be sent to the printer.

To check where your print job is in the queue you use the lpq command. To check the print queue for the sf1012 printer use:

lpq -Psf1012

To remove one of your jobs from the print queue, use the lprm command. To remove Job# 36 the command would be:

lprm -Psf1012 36

To remove all print jobs for user smith:

lprm -Psf1012 smith

NOTE: you can only remove your own jobs from the queue and this will only work if you issue the lprm command from the same computer that you sent the job from.

Students should be aware that a printer paper quota exists on ECF.

USING A FLOPPY DISK or USB FLASH DRIVE
 Instructions for using floppy disks or USB flash drives on the LINUX workstations can be found here.