FAQ
NB: The announcements page also has a lot of information that may answer a question you have.
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Support Questions
How can I get a faster/better response from student-helpdesk@itee.uq.edu.au?
What hardware/software should I buy to use during my studies at UQ/ITEE?
Profile Questions
Can I reset my windows profile?
I get a message saying my profile couldn't be accessed...
I'm still getting a message saying my profile couldn't be accessed...
I can't load my profile as there is 'not enough space on disk'!
iMac Lab Questions
I am getting memory errors using Adobe Illustrator?
Oracle Questions
As well as reading the Oracle FAQs, if you're here looking for oracle help, you should read the Oracle Good Practice Guide before doing anything else.
How do I login to Oracle in the PC labs?
What is my initial Oracle password?
Why can't I log into SQLPlus from the PC labs?
Why do I get an "invalid username/password" error when I use SQLPlus from the PC labs?
Why is my Oracle account locked?
What connection string should I use with my JDBC thin driver?
What OLE Provider should I use in VB.NET to talk to the Oracle Server?
How do I use Oracle Reports and Forms?
What are these strange tables that start with BIN$ doing in my database?
The Oracle server is broken/slow/intermittent; it's definitely not my code to blame!
Can I connect to ITEE's Oracle server from home?
Subversion Questions
As well as reading the Subversion FAQs, if you're here looking for Subversion help, you should read the Subversion Good Practice Guide before doing anything else.
Where is my Subversion Repository? What's the URL?
What SVN username and password should I use?
Something is wrong with my Subversion repository! Who do I go to for help?
Where can I read up on Subversion?
How can I backup my subversion repository?
General Questions
Is the rembo image on this PC up to date?
Do MSDNAA software downloads use up my download quota?
How do I get access to a thesis lab?
Can I log onto the Student UNIX servers from the windows labs?
Can I read uq.itee.* newsgroups from home?
PowerWorld is asking for a license file to run, where can I get one?
RobotC is asking me to activate it, how can I do this?
I used to be a student, can I get a copy of my files on H:?
How can I stop Visual Studio 2005 taking a few minutes to start every time I log in?
How do I reset my ZipGenius settings to fix ZipGenius problems?
I get a message saying my browser is configured incorrectly, how do I fix this?
I'm getting a memory exception error, what's wrong?
I'm getting a DLL error message trying to load the PocketPC Emulator, how can I fix this?
How do I turn on tab auto-completion on the command prompt in windows?
I forgot my password - how can I reset it?
Can I access my group drive from home?
Printing questions
What do I use to print text files on unix?
Unix Questions
How do I restart the X-terminals?
I'm stuck! I cannot log into the Student UNIX servers!
How do I get out of the ion3 windows manager in the SunRay labs?
How can I get colour highlighting from ls?
How do I change my BASH prompt?
How do you get the colourful syntax in Emacs?
Can I use MS-Windows style keybindings in Emacs?
The Student UNIX servers won't listen to my Ctrl or Shift keys when I log on from a Windows machine.
How can I copy files to the Student UNIX servers from home?
How can I copy files from my student account?
WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL and PHP) Questions
How do I start Apache and MySQL?
How do I stop Apache and MySQL?
Frequently Asked Questions
Profile Questions
I can't load my profile as there is 'not enough space on disk'!
In the general purpose computing labs your first action should be to re-image your PC as you can't be sure what the previous user may have changed or installed. The native image should permit you to login with your profile. If you still can't reset your profile, and if this does not work contact student-helpdesk@itee.uq.edu.au
iMac Labs Questions
I am getting memory errors using Adobe Illustrator?
Adobe "Memory Errors", and an "Unknown Error" can be symptoms of not having the Adobe "ScratchDisks" properly setup. Please refer to the Adobe ScratchDisk Setup help here.
Oracle Questions
How do I login to Oracle in the PC labs?
You need to read the Oracle - Good Practice Guide.
Why can't I log into SQLPlus from the PC labs?
There can be a couple of reasons for this. (1) There can be a delay of a couple of days between enrolling in a course that requires Oracle and your Oracle account being created. (2) Not all courses require an Oracle account and only students enrolled in a course that requires an Oracle account have one. That an account is listed on the Oracle - Password Reset page does not mean that there is an Oracle account for it. (3) Are you using the correct login credentials your "User Name:" will be your normal login username, your Pasword is described in the article below and the "HostString" is "TEACH". (4) If you've enrolled in a course that you know has Oracle accounts, more than two days ago and still don't appear to have an account please email student-helpdesk@itee.uq.edu.au your details.
What is my initial Oracle password?
Your ITEE Oracle account is initially created using your normal username (s########) and a random password and is not synchronised to your UQ login account. This password can be reset by you at http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/oracle/resetpw.php.
Why is my Oracle account locked?
If you are getting the message "the account is locked" when using sqlplus this could mean: (1) You or someone else has tried the wrong password five or more times. If this is the case you can unlock your account using the Oracle Password Reset page http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/oracle/ which will reset your password and unlock your account. (2) It is between semesters and Oracle is not available till the following semester. (3) You are no longer enrolled in a course that requires an Oracle account. (4) The only course that requires Oracle that you are enrolled in CSSE3004/CSSE3005/INFS7905/INFS7906 and it is past week six after which you should be using the group accounts rather than your personal account.
What connection string should I use with my JDBC thin driver?
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@oracle.students.itee.uq.edu.au:1521:iteeo", "login", "password");
What OLE Provider should I use in VB.NET to talk to the Oracle Server?
Short answer: The second one. Longer answer: the first one (Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle) is not the right one to use. It's hopelessly out of date. Use the one further down (Oracle OLE DB Provider) - it's able to handle the newer server we use.
How do I use Oracle Reports and Forms?
ITEE offers an excellent course (currently INFS2200 as of Sem1, 2007) which teaches Oracle Reports and Forms. As the material this course covers is quite complicated, this FAQ could never hope or pretend to be able to answer this question in two or three sentences. If you do not wish to take the course and still wish to use Oracle reports and forms for other areas of ITEE study, you are encouraged to do your own research on say google, the Oracle website, and other sources.
On a technical level for those familiar with Oracle reports and forms but not ITEE's setup and config, we do not run a central Reports Server (for performance and security reasons) so you need to start your own instance to enable reports and forms to work. To make this easier, there's a menu option under Start -> Programs -> Oracle -> Reports Developer -> Start OracleAS Reports Server.
NOTE: As you will no doubt be aware, Oracle reports servers must have a unique name over the entire network. To make the naming unique and consistent, the above reports server instance started from the shortcut icon will have the same name as your username (eg sXXXXXXX.) If you prefer to start the reports server yourself manually, please use that convention for naming your instance as well.
What are these strange tables that start with BIN$ doing in my database?
Oracle 10g does not actually drop tables when given a drop table x; command but just renames it to a string starting with BIN$.
To completely delete tables you need to use the drop table x purge; or use purge recyclebin; to remove BIN$ entries.
Can I connect to ITEE's Oracle server from home?
Yes but only via sqlplus. You can use SSH or similar to make the initial remote connection see http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/remote/ for configuration.
Once connected to 'remote.students.itee.uq.edu.au' you can access Oracle via 'sqlplus' you will need to specify the Host String with your username eg. 's12345678@teach' when prompted.
Please note that we strongly advise you to develop your code in ITEE's labs as Oracle version differences and different applications used to interface to Oracle may result in your code not working when you go to demonstrate it. We do not support home installations of Oracle.
Subversion Questions
Where is my Subversion Repository? What's the URL?
This is covered in the Subversion Good Practice Guide (which you are required to read if you haven't already) however in general, individual repositories are named in all lowercase in course-username format and all group repositories are named in all lowercase course-groupname format. Your course co-ordinator or lecturer will provide you with more details on the name of your repository, however whatever it is named, it will be located at:
https://svn.itee.uq.edu.au/repo/<repositoryname>/
What SVN username and password should I use?
This is covered in the Subversion Good Practice Guide (which you are required to read if you haven't already) however as ITEE SVN facilities are part of the single sign-on environment, you will only need to remember that for SVN you should fully qualify the authentication domain you are logging into (almost always this will be student.uq.edu.au for ITEE coursework SVN repositories, making your username effectively your student email address.) So for example, if your username is s1234567, when you are asked to enter it by subversion, will be:
s1234567@student.uq.edu.auYour password, of course, will be whatever you use to login to the lab PCs, mySi-net, my.UQ, your email, and your web access.
Something is wrong with my Subversion repository! Who do I go to for help?
This is covered in the Subversion Good Practice Guide (which you are required to read if you haven't already.) You really need to read that document to understand what can go wrong and why, preferably before it goes wrong as there are negative consequences associated with running into some kinds of trouble. Almost all questions should be directed in the first instance to your lecturer, tutor, or course co-ordinator.
About the only time you'll need to directly contact the student-helpdesk for assistance with regards to Subversion will be if you've previously been using the system fine, it's no longer working, you aren't receiving an error message from the server about being over quota, your repository is not locked for assessment, and you have some good evidence to suggest the problem lies with the SVN infrastructure and not your local configuration. You will find the Support HOW-TO a useful document in explaining how to obtain the evidence required in this case, as without it the student-helpdesk won't be able to help you.
Where can I read up on Subversion?
This is covered in the Subversion Good Practice Guide (which you are required to read if you haven't already.) This is the first and best place to learn about the practical specifics of subversion at ITEE. If you'd like to learn about Subversion and some of the more advanced features, an excellent document is Version Control with Subversion (sometimes called "The Red-Bean Subversion Book" owing to its origin at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.) You could also try the documentation on the Subversion website, or the Wikipedia entry on Subversion.
How can I backup my subversion respository?
Well, trivially, if you only care about a particular revision (and in general the latest revision), you can just check out a copy of the code, and the working copy is a "backup" of that revision. This assumes by backup you mean "I want to take a copy for my own long term records." If you mean backup in the sense of disaster recovery, don't bother - ITEE already backs your repository up nightly.
Of course, if you want a full copy of your repository with history (ie,
commit messages, revision history, diffs, etc) then you need to take a dump of
the entire repository, not just a revision. Ordinarily, you would use svnadmin dump /path/to/repo > repo.dump, however this
requires shell access on the subversion server, which ITEE does not provide for
security reasons. So instead we'll use the svnsync utility to create a local
copy of the full repository (not just a working copy of a particular revision.)
The following set of commands, if run on the student unix server (unix.students.itee.uq.edu.au,
currently agave) will create a full local copy of the repository (ie,
an exact copy of the filesystem behind your repository on the ITEE server):
REPO=repositoryname
LOCALREPO=$HOME/$REPO
svnadmin create $LOCALREPO
echo '#!/bin/sh' > $LOCALREPO/hooks/pre-revprop-change
chmod +x $LOCALREPO/hooks/pre-revprop-change
svnsync init file://$LOCALREPO http://svn.itee.uq.edu.au/repo/$REPO
svnsync sync file://$LOCALREPO
You must obviously replace repositoryname with the name
of your ITEE repository.
This will create a folder on your home drive which you can then copy off for your own records. Of course, you may wish to either compress the contents into a single zip file (for portability reasons - it's easier to move a zip file around than it is an entire directory with multiple binary files) or create an svndump of the repository for repository-level portability. To do an svn dump of this synced folder, and continuing our example above, you'd run the following in the same session as you had open before to the student unix server:
svnadmin dump $LOCALREPO > $REPO.dump
You should read the manual for svnadmin dump, svnadmin
load, and svnsync
and familiarise yourself with how they work so you understand how to use them to
take this repository "backup" and work with it later to retrieve revisions,
information, code, etc. If you are in doubt, make sure you at least have a
checked out working copy of the latest revision of the whole repository.
General Questions
Do MSDNAA software downloads use up my download quota?
The MSDNAA downloader tool is 400kb only and will count toward your download quota. This cannot be hosted locally, as it is part of the e-academy licensing/authentication process and is out of our control. The remaining ISO downloads are hosted locally and will not count toward your download quota.
Can I log onto the Student UNIX servers from the windows labs?
Yes. The Windows machines all have X-servers on them. Click the blue X icon on the start bar, and you will be presented with a login screen from one of the available machines.
You can also use ssh (Secure Shell) to log into the Student UNIX servers without X-windows. From the Start Menu select Programs/SSH Secure Shell/Secure Shell Client. Click on 'Quick Connect' and enter 'unix' as the hostname.
Can I read uq.itee.* newsgroups from home?
Yes. ITS provides a web interface to the UQ newsgroups via my.UQ. Instructions for using this service are available here.
You can also read newsgroups with the news readers "nn" and "tin", and the mail program "pine" on koala.uq.edu.au.
I used to be a student, can I get a copy of my files on H:?
In short, no. If you are a current student, you can either use the CD Writer machines available in most labs, the USB facility available on most PCs, or see the FAQ entry titled "How can I copy files to the Student UNIX servers from home?" for information on remote retrieval of files. ITEE provides facilities and storage space only to current ITEE students for use related to their coursework. At the end of semester, files stored on the fileserver will be deleted and you are encouraged to back up your data before this occurs.
How do I reset my ZipGenius settings to fix ZipGenius problems?
Close down ZipGenius. If it won't close due to a problem in the config, use task manager to kill it. Click on the following link and choose "Open" or "Run" to remove the ZipGenius settings from your roaming profile's registry:
http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/faq/Prep_ZipGenius_Setup.reg
If this isn't an option, save the file on your desktop and double click on it. You will see a message asking you if you want to merge the file into the registry. Click yes. The next time you start ZipGenius it will take you through the setup procedure again.
If everyone seems to be having the same problem, email student-helpdesk@itee.uq.edu.au to report which lab(s) the problem is occuring in.
I get a message saying my browser is configured incorrectly, how do I fix this?
Firstly, this problem is one that can occur occasionally during the student-net software image build process. When it does occur, we usually activate a workaround as soon as we're aware of the problem and fix the issue in the next image update. Sometimes however this workaround does not get applied, or does not get applied properly and the incorrect browser configuration page will result.
To fix this problem manually, you can either follow the instructions given to you on the browser configuration incorrect page (you'd be surprised how few people think to follow the instructions on it!), or you can reapply the correct settings by opening up internet explorer and choosing Tools -> Internet Options, clicking on the Connections tab, clicking on the LAN Settings button, and untick everything except for "Automatically Detect Settings". Note that sometimes this will require you to log out then back in again before this will work - often in this case leaving everything unticked will work immediately.
I'm getting a memory exception error, what's wrong?
Windows, mate :)
This can be caused by a lot of things. Faulty hardware, incorrect drivers for user supplied USB devices, random memory corruptions due to latent network traffic, user code (if you or someone else was writing code on that machine since it was last imaged), humidity, the fact it's Tuesday...
Basically, there's often not a lot we or anyone can do to track down these errors. HOWEVER, the first step when you get one of these errors should always be to refresh/rebuild/reimage the machine from the Rembo menu. This will ensure that the problem isn't caused by something someone else has done to the machine before you arrived. If this still fails to fix the problem, try another machine (you may, if there isn't too much utilisation of the labs, wish to try these steps in parallel). If you isolate the problem to one machine, it's a safe bet its something to do with the hardware. If you isolate the problem to one lab (or one type of computer eg GX520 or GX280) then it's a safe bet it's an image problem. In both these cases you should email the student-helpdesk to let us know.
If the above steps haven't fixed the problems and there doesn't appear to be any pattern to the problems you're welcome to report it to the helpdesk, but try and understand that often there won't be a lot we can do about it (especially if the problem is highly intermittent in nature).
I'm getting a DLL error message trying to load the PocketPC Emulator, how can I fix this?
This is because of DEP support in Windows XP SP2. If you don't know what these terms are, please use google! This problem will usually only occur during the first few weeks of semester. If you spot the problem and re-imaging your PC doesn't fix it, email the student-helpdesk so we know it's happening and can fix it! In the meantime however, to fix this issue if you come across it, please edit the C:\boot.ini file with notepad and change the part that reads "/noexecute=optin" to "/execute" and restart your computer. Note that if rembo refreshes the image during the reboot you might have to reapply this change. In this event, bypass rembo by pressing escape during the DHCP PXE boot (or press F12 and choose the hard drive as the boot device).
How do I turn on tab auto-completion on the command prompt in windows?
Close down any open command prompt windows. You can do this by typing "exit" and pressing enter, or clicking the [X] at the top right of the window. Click on the following link and choose "Open" or "Run" to turn on tab auto-completion in your roaming profile's registry:
http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/faq/cmd_autocomplete.reg
Now you can use the tab key in the command prompt to auto-complete files and directories. Just start typing the name of the directory (ie: "C:\Docu") and press tab.
I forgot my password - how can I reset it?
If you have lost or forgotten your password, please follow the instructions at http://uqconnect.net/external/password-change. If you would prefer to change your password in person, you can do this at either an AskIT Desk or at UQconnect. UQconnect is located in Staff House (Building 41), on Staff House Road, next to the ANZ Bank. UQConnect can be called on 3365 8811
You can either reset it by following the instructions detailed http://uqconnect.net/external/password-change. Changing your password by logging into a lab computer and pressing "control-alt-delete" and selecting the "change password" option will no longer work under the new student login system.
You can also log onto my.uq.edu.au and change your password under "Personalise" and "myDetails". ITEE Helpdesk is unable to assist you with student password changes as these are controlled centrally by the my.UQ system
Can I access my group drive from home?
Yes. However you can only access your group account from outside via Unix. See http://studenthelp.itee.uq.edu.au/remote/ for remote access instructions. What you then need to do to access your group account is log in as yourself via SSH then use the "op" command to connect to your group account csse3004gC eg. "op csse3004gC" and use your normal ITEE password.
General Unix Questions
How do I restart the X-terminals?
Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace twice.
I'm stuck! I cannot log into the Student UNIX servers!
You've probably broken your .xsession file. When you see the Solaris login screen, from options select Session and then Failsafe Session. Now login. You will get a single xterm. You can edit your .xsession with
pico .xsession
How do I get out of the ion3 windows manager in the SunRay labs?
On the right hand keypad on the SunRay keyboards hit the "Again" key then select "session" then "exit"
How can I get colour highlighting from ls?
alias ls='/opt/local/bin/ls --color'
Add this line in your .bashrc or type it from the BASH prompt.
How do I change my BASH prompt?
Add the following line to your .bashrc (which must be in your home directory)
export PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '
Do not put a space before or after the '=' symbol.
How do you get the colourful syntax in Emacs?
Select Global Font Lock from the Help/Options menu. If do not want to do this every session add the following line to your .emacs file
(global-font-lock t)
Your .emacs file should be in your home directory and you will need to restart emacs after this is done.
Can I use MS-Windows style keybindings in Emacs?
Yes. Add the following lines to your .emacs file:
(load-file "/students/00/s354157/.elisp/cua-mode.el")
(CUA-mode t)
Your .emacs file should be in your home directory and you will need to restart emacs after this is done.
The Student UNIX servers won't listen to my Ctrl or Shift keys when I log on from a Windows machine.
You can change the keyboard settings from Start/Programs/XWin 32/X-Config. Select the Input tab, and change the keyboard type to 'US English Microsoft Keyboard'. This setting fixes the Ctrl-Shift problem, but unfortunately breaks the backspace key.
How can I copy files to the Student UNIX servers from home?
Windows users can use the SSH Client from here. Click on Window/New File Transfer
Linux users can use the scp command, which is just like the cp command:
scp user@host:file user@host:file
You can use wild cards and ~ with scp and you don't need to specify the complete path. For example, s807332 could copy a file called foo from his home directory on the Student UNIX servers to his local machine with:
scp s807332@remote.students.itee.uq.edu.au:foo .
Or, he could copy the file bar from his local machine to his comp3300 directory on the Student UNIX servers:
scp bar s807332@remote.students.itee.uq.edu.au:comp3300/bar
How can I copy files from my student account?
You can use FTP in passive mode. On the command line you should use:
ftp ftp.uq.edu.au
If you are not in passive mode, type
pass
at the ftp prompt.
From the windows labs, the H: is your UNIX account. You can use the Windows FTP client (Start/Programs/WS_FTP/WS_FTP95 LE) to copy files to your H drive.
Type the following at the shell prompt:
xset b off
WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL and PHP) Questions
Looking for more development information? Click here.
How do I start Apache and MySQL?
On the local machine, click Start -> All Programs -> WAMP and select the Start Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP option.
This will also setup your Home Directory (H:\) with the appropriate directories and files.
How do I stop Apache and MySQL?
On the local machine, click Start -> All Programs -> WAMP and select the Stop Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP option.
Please note this is NOT supported. Please ensure you have tested your code in the labs. If however, you would like to do some development at home, you can use the WAMPServer installer, take a copy your webpage files and Export/Import your database.
Didn't find what you were after?
The announcements page also has a lot of information that may answer a question you have.