BBSO Linux Tips and Tricks
Control and Caps-Lock:
In your .xinitrc file, are a few lines at the beginning which swap the
behavior of the Caps-Lock key with that of the Control key. This is because
most Unix stations have the Control key near the "a" key and the Caps-Lock
key below the Shift key and most PCs have the reverse. If you don't like
the behavior now of your Control and Caps-Lock keys, edit your .xinitrc
file and comment the lines out to restore the keys to their original
function, or uncomment them to swap their behavior.
IDL Graphics Disappear
Carsten has found that at least on Sundowner, Roses, and Magnolia, moving
to a different virtual screen in X erases the currently-displayed IDL
image. To fix this problem, add the following line to your local IDL
startup file:
device, retain=2
There is some performance penalty for this, but your image will remain
displayed.
If you don't have a local IDL startup file, create by one by adding a line
like the following to your .cshrc file:
setenv IDL_STARTUP ~$USER/.idl_startup
Poor Behavior of IDL 24-Bit Graphics
If IDL graphics are not behaving the way you expect (color tables,
etc.) add the following lines to your local IDL startup file (see above):
device,true_color=24
device,decomposed=0
Middle Mouse Button
Most of our Linux mice do not have a working middle button. To emulate
one, however, the default X11 configuration has been to made to press
both the left and right buttons simultaneously.
Accelerated X
Currently, all Linux computers but Begonias and Ingrid are running the
XInside inc. Accelerated X X11 server. For more info, do a man
Xaccel. For setup, try Xsetup.
Startup Files
There is a current set of generic start-up files in
/home/begonias/generic if you ever want to get the
latest set or mess up yours. Many of them, of course, are dot
files, so you will need to do an ls -a to see them.
(There's a similar set of files for the Solaris machines in
/home/sunflower/generic.)
ANA Setup
ANA, the image processing program originally from Lockheed, is
available on the Linux computers (as well as the Suns). To
use ANA, type ana. For best use, add the
following commands to your .cshrc file:
setenv ANADIR /local/ana
setenv ANA_PATH path for your ANA files