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 also
available 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

Introduction
SGI 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 <enter>. You will then be prompted for your password. After entering your
password, press <enter> 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 a
new 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 to
share an existing one. If that option is not presented, choose to create a new one.

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 Toolchest appears 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 Icons that 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

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 top
of 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 window for the window to remain selected. If your mouse leaves the
window 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 Desktop menu. Here you will find tools to customize your desktop environment.
To customize your desktop, make a selection under the Desktop->Customize menu.
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 other
options.
You will also find the Open UNIX Shell item under the Desktop menu. This item starts
a terminal window with a UNIX command prompt. The Extra Desks item 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 Desktop menu.
The other item in the Toolchest that will be of immediate interest is the Internet menu.
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.

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 browser
application 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 Desktop menu 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/<username> where <username> 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

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/<username>/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 nedit
menus. A file dialog will appear.
4. Again, place your mouse cursor in the file dialog so that the dialog gets the
keyboard 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 the
filename 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 window
and type:

% 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/<username>
% 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/<username>/tutorial/helloworld.txt
% more tutorial/helloworld.txt
These should both print the contents of helloworld.txt to your terminal window. Notice
how 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 the
relative path. That is, the path relative to the shells current working directory, which
in this case was /home/<username>.
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 using
the 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, and
editing text files. These are common operations when working under UNIX. For
additional topics, be sure to read the Introduction to UNIX linked to at the beginning of
this document.