I can't seem to log in

I am able to log in but several seconds later the screen goes black, flashes, and kicks me back out to the login screen.

You are probably over quota (you are taking up more than your allotted disk space). Once you have removed enough files to be under quota, you'll be able to log in again. Click here for instructions on how to compress or remove files. This link also provides more detailed information about quotas and a few tips for file management.

Very Slow System

My computer is running slow. How do I find out why?

Two good commands for measuring system load on linux workstations are w and top. w will tell you how many users are logged onto your machine. If you notice slow performance and lots of users are logged onto your machine, then you might see an improvement by using another machine. The load average lists how many system resources are currently being used. A load average of 0 is idle, and 1 is fully used. Anything over 1 is a very heavy load because jobs are waiting to be processed. top tells you the load averages of your machine and the current cpu usage in real time. It also provides a list of processes being run on your machine and tells you who owns them. This will help you identify runaway processes (see next question). For more information about these commands type man w or man top at the command line. A more complex and powerful command for analyzing system resource usage is ps.

Another common cause for slow workstations is when the file server is being hammered. This happens sometimes at peak usage times, and also if a single student is hammering the server. If this is happening, usually everyone experiences the problem simultaneously on all the workstations. If the load of your system is low, and it seems slow, and others are having the same problem, its a safe bet that it is a problem with the file server.

Runaway Process

Someone has a process that has been running for days and is taking up 100% of the CPU. How can I kill it off?

This happens occasionally when a program is terminated incorrectly (ex: vim has not been quit when the terminal is closed), and is known as a runaway process. You can kill any process that you own. You do this using the kill command at the shell prompt. Sometimes the processes will not respond to a typical kill, so you might need to send a kill -9 signal. You can get more information about this command by typing man kill at the shell prompt. If you have a process that refuses to die, or if you find a computer with a runaway process that is not owned by you, please e-mail the system administrators (at ''system@cs.byu.edu '') and tell them the machine name. They will fix the problem as soon as possible.

Update: There is a command called userkill which will allow you to kill runaway processes that are not owned by you. To find out how to use this command read the document located here.

Firefox thinks it's running

Firefox won't open, and it says that it's running

The problem is that Linux uses lockfiles. They are named "lock" .parentlock. When firefox starts up, it creates these. When it closes, it gets rid of them. If it sees that they are there, it assumes that it is running. Look in a hidden folder named .mozilla/firefox/*.default/ in your home directory. The lock and .parentlock files should be in there, just delete them and firefox should work.