Ubuntu Configuration Guide for Imperial College
This is an unofficial and unsanctioned guide for configuring an Ubuntu GNU/Linux system at Imperial College London, based on my personal experiences getting my Vaio notebook playing well with the network and its services. Pretty much everything you'd want to work, works once given appropriate configuration. Imperial is fairly Linux-friendly, as you'd hope from a College that prides itself on its strengths in science and technology. The officially-supported distribution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), despite the massive shift in public interest away from Red Hat / Fedora since mid 2005.
Basic Set Up
I'm using a 64-bit installation of Ubuntu Hardy. Gutsy worked OK, but since Hardy is an LTS release, I'm targeting these instructions to it, and they assume that you have an otherwise working install. There is an annoying restriction whereby your Ubuntu username must be the same as your Imperial username, otherwise your print jobs will get lost. There may be a workaround for this because the print setup has an option to set a custom user name; I just don't know where to set that username! In the meantime, you'll have to log in to Ubuntu with your Imperial username (which may mean creating a whole new user and migrating, I know).
Setting up VPN for Off-Campus Access
To access Imperial network resources when off campus, you have to use VPN. VPN is not installed by default on Ubuntu. Once installed, it is easy to configure and works really well. Run this command and answer 'Y' if asked.
]$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
You now have a VPN Connections item in Network Manager. Download this configuration file by right clicking and saving somewhere handy, like your desktop.
Left click on Network Manager, VPN Connections -> Configure VPN... -> Add -> Forward -> Forward -> Import Saved Configuration... and find the file you just downloaded.
Connect to VPN with Network Manager->VPN Connections->Imperial College London and enter your Imperial username / password.
Getting on the Wireless LAN on Campus (Imperial-WPA)
Imperial-WPA is the name of the authenticated wireless network that is available whenever
you are within range of a campus access point (AP). When logged on to
Imperial-WPA, your machine is effectively on the Imperial internal network so you
don't need VPN to access your H drive or make a remote desktop connection.
Select it with the Network Manager Applet.
Then enter your Imperial username in the Identity field and your Imperial password in the Password field, then hit Connect. Ignore the other fields, they're not required.
Making a Remote Desktop Connection
Once on the Imperial network either by VPN or Imperial-WPA you can connect to your desktop computer with rdesktop, replacing myusername and my-asset-tag with your own values.
]$ rdesktop -u myusername my-asset-tag.ic.ac.uk
rdesktop has lots of options (like full-screen), so check them out.
]$ man rdesktop
Setting up Printing
Printing is supported apart from the requirement that your Ubuntu login has to be the same as your Imperial username. The official documentation is located here. The important details to note are:
Hostname: ictprintservice.cc.ic.ac.uk LPD print queue name: ICTprintservice_mono
And you also need to download the PrintServce PPD file.
Then go System->Administration->Printing->New Printer. Select/enter the following:
- Select Connection|Devices: LPD/LPR Host or Printer
- Location of the LPD network printer:
- Host: ictprintservice.cc.ic.ac.uk
- Queue: ICTprintservice_mono
Hit forward and select 'Provide PPD file', then locate the PPD file you just downloaded. Hit Forward and enter a human-readable printer name, description and location. Hit Apply. Printing is now installed!
Connecting to Your H Drive
First, go to this page to find the address of the server that contains your H drive. Copy the contents of the fields directly beneath
Windows NT, 2000 or XP users, your home directory can be found at:
which should look something like
\\icfs16.cc.ic.ac.uk\username
Now go Places->Connect to Server and enter your server (between the \\ and \) and username (after the last \).
Hit Connect, enter your Imperial password and you are done. 'Imperial H' is now a bookmark that you can find under Places->Bookmarks.
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