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This chapter introduces a user to the Realm Linux environment. It does not assume that you have any extensive experience with either Linux or any other UNIX variant, nor does it assume any close familiarity with the Solaris realm kit on campus. It does, however, assume a basic knowledge of UNIX commands and structure; if you are completely new to UNIX, some of the concepts in here may be difficult to understand.
If you have difficulty with the concepts in this guide, we recommend you purchase an introductory UNIX book from either NCSU's student bookstores or a local bookstore such as Barnes and Noble or Border's. There are many introductory level guides available, most of which are useful not only to beginners but to seasoned administrators as well. You can also enroll in E115, which is a course offered through the College of Engineering, which introduces you to the computing environment here at NC State. You should also read and be familar with the Red Hat Getting Started Guide which introduces the Red Hat Linux environment, user interfaces, and basic applications.
Logging in to a Realm Linux workstation is no different from logging in to a normal UNIX machine, from the standpoint of the user. The only differences are purely cosmetic, such as the graphic of the login screen and the background. Once you have correctly entered your username and password, the system will present you with a standard GNOME environment which you can customize to your tastes. At this point there is no differentiation between machines or labs; you are logged in to the Unity environment and everything behaves the same everywhere.
With the above said, it is important to note that there are additional ways to log in to a Red Hat Linux Realm Linux workstation which do not have an analogue on Solaris Kit workstations. The most important of these is the availability of text-mode virutal terminals, accessible by pressing [CTRL]-[ALT]-[Fx] where is Fx is a function key one through six. Once you are at a virtual terminal, you can switch to another virutal terminal by pressing [ALT]-[Fx], or get back to the graphical login screen with [ALT]-[F7].
These virtual terminals have a much more restricted set of permissions for
logging in; only those individuals with user ID's listed in the system's
/etc/users.local file are allowed to log in to these
virtual terminals. They are simply pure text mode 80x25 terminals which behave
much as a VT220 connected to the serial port of a large VAX or UNIX system
would; they provide full access to the system, but without any graphical
interfaces.
Most of the time, users will not use these virtual terminals; in fact, unless you have a specific need for this type of text interface, you should probably stick with the graphical environment, even if you're administering your own Realm Linux machine.