Department of Mathematics

F.A.Q.

If your question is not answered on this page or you do not understand the answer, you can contact the Helpdesk for technical help.

Mac OS X

  • How to request network access for laptops

    To request network access for your laptop or your visitor’s laptop please go to the Network Access Request page.  You will need your Mathematics Department username and password to access this form.

    For help in determining what the laptop’s MAC address is see How do I find my computer’s MAC address

  • What do I do when an program update notification on my Mac asks for an administrative password and I do not have administrator access?

    Generally speaking, program updates are important (many updates fix security problems), and while we attempt to automate as many updates as possible, some updates cannot be applied without an administrator’s password. When this situation arises, please send e-mail to helpdesk@math.purdue.edu and we will be happy to help you finish the install process.

    Additionally, the many common applications available by opening Finder, selecting [Macintosh HD] and then selecting [Math Applications], are regularly updated by the Math Computer Systems staff.

  • How to add Math printers in Leopard

    Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) doesn’t auto-discover printers on Math’s network to the same effect as 10.4.If you have administrative rights on your machine, follow this url:http://localhost:631/admin?op=config-serverand find these lines:

    # Show shared printers on the local network.

    Browsing On

    BrowseOrder allow,deny

    BrowseAllow all

    You need to add a new configuration setting, so that this section of the config file looks like this:

    # Show shared printers on the local network.

    Browsing On

    BrowseOrder allow,deny

    BrowseAllow all

    BrowseProtocols cups

    • Click the “Save Changes” button, enter the username and password of a user with administrative rights and the cups server should restart.
    • Reboot the computer, open up System Preferences, and then the “Print & Fax” pane.
    • You should now be able to add the Math printers to your list of printers.
    • Again, you need administrative rights to do this.

  • Mac Mail.app is locked

    Mail.app locked mailboxes

    Email clients, like Mail.app and Thunderbird, like to know that they’re the only program accessing email stored on the local machine. This avoids potential email file corruption.

    Sometimes, however, these email clients get confused and insist that another program is writing to their files. If this happens to you, you can assure Mail.app that its files are okay by removing a lock file.

    From the command line, run this command:

    rm ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index.lock

    From Finder, navigate from your home directory, to Library, to Mail and drag the Envelope Index.lock file to the Trash.

    Of course, sometimes Mail.app files really do get corrupted. If you continue to experience problems, you can reset Mail.app and wipe out all of its settings and start fresh*.

    From the command line, run this command:

    rm -rf ~/Library/Mail ; rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

    Now open Mail.app and (re)create your mail account.

    * Sometimes a fresh start is a bad thing. If you use POP to grab your email from the server, you should not do this. If you have spent lots of time writing client side email filter/rules, you should not do this.

  • How do I find my computers MAC address?

    In order to connect a laptop to Mathematics computer network, you will need to provide your computer’s MAC address.

    The MAC address look like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx where x is a hexidecimal character. The method for retrieving a computer’s MAC address varies for different operating systems:

    • Windows.
      • From the Start Menu, choose the “Run…” option.
      • Run the “cmd.exe” program.
      • Once the DOS box has appeared, type “ipconfig /all” into it.
      • The output from the ipconfig command lists the MAC address for each of the network interfaces on your computer. If your computer can connect to a wireless network, you have two MAC addresses. You need to find the non-wireless address.
    • Mac OSX
      • Click on the Apple (BlueApplefromMenu) in the top left corner of your screen.
      • Click the “About this Mac” option.
      • Click the “More Info” button.
      • Click on the top level “Network” link.
      • Select “Ethernet” in the pane at the top of the window.
      • Scroll down to the bottom of the resulting information, until you see the MAC address entry.
      • It will look something like this:
      • OSX.SystemProfiler.Network
    • Linux
      • Run the command: ifconfig -a
    • Solaris
      • Run the command: arp computer_name (or arp `uname -n`)

  • xterm-color error using Terminal.app

    By default, Mac’s Terminal.app application declares itself to be of terminal type “xterm-color”. You can change this by changing Terminal.app’s default.

    Go to Terminal’s Preferences

    TerminalPreferencesdefault

    Change “xterm-color” to “xterm”.
    TerminalPreferencesdesired

    Alternatively, one can change their terminal type from the command line by typing:

    setenv TERM xterm

    (if that doesn’t work, try export TERM=xterm)

  • How do I connect to my Math Network Space from a Mac:

    From a MAC:

    From Mac OS X 10.1 or higher

    1. In the Finder, click on the Go menu
    2. Select “Connect to Server”

    3. In the “Server Address:” field enter

    smb://smbhost.math.purdue.edu/{yourusername}

    4. Click the “+” button on the right side of the field to
    add this address to your favorites.

    5. Set the “WorkGroup or Domain” field to ‘MATH’.
    6. Enter your login name for “Name” and your password (see above) for “Password”

  • How do I setup a VPN connection into Purdue's Network on a Mac?

    Visit ITaP’s website for detailed instructions to setup a VPN connection for a Macintosh.

    http://www.itap.purdue.edu/connections/vpn/

  • How do I resolve X11 forwarding problems in MacOS 10.4 (Tiger)?

    Use the following command:

    ssh -Y user@host

    -Y enables “trusted X11 forwarding”

    Alternately, have the two lines:

    ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes

    in ~/.ssh/config

  • How do I resolve the “Connection Failed” error when using the Citrix client?

    This error is because the default setting for the Connection type is set to TCP/IP + HTTP, instead of just TCP/IP.

    To change this setting, browse to your Applications folder, then to the Citrix ICA Client Folder.

    - Launch the Citrix ICA Client Editor.
    - On the Network Connections tab, click on the “Default Settings” button towards the bottom left. On the “Making a Connection” tab, you will see an area for Network Protocol.
    - Click on the drop down box and change the setting from TCP/IP + HTTP to just TCP/IP.
    - Save your settings and try connecting again.

  • How do I SSH into the math servers using MacOS X?

    You need to run X11. It can be found in the “Utilities” folder under “Applications”.

    This application will load a terminal window. Type the following command in the terminal window:

    ssh -X [username]@[server name]

    or, to enable trusted X11 forwarding

    ssh -Y [username]@[server name]

    If you cannot find X11, it may not be installed on your machine. Please email helpdesk@math.purdue.edu and request that it be installed.