Startup Message for Coen320 Students
Dan Li, Real-time system Analyst
Overview
These message helps you to start up your QNX voyage. For more information about the QNX Lab, visit:
The QNX lab is made up of QNX desktop machines running QNX and mounting various file systems from a Linux server called Unzen2.
Unzen2 also serves a gateway between the QNX lab and the rest of Concordia. Since the QNX lab involves lots of high privileges due to hardware access and QNX is not a very secure operating system, the QNX lab is cut off from the rest of the world, with Unzen2 as its only point of contact. For this reason your access to the outside world is limited to using ssh to connect to an ECE machine. (For the purposes of checking your e-mail or sending a problem report to helpdesk@ece)
You can also access the QNX system from outside, via Unzen2's other name, "qnx-gw2".
Your Password
Your QNX account is separate from the ECE account. Your initial password is the same as your current ECE password, but that was only for the purposes of creating your account. If you change your ECE password after your QNX account has been created, it won't change in the QNX labs. To change your password in the QNX lab, log into Unzen2 and choose "Change my QNX password" from the menu. This change will take about 10 minutes to propagate through the entire lab, and will have no effect on our ECE account.
Note that if you change you password on any QNX workstation the change will be valid on only that workstation, and even that will be lost the next time the workstation reloads a fresh copy of the password file from Unzen2.
Getting Started
At the lab, you may choose any machine and use it interchangeably with the others. Your home directory will be the same everywhere.
Once you've logged in, start a "Terminal" from the menu on the right. From there you'll have access to the gcc and g++ compiler and editors.
Currently you have a choice of vim, vi, jed, and the QNX graphical editor. (available from the menu on the right)
The powerful IDE, Monmentics, is now available for edit, compile, and debug your c, c++ and Java programs. You can launch it from:
Launch->Development->Integrated Development Environment.
GNU compiler and maker are also installed and available for your use.
To compile a program using gcc, type up your code using an editor and save it as a .cpp file. Then use g++ to compile it.
g++ hello.cpp
The newly created binary will be called a.out and you can run it by typing
./a.out
If you want g++ to call the binary something else than a.out, use the -o option to g++.
g++ hello.cpp -o hello
will compile your hello.cpp program and call the final executable hello. You can run it by typing
./hello
You will need to learn more about gcc and make as your projects get more complicated than a single source file. The 'Help" button on the right brings up a help viewer with all kinds of useful information.
For for help with your programming work refer to the on-line documentation using the help viewer and go through the examples given.
I want to browse the web!
Open Mozilla, then click on "Edit" and "Preferences". Click the "Advanced", and select "Proxies", select the "Manual proxy configuration" in the HTTP Proxy field put 10.0.8.2 and port 80.
You should be able to browse the web using the proxy web server running on Unzen2.
Your home directory (and files)
Your QNX home directory lives on a Linux server called Unzen2. It is the different /home directory with your ECE. Once you log in qnx-gw2 , you will be your QNX home directory. If you login to an ECE Solaris system (e.g. 'dea'), you can find your QNX home directory:
/project/qnx/homes/coen320/
You may notice from time to time when something goes wrong, but generally there will be no problem.
If you log in and all your files appear to be missing, check that your home directory really exists. If not, log out and reboot the machine. (It's possible for the NFS mounting to malfunction at startup. In such a case the machine will boot as usual but all of /home will be missing.)
Transferring files from your home directories
Start by transferring your files from home onto your regular ECE account. Then just copy them to your QNX home directory: /project/qnx/homes/coen320/j_smith (where j_smith is your username of course and coen320 is the course you're taking, (ex. coen421))
To do these, you can follow the nextb steps:
- login to an ECE Solaris system (e.g. ssh dea.ece.concordia.ca)
- cd /project/qnx/homes/<course>/<username>
- cp <filename> ~/
They are now in your QNX home directory.
You can do the same task to transfer the files in QNX home to your ECE home.
Accessing QNX from home
Ssh to qnx-gw2, log in with your QNX username and password, and choose "Connect to a QNX workstation" from the menu.
You can connect to any machine in the labs, but beware that if someone is sitting at the console, they will probably not check for other users when they decide to shut down or reboot the machine.
"peel" is the QNX machine in the machine room without console access. As long as it is not overloaded, it would be a good choice for working remotely.
Printing
You can print your files from the the ECE network, from your usual ECE account.
Your QNX home directory will be available in
/project/qnx/homes/coen320/j_smith (or
/project/qnx/homes/coen421/j_smith, depending on your course and username)
Just print them from there to whichever printer you have access to.
Getting Help & Reporting Problems
Visit for related information about QNX.
Send e-mail to or
If you're in the QNX lab, use ssh to reach Unzen2, and then choose "connect to an ECE system" from the menu. You will then be able to send e-mail as usual, as long as you use a text-based mail. (Any kind of X programs will not work.)
You may also come to H-927 during office hours. (Mon. to Fri. 11am-12pm, 4pm-5pm) or the Helpdesk office (H-960) at almost any time. (The have very long opening hours, including weekends.)
Running QNX at home
QNX is free for personal use and downloadable from get.qnx.com.
You can install it either as a stand-alone operating system on its own partition (not extended though, you must have a free primary partition) or as a package under Windows.
The QNX web site provides information on how to install each version. A searchable "Knowledge Database" is also available at qdn.qnx.com, and human help can be found on various newsgroups available at the news server inn.qnx.com. (A good group to start with is qdn.public.qnxrtp.newuser)