Linux Desktops¶

All desktops in the Oden Institute run Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. In addition to the default features, Sysnet has added a number of improvements.

Miscellaneous Tasks¶

Password Change¶

Important

We suggest reviewing Sysnet’s policy on password rules before changing your password.

Visit our Password Change page.

Retrieving backups of home directory¶

Often times you can accidentally misplace or delete an important file. If you are in a situation where a file you need is missing it may be worthwhile to look through the snapshot directory for backups.

In your desktop menu, select Places ‣ Home Folder
Make sure you have hidden files enabled by choosing View ‣ Show Hidden Files

Scroll down to a folder called .snapshots and open it.

You will see a series of folders with numbers on them. These represents the different dates the backups were taken in yyyy/mm/dd format. Choose a recent time and open the folder. There will be a folder inside named tree. Open it and you will see a copy of all your files in the home folder from the time period indicated on the parent folder.

Simply copy whatever files you need to your current home folder to restore them.

Unencrypting /workspace¶

The /workspace partition on managed desktops is encrypted along with the swap space. When logging into a desktop’s console after a reboot, the encrypted partitions must be unencrypted, you will be prompted twice, once to log into the workstation, then a second time to unencrypt the partitions.

If your remotely log into a workstation and need access to /workspace, be aware that it might not have been unencrypted. If you see the file:

/workspace/WORKSPACE_IS_NOT_MOUNTED

This means the workspace has NOT been unencrypted. To unencrypt /workspace, issue:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/deluks

This will prompt for your Oden Institute credentials to unencrypt the encrypted partitions.