Despite the fact that Linux systems are common, many academic institutions make it challenging to run Linux and other Unices on laptops, workstations and servers. In bioinformatics, most tools are developed on Linux to run on servers it only makes sense to run Linux everywhere. That is what we do and that is what we document here where we proudly run Linux at the University of Tennessee.
Note that there are people in the IT department who know Linux. Simply because they also have to run Linux machines!
Eduroam works great on Linux with wpa_supplicant and network managers. The configuration looks like:
cat /etc/wpa_supplicant_eduroam.conf
# Copied from https://github.com/RasmusWL/eduroam
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
ssid="eduroam"
# key_mgmt=IEEE8021X WPA-NONE WPA-EAP
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP
group=CCMP TKIP
eap=PEAP
identity="your-email@uthsc.edu"
password="***"
#ca_cert="/location/of/cert" # This might not be required.
phase1="tls_disable_tlsv1_1=1 tls_disable_tlsv1_2=1"
phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
priority=2
auth_alg=OPEN
}
Using your E-mail address and password. Start wpa_supplicant with something like
pkill wpa_supplicant ; wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i$WLAN -c /etc/wpa_supplicant_eduroam.conf &
where WLAN is your wifi interface, see
ip a
E.g.
export WLAN=wlp3s0
Next fire up dhcp so you can get on the network
pkill dhclient ; dhclient -v $WLAN
Eduroam works great but it puts you on a separate VLAN with no access to printers. To get access to the proper VLAN login with just your netid (not your E-mail address!!) using the same wpa_supplicant configuration as with eduroam. On success the IP address you get from dhclient should be different. If that is not the case send the output of
ip a
to your support desk and ask them to put your machine on the VLAN. After their confirmation you should see the printers. It may help to send the IP address of the printer too.
With CUPS you can install a printer. One printer in our VLAN is configured as
cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
<DefaultPrinter Xerox6360Color> UUID urn:uuid:9a41b18c-c26b-3bf6-5d34-287b3d3457a7 Info Xerox6360Color MakeModel Xerox Phaser 6360 Foomatic/Postscript (recommended) DeviceURI socket://172.21.216.173 State Idle StateTime 1558107438 ConfigTime 1558028722 Type 8433692 Accepting Yes Shared No JobSheets none none QuotaPeriod 0 PageLimit 0 KLimit 0 OpPolicy default ErrorPolicy retry-job Attribute marker-colors \#00FFFF,#FF00FF,#FFFF00,#000000,none,none,none Attribute marker-levels 23,29,20,78,90,95,-1 Attribute marker-names Cyan High Capacity Toner Cartridge, Phaser 6360, P/N 106R01218,Magenta High Capacity Toner Cartridge, Phaser 6360, P/N 106R01219,Yellow High Capacity Toner Cartridge, Phaser 6360, P/N 106R01220,Black High Capacity Toner Cartridge, Phaser 6360, P/N 106R01221,Imaging Unit, Phaser 6360, P/N 108R00645,Fuser, Phaser 6360, P/N 115R00055 (110 V)/115R00056 (220 V),Transfer Roller, Phaser 6360, P/N 108R00646 Attribute marker-types toner,toner,toner,toner,opc,fuser,transfer-unit Attribute marker-change-time 1558107438 </DefaultPrinter>
Note that while IPP is configured on this printer it did not respond to ipp://. It does work with above socket link.
2-factor authentication was recently introduced. It requires a special app for Android/iPhone. Not exactly Linux specific and UT does not advertise it, but you can also get a token from the help desk. This is a preferred option because it always works (until the battery runs out). Also it is more secure to use a token.
IMAP and forwarding are available.
Webmail and other web-based tools work in Firefox. Some SAP-based tools require the Chrome browser. Your mileage may vary, but in general it is a good idea to try different browsers.
Microsoft software provides by UT does not work on Linux. You can opt to use Libreoffice/Openoffice and such, but it may be painful collaborating with people that use these tools (at least for shared writing). Note: it is possible to run Microsoft Office 2012 in Wine on Linux. That may be good enough for most of us.