Hands-on #2 hints

[Peter Yang <pyang@MIT.EDU>]

Hi everyone --

There have been a couple of common problems with the 
hands-on assignment for this week.  

1) latency.c doesn't compile for some people

The problem here seems to be that some people are using
the version of gcc that is in the cygnus locker.  This
shouldn't be a problem for most of you, but if you 
have problems compiling, check to see which version of
gcc you are running by typing:

add -f gnu
which gcc

If what is returned starts with /mit/cygnus instead of
/mit/gnu, you should type

/mit/gnu/bin/gcc -O -o latency latency.c 

instead of 

gcc -O -o latency latency.c

when you compile the program.

* Again, this should not be a problem for most of you.



2) problems finding 'lightly loaded' machines

If you have a problem finding a lightly loaded machine,
you can make your machine 'become' lightly loaded by 
closing all programs that you might be running and leaving
your machine alone for a few minutes (ie. no zephyring
or web browsing while you're waiting).  As the numbers
returned by the uptime command measure the average load
over time, leaving the machine alone will bring them
down quickly.  The first number measures the average
load over the past minute, and getting that below 0.02
is generally good enough for our purposes.

If you want to be absolutely sure that the average load
will go under 0.02, use a "Terminal-style login" when
you first login (it's one of the options you get at the
start window) and then wait a few minutes.


If you have any more questions, email your TA.  Good luck 
with the assignment.

- 6.033 TAs

----------------------------------------------------------
Peter Yang				(617) 225-1277 (H)
550 Memorial Drive #22f1		(617) 452-3433 (O)	
Cambridge, MA 02139