Basic Operations with your PARTICLE Laptop

1. Powering the Computer
   1. Turning it on
      1. Make sure the serial port is connected to the board.
      2. Press the power button on the left side. Shortly following turning the computer on, a login prompt will appear.
      3. The login name and password are “particle”.
   2. Turning it off
      1. Choose “q” (quit) from the menu.
      2. Left click on the footprint in the toolbar in the lower left portion of the screen.
      3. Choose Log out

When the Redhat login screen reappears, left click on System in the upper toolbar. Choose Halt. Select ‘yes’ when asked if you are sure you want to halt the machine.

1. Using the Data Acquisition Program
   1. You should have a prompt that looks like [particle@PARTICLE#~]$
   2. If you do not have a black terminal window open with the prompt shown above, left click on the icon on the bottom toolbar that looks like a computer screen with a footprint.
   3. Once you have this prompt, type ./startDaq and the Main Menu should appear.
   4. For more information about how to perform a singles count, perform a coincidence run, and more see the Detailed Instructions (pdf).

Basic Linux Commands you should know

Go to Basic Linux commands for more details and easy printing.

man This command brings up the online Unix manual. Use it on each of the commands below.

pwd Shows what directory (folder) you are in. Your home directory is /home/particle

cd Changes directories.

cd .. Moves up one directory (yes, include the two little dots)

cd ~ Takes you back to your home directory (/home/particle)

mkdir dirName Creates a directory with name dirName.

rmdir dirName Removes a directory dirName.

ls Lists files. If you add -al after ls it will give more details for each file.

ls -al |more Shows one screen of file names at a time.

less data1 Dumps the contents of the data1 file to your screen with a pause at each line so you don't miss any contents as they scroll. You may move through the file using page up, page down, home and end keys. When done with less you use the q key to get back to the main terminal.

whereis data1 Shows you the location of the data1 file.

rm data1 Deletes the file data1 in the current directory.

rm -i muon* Removes all of your muon data files (careful!! rm * will remove ALL your files). The -i makes the computer prompt before removing each file. If you really want to work without a net, omit the -i

cp data1 newdata/ will copy the file data1 to the directory newdata

mv data1 newdata/ moves the file data1 to the folder newdata and deletes the old one.

df Shows the disk usage. This will tell you how much disk space you have left on your hard drive

Using the Floppy Disk Drive in Linux

Detailed instructions on how to mount, copy files onto, and unmount a floppy disk or USB drive are available here.

• In the Explorer interface
  • You must double click on the desktop icon to mount the disk. You can drag files from your home directory into the folder that appears. To unmount the disk, you must first right-click on the desktop icon, and select Unmount volume or Eject. When this is complete, you may push the eject button on the floppy to remove it.
• In terminal mode:
  • You will need to use the mount command to use the
    • mount /mnt/floppy Allows you to use the floppy drive which has directly name "/mnt/floppy"
    • cp aFile /mnt/floppy/ Copies the file aFile to the floppy disk.
    • ls /mnt/qfloppy/ Allows you to see what files are on your floppy.
    • umount /mnt/qfloppy Allows you to remove the floppy disk.

Upgrading the PARTICLE DAQ Software

You can now download the latest version of the particle software and install it!

• Download the latest DAQ from here. Save the file onto your flash drive. (You may do this from any computer connected to the internet.)
• Boot your PARTICLE computer and log to the particle account.
• Put the flash drive into your PARTICLE computer.
• Open a terminal and type
  • mount /mnt/usbflash
  • sh /mnt/usbflash/(WHATEVER-YOU-NAMED-THE-FILE-DOWNLOADED-ABOVE)
  • umount /mnt/usbflash
• Enjoy your updated software