The Biology & Wildlife Computer Labs

Irving 303 Lab: A computer lab with 15 iMac workstations with VMware Fusion, a printer, 2 flatbed scanners, and a slide scanner is located in 303 Irving 1. This facility is available to all Mercury users. During the school year, the lab is heavily used by several Biology and Wildlife courses. Please check the schedule on the lab door or available on this web site. When working in the lab, use the workstation as you would your own personal computer. You can save files to the hard drive, but all changes made to the computer, including any files you saved, will be deleted the next time the computer reboots. Be sure to save your files elsewhere, such as on your Mercury M:\ drive, or on floppy, zip, USB thumb drive or CD-R. Each workstation has the full MS Office suite, Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, and other course-specific software (e.g. Mark, Distance). View a complete list of software on the Irving 303 computers.

Access to the Irving Lab: In order to gain access to the lab, you must get the door combination from Carol Piser (211 Irving I, x7100, email). This combination is changed on a regular schedule, usually at the beginning of each semester. If you used to have access, but the number you were using doesn't seem to work, check with Carol, because the combination has probably changed. Non-Biology and Wildlife students may charged a $10 per semester fee for a Mercury account (which includes access to the computer lab).

Bunnell Computer Labs: In addition to the Irving 303 lab, Biology and Wildlife supports two computer labs in Bunnell (301 and 407). These labs are used primarily for teaching, but are available for Biology and Wildlife student use during times when they are not reserved for courses. Click on the links to the right to view the schedules for the Bunnell computer labs. Both labs are scheduled by Denise Kind (309 Bunnell, x6298, email) or Carol Piser (211 Irving I, x7100, email). View a complete list of software on the Bunnell computer lab computers.

Instructions for use of the new iMacs in 303 Irving

Windows and Mac, together at last!  Brought to you by the Technology Advisory Board and the Department of Biology and Wildlife.  These computers have a program called VMware Fusion that allows the Windows operating system to run on a Mac.  This instruction handout will describe how to log in, starting from the Mac log in prompt.

From the Mac OS X operating system

  • If the computer has been turned off, the switch is on the back left side. If the screen is blank, try pressing the space bar before hitting the on switch (it might be sleeping).
  • Log into the computer, using the username and password that you got from the Biology and Wildlife office.
  • If you want to run Mac programs and the machine is in the Mac OS already, just begin using it.
    • Applications can be found in the Applications folder or on the Dock at the bottom of the desktop.
    • Office 2008 and most of the concurrent license software is installed.
    • Go to work.
  • If you want to get into the Windows XP Virtual Machine (VM), look on the Dock (the icons at the bottom of the desktop for an icon called VMware Fusion that looks like this: Fusion icon
    • Double click on the Fusion icon, and then double click on the IABLAB-V1 virtual machine (it will be the only choice).
    • That will start up the XP VM, and take you to the Novell Login client.
    • Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to enter the Novell Login Client (note that Apple has changed the location of the Alt key, it is next to the CTRL key).
    • Enter your Mercury user name and password.
    • Enter the workstation user name and password.
    • Go to work.

Shutting down (logging off)

  • If you have been working in Windows, log off in the normal way (Start > Log Off).  If you don’t do this step, then next person to use the computer will be logged in to your Mercury account.
  • You should now see the Novell client screen that says “Press CTRL-ALT-DEL”).
  • If you are in full screen mode, press CTRL-CMD-Enter to exit full screen mode.
  • On the Mac menu bar, click VMware Fusion and choose Quit Fusion (or press CMD-Q).
  • Choose Suspend from the dialog box that pops up. This will save the Windows VM at the login prompt.
  • Now go to the Apple menu in the top left corner, and choose Log Out public.
  • Leave the machine on.

To use a USB device in the Windows XP Virtual Machine

  • If you have plugged a USB thumb drive into a port on the back, but it isn’t showing up in Windows, do the following:
  • Exit from full screen mode, if you are in it (CTRL-CMD-Enter).
  • Method 1
    • On the status bar at the bottom right of the Fusion window, a gray USB icon will appear for each device that is plugged in.
    • Click on one to see if it is the right one, and choose connect if it is.
    • The icon will turn black when it is connected.
  • Method 2
    • On the menu bar on the top of the screen, select Virtual Machine
    • Select Settings
    • Click on USB Devices.
    • Put a check mark in front of your USB device.
    • Even though it may tell you that you have to power off, it should show up in a few seconds.

Computer Lab Schedules

Scheduling in the computer labs is done by the Biology & Wildlife office, x 7671.

VMware Fusion Resources

Login to IAB/B&W Web:

Username:

Password:

Logout of IAB/B&W Web:

Change Password:

Username:

Old Password:

New Password:

Repeat New Password: