This page describes the User Preferences Menu in Setup
Mode. There are a number of submenus on this menu.
User
Preferences Selection
This menu allows you to set some important user preference settings,
such as fontpaths, keyboard settings, display configuration, and some
memory options, such as backing store and save unders, as well as your
Setup Mode password.
The Font Path and RGB Settings
line brings up a submenu for specifying the paths to the font files and
RGB color definition files you want the ViewStation to use.
The Keyboard and Bell Settings
line brings up a submenu for setting your preferences for keyboard and
bell settings.
The Audio Device
Settings line brings up a submenu for setting your Audio device
settings, both input and output.
The Screen
Saver Settings line brings up a submenu for your screen saver
selections, which lets you select options for the View Station's screen
saver feature.
The Backing Store/Save
Unders submenu lets you select options for the way these memory
options are used on the ViewStation. These are important fields which
affect the ViewStations's memory usage and performance.
The Screen
Settings field permits you to change the pixel resolution and the
number of colors (or gray shades) your ViewStation uses. Your current
settings are shown in the field and you can cycle through the permitted
values. Of course, you must have sufficient memory installed for these
changes to take place. If you don't have sufficient video memory
installed, you won't be able to make any changes.
For
instance a ViewStation with 1280 x 1024 pixels can be used at lower
resolution, such as 1152 x 900 or 1024 x 864, but a lower resolution
ViewStation, such as a 1024 x 864, generally cannot be run at a higher
resolution, such as 1280 x 1024. The same is true of the color depth.
A 256 color (or gray-scale) ViewStation can be run as a monochrome
unit, but the monochrome cannot be run at 256 colors.
Note that these changes require that you restart the
ViewStation. Be sure you save this new value in NVM, then restart the
ViewStation base from the Restart Menu.
Most users rarely use this feature. However, you might
sometime need to change the Screen Settings field to accommodate
clients that work only in one environment (such as xgif, which only runs
on 256-color displays, or some SUN clients that only run on 1152x900
pixel displays).
You could also make these changes to
improve the execution speed, since 1 bit graphics run somewhat faster
than 8 bit graphics. The lower screen resolutions permit a faster
screen refresh and so might provide a display with reduced flicker.
These are usually fairly subjective decisions and choices.
The Reset server when last client exits field is an
important one. It determines whether the ViewStation server resets
itself when its last client exits. This is often important for network
operations and the orderly starting and stopping of processes on the
host computer. Check with your system administrator to see if you need
to set this to Yes. The default setting is No.
The Display memory warnings at field starts a local
ViewStation client which monitors your installed memory and displays a
low memory warning on the screen when your memory usage reaches the
level you set in this field. You can also start another local
ViewStation client, the Available Memory client,
by using the Available Memory option on the Main Menu.
The Configuration password field lets you enter your
password as protection for Setup Mode fields. Some important values,
such as the IP address or Telnet host address, can be protected from
unauthorized alteration by setting a password for Setup Mode with this
field. If you don't enter a password here, any field in Setup Mode can
be changed without password protection.
There are important considerations about the Configuration
password when your system is using the remote configuration features of
the ViewStation. The password is part of the configuration file, so
questions of transport (TFTP) and password encryption are necessary for
system security. These things are discussed in ViewStation
Security. The ViewStation server uses a built-in encryption utility
to decode a password downloaded in an encrypted form.
Special considerations about the password apply when you use
the Reset NVM to Factory Defaults field. This field is password
protected, so you must enter the password to execute the command. This
resets the contents of NVM, except for the password field.
If
you want to clear the password, you must follow these steps.
Go
to the User Preferences menu and use your password to edit the password
field
Enter an empty password (press the Return key) and confirm
your selection
Save the new (empty) password in NVM
This procedure will clear the password from NVM.
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