Sun Lab Survival Guide

(formerly "Solaris Survival Guide" by Mike Boldin, Niagara College, 2000-2005)

Getting Started with the Common Desktop Environment (CDE)

Note: This document specifically targets Solaris 9, but also relates to Solaris 10

After you have entered your username and password correctly, the vendor-specific screen that identifies your operating system (Sun Solaris 9) will be displayed. The CDE front panel is shown here:

Using the Front Panel

The Front Panel provides you with pop-up menus, a virtual workspace manager, and a trashcan to dispose of files (similar to Windoze and MacOS), along with access to a file manager, a mail reader, printing tools and the online help system. It also provides buttons for logging out and locking the display.

The Graphical Workspace Manager

In the center of the Front Panel are four large buttons, usually labelled One, Two, Three and Four. These buttons are called the Graphical Workspace Manager (GWM) and are responsible for controlling the virtual workspaces. Also contained in the GWM are two smaller buttons and a "busy indicator" (a globe). The "busy globe" spins when the CDE is trying to run a program or is busy with some task. The two smaller buttons provide a central location for logging out and for locking the console. To log out of CDE, just click the button labeled EXIT. To lock the display, click the button with the lock icon. Locking your display prevents unauthorized use of your system when you are away from it and have not logged out.

The four large buttons in the GWM correspond to one of the four virtual workspaces that CDE starts by default. Clicking one of these buttons will cause the display to switch to that virtual workspace. Each virtual workspace can be thought of as a separate desktop in which windows can be opened and programs can be run. By using virtual workspaces, you can have many windows open without cluttering your main workspace.

Front Panel Features

In addition to the GWM, several other icons in the Front Panel afford you access to important CDE tools. Some icons also feature pop-up menus that allow additional programs and features to be accessed.

The leftmost icon in the Front Panel will start StarOffice, Sun's office suite can read and write most Microsoft Office 1997-2003 documents. Next is an analog clock. You can automatically tell what time it is without having to issue a date command in a terminal window, or having to run a program like xclock. Programs like xclock display the time in a separate window and in some cases can take up a significant portion of your screen area. By placing a clock in the Front Panel, the CDE designers increased the amount of screen space you have available. Clicking on the clock icon launches a web browser (the ancient Netscape, by default) -- in our case, the less ancient Mozilla Firefox. Next to the clock icon is the calendar icon. The calendar icon always displays the current date. If you click the calendar icon, the CDE Calendar Manager will appear.

The File Manager's icon is located to the right of the calendar icon. The File Manager is an interface for manipulating files and running programs similar to the Mac OS Finder or the Windoze Explorer. The icon next to the file manager is the Text Editor icon, which runs the CDE text editor, dtpad.

Just above each icon, you will see a small up arrow

. Clicking this arrow produces a pop-up menu from which you can select additional CDE tools. The last icon on the left-hand side of the GWM is the mailer icon. The CDE mailer provides a powerful mail client that supports templates, mail folders, searches, mailing lists, and MIME attachments. (Mail delivery is not currently implemented.)

On the right-hand side of GWM panel is the Printer Control. This tool allows for manipulating and monitoring the printing queue on a particular printer as well as supporting drag-and-drop printing of documents from the File Manager.

Next to this icon is the Style Manager icon. The Style Manager allows users to customize the various aspects of the CDE interface on the fly. It simplifies tasks such as setting the desktop background, window colours, and mouse response time.

To the right of the Style Manager icon is the Performance Meter, which shows CPU and disk usage in real-time as moving bar graphs. Next to the Performance Meter is the Help System icon. It allows the user to view and search the extensive CDE help system. All of the help topics are set up as books in a hierarchical structure that makes locating the correct material very easy. Also, most of the help pages have embedded hyperlinks that allow related materials to be browsed quickly.

At the far right of the Front Panel is the Trashcan icon. Users can discard files and applications by dragging them from the File Manager or the Application Manager and dropping them into the Trashcan icon.