Running X Applications From Home
--Thiebaut 17:13, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
Case 1: You have a Mac at home
- First you need to install the X11 utility on your Mac. This utility should be on the Install Disk you received with your Mac. Follow the steps listed at this URL for full details: http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/runningx11.html
- This will create a new utility on your computer.
- Run the X utility. It will open up a window that looks just like a terminal window. Minimize it to keep it out of sight.
- Open a terminal window, and connect to beowulf (or whatever Linux/XGrid computer you want to work on) using the following syntax:
ssh -Y 334a-xx@beowulf.csc.smith.edu
- The -Y is key here: it tells the remote server that its X-window commands should be send to the client, and not to a screen.
- Enter your password. You can now invoke applications that have a GUI directly from the command line. Below is an example where I executed the program xeyes and got it to display on my Mac desktop.
You've got it in one. Couldn't have put it better.
Case 2: You have Windows at home
- You need to download XMing and PuTTY.
- Run XMing. Nothing visible will happen, but there should be an icon in the system tray to show it is active.
- Make a connection using PuTTY. In the configuration screen, find and check the box for X11 forwarding.
That's it!
