How to Connect to the SSCC Using X-WIN32
X-Win32 is a program for Windows computers that allows you to securely connect to the SSCC and to use graphical programs on the interactive computers (seldon, hardin and mule2). X-Win32 is available for free at Northwestern under an unlimited campus site license.
- Download and Install X-Win32
- Configure X-Win32 to Connect to the SSCC
- Additional VPN Configuration for Off-Campus Users
- Connect to the SSCC
- Check that the Backspace Key is Working
- Copy and Paste Rules
- Graphical Programs
Download and Install X-Win32
Download X-Win32 with SSH
Run the installer file you have downloaded and follow the installation instructions.
Configure X-Win32 to Connect to the SSCC
Once you have installed X-Win32 on your computer, go to the Windows start menu and run the X-Config utility.
Click on the Wizard button.
Select StarNetSSH as the Connect Method.
Type in the SSCC host name:
Enter your SSCC login (your NetID) but do not enter your password. You will be prompted for the password each time you connect.
Select Linux from the list in the Host Command window.
Enter a name for this configuration and click Finish.
Additional VPN Configuration for Off-Campus Users
To connect using X-Win32 from an off-campus location you first need to establish a Northwestern VPN connection. That gives you an authenticated and secure connection to the NU network that can be trusted by the SSCC.
Windows Vista users should modify Configuration Step #4: The type of VPN should be set to PPTP instead of automatic.
Connect to the SSCC
Start X-Win32 from the Windows start menu.
When you start X-Win32 for the first time in Windows XP, you should get a security alert from Windows Firewall. Click "Keep Blocking" - this will not prevent X-Win32 from working.
Right-click on the blue X icon in the Windows notification area (in the lower right-hand corner of the desktop) and select your SSCC configuration from the Sessions menu.
You will be prompted for your password and a new terminal window will open for entering commands.
Check that the Backspace Key is Working
Type something in the terminal window and check whether the backspace key is working. If the backspace key does not work in the terminal window, look at these instructions
http://crl.ucsd.edu/handbook/network/xwin32.html
When following these instructions, you will probably have to maximize the Keyboard Editor window to see everything you need because there are no scroll bars.
You may find that your US.XKB file is read-only. If so, right-click that file and choose Properties. Uncheck the read-only box so that you can change the file. Do this BEFORE using X-Config to modify the keyboard definition.
The path to the file in most cases is
Copy and Paste Rules
Copy and Paste rules are different under X Windows. The UNIX X Windows mouse has three buttons (left, middle and right), and the MS Windows mouse has only two buttons (left and right). X-Win32 emulates the middle mouse button when you press both mouse buttons simultaneously.
Things are complicated even more when you want to copy and paste between MS Windows applications and X Windows applications. See How to Copy and Paste in X-Win32 to learn how to properly configure your X-Win32 connection and then use it to copy and paste in all combinations.
Graphical Programs
Graphical access to the interactive computers is useful for tasks that are not computationally-intensive, taking hours of time to execute.
Graphical programs started using X-Win32 run on the interactive computers, not on the compute nodes, so please do not perform long calculations with them.
Remember to close your X-Win32 session when you are done.
Graphical programs are typically run in the background, to free your command line for further work. Follow the command for a graphical program with an ampersand (&) — for example, xstata & — to run xstata in the background in a separate window.
Here are some of the programs with graphical interfaces you might want to use:
Editors — emacs, gvim, lyx and nedit
Document Viewers — acroread, gv, lyx, mozilla and xdvi
Graphics Tools — gimp, xfig
PBS Pro Utilities — xpbs, xpbsmon
TeX Utilities — lyx, xdvi
Statistical Applications — MATLAB, R, SAS, Splus, xstata
Utilities — gftp, xclock, xterm
acroread — Acrobat reader for viewing PDF files
emacs — GNU project Emacs editor
firefox — a Web browser for X11 derived from Netscape Communicator
gftp — graphical ftp/sftp client for downloading files from other servers directly to the cluster
gimp — an image manipulation and paint program
gv — a PostScript and PDF viewer
gvim —Vi IMproved, a programmer's text editor
lyx — a document preparation system
matlab — a computational, visualization and programming environment (run with the command matlab -jvm -desktop)
nedit — windows-like text editor for creating and editing your programs and shell scripts
R — a language for data analysis and graphics
sas —an integrated applications system for data access, management, analysis and presentation
Splus — an interactive environment for data analysis and graphics (run with the command Splus -w)
xclock — display an analog or digital clock in an X window
xdvi — DVI previewer for the X window system
xfig — Facility for Interactive Generation of figures under X windows
xpbs — graphical front end to PBS commands to manage batch jobs
xpbsmon — monitor execution hosts under PBS
xstata — Stata with the graphical desktop
xterm — terminal emulator for X windows
Last Updated: 11 February 2009
