Using Xming

 

Introduction

A large portion of applications run on the Computer Science Department servers can be run from the terminal. There are also many applications that run within their own window with a unique interface. These applications, regardless if they are command line or windowed, are still running on the server. In order to port input/output information and update display information for windowed programs, an X window program is required.

Xming is installed on Windows machines throughout the department and allows the redirection of an X application screen output from a remote server to the local console. Xming, or another similar program, may be used on your home machine, however, SSH Tunneling must be used.

Instructions

Double click “SSH Secure Shell Client” and verify X11 Tunneling is enabled. To do this click Edit->Settings. A window will pop up, click “Tunneling,” which is located to the left of the window. Verify “Tunnel X11 Traffic” is checked.

Now start Xming, and use “SSH Secure Shell Client” to connect to the remote machine (shell, diablo, linprog, etc.). When you run an X program the output should now appear on your local machine. If you get an error mentioning an X server, the most likely problem is this procedure was not followed properly, or the Xming application on your machine is not started.