Installation and use of an x-terminal emulator at GMU
Here are some directions for installing an x-terminal emulator
called Cygwin XFree86 on your MS-Windows PC. So far I have installed
it successfully on Windows-Me and XP, but 98 and NT should work as
well. XFree86 should allow you to access x-graphics from osf1, for
example to see osf1 Matlab plots at home over Telnet. Caveats: the
installation process is easy but takes time for the download, and so
far, using the emulator is a bit clunky and definitely slow if you're
running over a phone modem, so don't bother unless you're
motivated.
Go to
www.cygwin.com/xfree to download Cygwin's XFree86
program. Click on the box "Install Cygwin/Xfree86 now" and choose
"Open" the file for Download. Choose "Install from Internet" when
asked, and accept the next 3 defaults, then click on a Download site
(I used the first one). Next, you are asked for packages. Unless you
have a fast connection, choose only the "XFree86 base", which already takes a
couple of hours to download over a phone modem. To do this, scroll
down to where it says XFree86. Click on the "+" sign to the
left of XFree86. Scroll down some more and click
to mark XFree86-Base:Cygwin/XFree86 Base for downloading. Then click
"Next" and downloading should commence, followed by installing. This
part takes time.
Running the thing is where it gets a tiny bit complicated. There are
some slight variations in the steps below depending on your setup.
Let me know if you find a simpler way.
1. Use ipconfig or winipcfg (whichever is available on your version of
MS-Windows) perhaps in a DOS window, to find your IP address.
2. Run startxwin.bat. (I had to have Windows search for it, but I
pulled it to my desktop.)
3. Type "xhost 129.174.1.13" (for example, which is osf1's ip address)
in the new window that is created.
4. Telnet to osf1 from the desktop.
5. On osf1, run
/usr/bin/X11/dxterm -sb -ls -display xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:0
where you fill in your IP address for xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
Then a new window opens where you can run Matlab etc. with X graphics.
Send comments, questions, and most of all improvements to tsauer@gmu.edu