For this course, I will assume that you will use sirius.cs.amherst.edu (a Linux server) to do your work. While you are welcome to do your work on another system (perhaps your own desktop/laptop machine), your code must compile, run, and be submitted on sirius. This section provides instructions for using sirius from (nearly) everywhere. The instructions are a bit complex, but I've have tried to make them as clear as possible.
You will be able to login and interact graphically with sirius from just about any machine with a high-speed connection. This section will desribe how to establish a VNC connection (which provides the graphical interaction) that is tunneled through an SSH connection (which provides encryption of your communication). The use of SSH is a good habit considering that the Amherst College network, as well as many other networks connected to the Internet, are open and rather insecure. If you are connecting from outside of the Amherst College network, you must use SSH tunneling to establish a VNC connection. I recommend that you use SSH tunneling under all circumstances.
The following steps will allow you to establish a VNC connection using SSH tunneling:
Connect to sirius using an SSH client configured to establish the tunnel: The choice of SSH client and the description of how to use it depends on the type of system that you are using. Below are instructions for Mac OS X, Linux/UNIX, and Windows systems. If you have another type of system (such as Mac OS 9), contact me and I will attempt to point you a web page or a person that can help you.
ssh -L 5900:sirius.cs.amherst.edu:5900 username@sirius.cs.amherst.edu
Of course, you would replace username with your username on sirius. Also note that if you are on the Amherst College network, you may not need to type the trailing .cs.amherst.edu. Try it and see what happens.
You will be prompted for your password, so simply provide it. Assuming that your login proceeds normally, you will have established a tunnel for VNC conncetions (which use port 5900). Simply leave this login open so long as you are using VNC.
Windows: If you do not already have one, obtain an SSH client from The SSH home page. In their Downloads section, you may download the Windows Workstation client for free as a non-commercial user.
Once you have (installed and) started the SSH Client, select Edit -> Settings.... On the left side of the setting window, select Profile Settings -> Tunneling, and the right side of the window should provide you tunneling options. Click the Outgoing tab, and click the Add... button. Fill out the window that appears as follows:
Click OK on this window, and then click OK for the settings window. So that you don't have to do this again (assuming that this is your machine and not a public College machine), select File -> Save Settings.
Click the Quick Connect button on the main SSH window. Fill out the window as follows (nothing that the lower two values are most likely already correctly provided):
Click Connect, and shortly after, a window shoulda appear asking for your password to sirius. Enter it, and you should be logged into sirius and given a command prompt. At this point, you've established a tunnel for VNC and should leave yourself logged into sirius via SSH until done with your VNC connection.
Open a VNC connection: Again, the software used in system dependant, and I describe how to use software for each of the systems described above:
Mac OS X: Download a copy of Chicken of The VNC (yes, that's really its name). When you've downloaded this file, double-click it to mount the disk image that it contains -- you will see a new disk on your desktop named Chicken of the VNC. Double-click that disk, and you will see a large icon for the program. To install it, simply drag it into your Applications folder, and then launch it like any other application.
When you start CoTVNC, and fill out the window that appears like so:
Click Connect, and a new window should appear containing an entire graphical interface to sirius. Note that under the Window menu, you can select Fullscreen Mode to see your complete sirius screen.
Linux/UNIX: Again, recent distributions have a VNC client included. If yours does not, you can download the RealVNC client as a source tarball, or as an RPM (for Redhat and Fedora Core users). You could also visit the RealVNC home page.
You must be logged into your machine and running an X-Windows server on your console. Open a shell, and give the following command:
vncviewer localhost
A new window should appear containing an entire graphical interface to sirius. To obtain full screen mode, trying pressing the F8 key, and a drop-down menu should appear with that option.
Windows: You can download a copy of RealVNC, or you can visit the RealVNC home page. This is the same VNC client used on the College's public Windows machines.
When you start your VNC viewer, fill out the window that appears like so:
(Note that this window may be different if you use another VNC client.) A new window should appear with an entire graphical interface to sirius. To obtain full screen mode, click on the upper-left corner of the window frame to get the window's drop down menu, and select the full screen option.
Login to sirius: Now that you are graphically connected, simply use the login window. A windowing environment will appear.