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For users of Microsoft Windows
Background: A server is a computer that provides services to more than one user at a
time. Unlike a small personal computer that you physically handle to use, a
server is usually used via a network connection. In many computer science courses you will use a UNIX
environment in which to do your work.
The ranger computer system is a server that provides a UNIX
environment. (Actually, ranger is really an
“umbrella” name for a set of computers that act as a server. We don’t care which of the ranger machines is
actually serving us.) The question is, how do we access the server to get these services? That is, how do we get to use a graphical UNIX application on ranger?
One way is to run an application program called MobaXterm. With MobaXterm and a high-speed Internet connection, it is
possible to display and use graphical UNIX applications on the Microsoft Windows-based personal computer we are using. (Note: You should have an
Internet download connection of at least 7Mbps in order to use MobaXterm
effectively.)
You can download the latest version of MobaXterm from
and after
unzipping
the downloaded file
(i.e., doing an
Observation: the first-time you start MobaXterm will be slow due to one-time initializations.
Extract All...
operation on the .zip file),
enter the resulting MobaXterm_installer file folder and then double click on the Windows installer file (it will have a name similar to MobaXterm_installer.msi) and then follow the prompts.
(Note: a common mistake is to forget to unzip the downloaded file and attempt
to click on the .msi file found in the downloaded compressed .zip directory file instead. Clicking on the wrong .msi file will give you an error message.)
Upon installation, you will find a MobaXterm icon on your desktop.
Logging in remotely
MobaXterm, press the Enter key to
start a “local terminal”
(alternatively you can click the Start local terminal button---the one with a green-circled plus sign.) This
will open up a command shell (a dark window into which you can type
commands). The program's interface doesn't follow the windows theme,
but that's a minor inconvenience.ssh
-Y username@ranger.cs.mtsu.edu
If you are on the MTSU Computer Science network, you can
shorten this and just type:
ssh
-Y username@ranger
· Where
username is your ranger login
username (probably a C-number).
· If
you enter a wrong username by accident, it will still prompt you for a
password. Press Ctrl+C to quit the login attempt.
Enter your
password when prompted. The characters you type won't appear, but you will be
entering a password.
When Logging into ranger(x)
for the first time
·
MobaXterm may ask if you want to save your password to your machine
(or wherever MobaXterm
is saved); say no.
·
It may ask you if you trust the host
you are connecting to. Type yes.
Once logged in
Once you are logged into ranger,
the MobaXterm terminal window you have is fine for light duty work.
However you may want a better terminal window
(e.g., one where you can easily change the background color or resize the font)
if you are doing something more intensive. To get a standard
X11 terminal window, enter the command
(don't enter the $ ):
$
terminal &
(if that command doesn't work,
try the command $ /usr/bin/sakura)
You can create as many X11 terminal windows
as you need this way.
When done,
exit all the X11 window(s) and then the MobaXterm window
by entering
$
exit
in each window.
Finally, terminate MobaXterm;
use the red exit icon
in the upper right hand corner of the window.
Transferring Files
Transferring files in MobaXterm
is easy. When you SSH into your account, a file list will appear on the right. Just
drag and drop files from Windows Explorer into it, or drag files from it to
Windows Explorer to transfer files. You'll have to have the correct permissions
of course. There is no progress bar while
exchanging files, so bigger files will make it seem like nothing is happening.
Forwarding Graphics from
X to Windows
Forwarding
graphics should work right out of the box. There is no configuration needed,
just start a program that requires a display from the command line and a
new Window will pop up.
An easy way to demonstrate the X forwarding feature
is to enter the command
$ xclock & into the terminal
and see a clock pop up. For more information on why
X is used, see
Why use the X Window System?
MobaXterm
Tips
o
You will notice that while using MobaXterm, it may
feel sluggish. To pull out slightly better performance, go to
Settings->Configuration->Display,
and set the skin to 'none'. This way, it will use the Windows theme, and let
Windows handle the window.
o
MobaXterm also has some Windows commands built in, such as ipconfig. These commands only work before you SSH into another machine. Once you connect to
another machine, only commands present on the remote machine will work.
o
Don’t forget to logout of ranger when you are done. Sometimes the logout will seem to hang, if
so, use a Ctrl-C to force the logout. To
quit MobaXterm,
use the red exit icon in the upper right hand corner of the window.
See the MobaXterm documentation for more
information. (Help->Documentation)
( Based on an original page written by Michael Perez and found at http://cs.boisestate.edu/~amit/teaching/handouts/MobaXTerm-Guide.html)