Connecting to Solaris from home This page is out of date. It will be revised by Tuesday, July 5, 2011. (Yes, I know I've been a year late on this.)

This page summarizes how to connect to the CSE Solaris environment from a home computer. A much more thorough source can be found at Shaun Roland's VNC page. If you have questions, please check that page before contacting one of us.

What is VNC?

VNC is a program that provides a virtual desktop so you can use CSE's Solaris environment from home. This lets you use the graphical version of emacs, access the timecard program, and do other things that require desktop graphics.

Disclaimer

The VNC software is not supported by the University. "I can't get VNC to work" is never an excuse for turning in lab or homework assignments late. If you want to try this, do it early and have a backup plan ready in case it doesn't work for you. See the Alternatives section at the bottom of this page for other options.

Running VNC

Here's a short summary of how to set up VNC:

Stuff To Do Only Once

  1. Download and install any SSH client. You can use Xwin, or you can find a free one online.
  2. Download and install a free version of VNC. You'll need the free edition of "VNC viewer". (Don't run the program yet--if it starts asking you for an address to connect to, you're running it.)
  3. Set the SSH client up to connect to stdsun.cse.ohio-state.edu (port 22).
  4. Connect using your CSE username and password.
  5. Type: subscribe
  6. If CONTRIB is not starred, select the number that corresponds to CONTRIB to subscribe.
  7. Quit the subscribe program and log out completely (to finish subscribing). This will give your CSE account access to VNC's server program.

How to Log In

  1. Log into the cse system via SSH, as above.
  2. At the command prompt in your CSE account, type: vncserver
  3. Hit enter twice.
  4. You'll see something that says you have a new desktop named [greekletter]:[num], where [greekletter] is a greek letter like kappa or mu, and [num] is a small number.
  5. Leave SSH open and run VNC viewer. It should ask you for an address to connect to.
  6. Connect to [greekletter].cse.ohio-state.edu:[num] and use your CSE username and password, again.
  7. You're in! You should have a Solaris desktop through VNC.
  8. IMPORTANT: When you are finished, be sure to type in the SSH window: vncserver -kill :[num]
If you don't log out properly you'll leave a bunch of sessions open, and that makes the CSE people cross. So log out of your sessions!

Alternatives

Here are some alternative methods to VNC that you may prefer.

Xwin is an alternative to VNC. Follow the CSE instructions to set up Xwin, with one modification: change the command to [Xsession]. This will give you a virtual desktop. However, I have heard from several students that the connection is very slow.

Another alternative is to use a simple SSH client to connect without graphics. For Resolve programs, you can use a text editor to edit files, then FTP them to your account. Resolve programs can be compiled at the command line by typing "rcpp-make". This is how I usually do it.

If you're unable to do anything remotely you can always use the CSE Labs do complete your work.

Questions?

If you have any questions about how this is supposed to work, feel free to contact me, but check Shaun Roland's VNC page first. I'll help you if I can, but success is not guaranteed, so for your own sake, don't wait until the day of the lab to try this out. :)

- Annatala Wolf

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