CSC 418/2504: Running X-windows programs

If you're working from home, the wisest thing is to download the source files, and compile and link the program on your own machine. Otherwise you'll be sending a lot of pixels over the phone line.

That assumes you have a compiler at home.

If you don't, and you want to run programs remotely, you'll need X-windows. If you've got Linux at home, no problem. If you have MS Windows, I suggest you get an emulator like cygwin. Here's what I found works for me on my MS Windows machine:

• http://xfree86.cygwin.com/

On X-windows, to run a graphical program remotely, you have to do two things:

1. On a telnet connection to the remote machine, type
   • setenv DISPLAY yourmachine.domain.com:0.0
   this tells the remote machine where to send the pixels.
2. On your own machine, type
   • xhost +remotemachine.domain.com
   this tells your machine's Xwindows server to allow graphical info from the remote machine.
3. On the telnet connection, run the program. Eventually, a graphical window will appear on your computer.