Linux Resources

De Transport

Connecting to Polytechnique desktops

  • the first way to connect is though ssh, which, to put it simply, gives you the same access as to a terminal locally (see below for terminal resources)
    • ask the responsible person for the computer ip address and ssh port. You can then connect through ssh -p [port] [user]@[ip_address] using your local user name and password.
  • one can use a proprietary tool like Teamviewer for remote graphical access, but the free version has quirks and sometimes won't work anymore. In that case, one can use a 100% free solution relying on VNC (included on MacOS).
    • make sure a VNC server (we'll use x11vnc since it is lightweight and full featured) is installed on the target computer
    • create a tunnel to the computer and start by typing
ssh -t -L 5900:localhost:5900 username@ipaddress -p port 'x11vnc -localhost -display :0

where the username, ipaddress and port are replaced by the appropriate values (removing the last part in single quotes creates the tunnel, and one has to start x11vnc after connection)

  • if a user is connected locally on the computer, you must connect as the same user through ssh.
  • it may be necessary to type xhost + local: before starting x11vnc.
  • connect to the computer using a VNC client, eg vinagre on Linux or realVNC (the integrated client in MacOS insists on having a password, but we are not using one here): the address is simply 'localhost' since the tunnel does as if the remote computer is local on the specific VNC port (5900)
  • access to files can be done through secure ftp (sftp) using a client like filezilla or on the command line using scp with the same information as for ssh.

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