NOTE: Please use ThinLinc or MobaXterm if possible!

ThinLinc

As of Summer 2014 we setup a free ThinLinc server on eceTerm.uwaterloo.ca and eceLinux4.uwaterloo.ca A client can be downloaded from ThinLinc clients (https://www.cendio.com/thinlinc) As we do not have a licensed server we are limited to 10 connections. In contrast NoMachine is licensed and supports an unlimited number of users.

Nexus users can find the client here: Q:\eng\ece\thinlinc490\tlclient.exe

MobaXterm

Winter 2016 - If you are using a newer version of MobaXterm - then configure your setup to use NoMachine login and not "system login" as well use SSH protocol and not the NX protocol.

As of summer 2013 we've found that MobaXterm is much easier to setup and performs equally well for on-campus users. If you are coming from off-campus then NX Client is vastly superior.

You can get MobaXterm from here (http://MobaXTerm.mobatek.net)

When you run the program just ssh from within one of it's windows:

ssh -X Your_User_ID@ecelinux.uwaterloo.ca

NX Client

Running Graphical Linux Programs

Using XMing and Putty to provide access to graphical software on Linux servers has had issues. Cadence, Matlab and Altera Quartus either did not work or were exceptionally slow.

NX client is another way to graphically connect to the Linux servers. The scheme uses compression and offers greatly improved performance off campus.

Waterloo Nexus Users

On Nexus simply use Start -> Run to run "nxclient". If it is not in the path, then run Q:\eng\ece\util\nxclient.bat

One may copy the whole Q:\eng\ece\NXWin directory to another Windows computer in order to copy the software.

Proceed to the section Running NXClient - The Connection Wizard

Non Nexus Users

The client software is provided by www.NoMachine.com. Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and Solaris are supported as of Jan 2011. The Ubuntu install (just use the package manager) goes quickly but I found it awkward to figure out how to run.

If a non-Nexus or off-campus computer is used then the user must do the following:

• Download and install the client from: NoMachine.com clients The Windows client is here: NoMachine.com Windows client The user should also download and install all fonts (aprox 35M total).
• Run the "NX Client for Windows" software in the Start Menu.
• Proceed to the section Running NXClient - The Connection Wizard You will need to copy the client license key from the servers eceLinux4.uwaterloo.ca in /usr/NX/share/keys/default.id_dsa.key to your local computer. To copy it one can use psftp (Putty Secure FTP) or similar software. Nexus users can get this file from Q:\eng\ece\NXWin\share\keys

Running NXClient - The Connection Wizard

When you run NXClient for the first time you will be asked for some information to create a saved session. These settings can also be changed by clicking on the Configure button when NoMachine NX is started.
For the ECE Linux computers here is what one would fill in:

Session name ECELinux4
Host value ecelinux4.uwaterloo.ca
Leave the default of port 22 and change the internet connection if the values mean anything to you.

The next screen will ask you about the server to which you are connecting. In ECE the server type is Unix and the GUI is Custom. Ignore the section called Display as it should be mostly grayed out. The Settings for Custom options ticked should be Application: "Run the console" and Options "Floating window" Then click on Next.

Tick Show the Advanced Configuration dialog in the next window. Disable the desktop shortcut if you desire. Click on Finish.

Click on the Key button in the Server section and import the file Q:\eng\ece\NXWin\share\keys\default.id_dsa.key

Click Save then Ok and then Yes to save the configuration.

The first time a connection is made to a server click on Yes to accept the server security key when it's offered. This certificate ensures that future connections are to the same server. If a different computer tries to impersonate a server the user will be presented with a warning effectively saying that the security certificate is different. You should never continue if you get such a warning - unless it is because the ECE server has been re-installed or upgraded.

Notes

1. Once logged into ECELinux4 one should use ssh -X ecelinuxN where "N" is one of 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 .. 11. ECELinux6 .. 11 are in E5-5038 for student use. The primary computing servers are eceLinux1, eceLinux2 and eceLinux3.
2. We expect that we will change the client key certificate yearly for security.
3. One can also use a Desktop Knome session, but this should be avoided as it is both memory and process hungry (49 processes vs 17 for a rootless custom window)

Using NX Client

ECELinux4.uwaterloo.ca is a portal machine - a machine used to gain access to servers, not a server to use. After connecting to ECELinux4 one can ssh to the destination server using: ssh -X Destination_Server.uwaterloo.ca

To open multiple command windows use: xterm &. The & means to run the new xterm window in the background.

Server Configuration

The ECE Dept. is using the NoMachine NX Enterprise software.

http://www.NoMachine.com provides a commerical NX server.

FreeNX from http://freenx.berlios.de/ was tested in Winter 2011 but proved to be problematic.

Problems

• Cadence Wavescan plotter problem Sept 2012

  I am using an NX session for Cadence to design with the cmosp18 architecture and I have run into several issues running the wavescan plotter (I am aware I could just set my plotter to AWD in the analogue environment but wavescan seems to have a lot more features and is a bit easier to use)

  Initially I found that I was unable to run the wavescan plotter as awd.exe was unable to find the libraries in /CMC/lib/sl3_32bit. I was able to get a little farther by using LD_PRELOAD and see the splashscreen but then the program seg faulted. The wierd thing is that an ldd on awd.exe shows a reference to libXext in this directory.

  I attempted to run wavescan then on ecelinux3 (ssh from within the NX session on ecelinux4) and found that it was failing because it was unable to allocate enough memory for the java virtual machine. After going through the wavescan script and doing some research online I found that if I set the CDS_WAVESCAN_MAXHEAP environment variable to 128M, I was able to get the wavescan plotter to work (on ecelinux3 but it still segfaults on ecelinux4) [Note ECELinux4 is CentOS 6 and ECELinux1..3 are Centos 5 and the JVM has different limits on memory use].

  The delay of X11 forwarding from the NX session is negligible so I don't mind having to take this extra step. I just wanted to point these issues out so in the future others could possibly avoid the same headache I had to go through if they prefer to use WaveScan over ADW as well.

  
  Alex S.
• NoMachine - Login Fail July 2012 - Users who have successfully used the system suddenly find themselves unable to log in. This is often the result of running out of disk space. Users can check their quota with "quota -v" and then use the "du -sh *" command to find which directories are using disk space. Often .Trash and the .mozilla directory are large. ECE 327 users also leave large files behind if they don't run "uw-clean" after they're done a lab. Crash files can also take a large amount of disk space.
• NoMachine April 2012 - Each user using NX seems to create around 50 processes. The server runs around 1,000 processes with 8 (active and INACTIVE) NX users!
• Hung NoMachine NX Client using FreeNX
  

  After entering your password the NoMachine client will hang - not giving any information about trying to log in. This seems to crash Windows XP with it. The only solution is to close everything and log off and log back in.

• Black Screen using FreeNX
  

  Some users get a black screen after authentication. The server does not log any errors. Try this (it didn't work for the only user tried):
  

  Log in via Putty or ssh only and run the command:
  rm -rf .nx

Usage Instructions

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