We offer VNC support for the HACC-mlcluster development VM (unlike HACC). This means you can do GUI-based development. However, getting a GUI working will require several steps.
- Locally, you must install TigerVNCViewer. TigerVNC can be found at this website https://tigervnc.org/.
- SSH into the development VM.
- Open ~/.vnc/xstartup in your favorite text editor.
Paste the following into that file (overwriting any existing contents)#!/bin/sh # Start xfce-4 Desktop [ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup [ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources vncconfig -iconic & dbus-launch --exit-with-session xfce4-session & xhost +
- In the terminal, type
vncserver
Create a secure password for your VNC sessions. Note: If you do not password protect your VNC sessions, other users may be able to access your sessions! The view-only password is less important and is optional. - You should receive a message telling you that a VNC session has been created. You will also be told what port that session is on. It will be in the format of a colon followed by the port number (e.g. :5). Write down or remember this port number. If you forget the port number, you can type
vncserver –list
to see your active sessions. Note: these sessions may close or crash. If so, you can start another by repeating step 4 (you won’t need to set the password again). - Exit your SSH session.
- SSH back into the node, but this time add the following argument:
-L <port_number>:127.0.0.1:<port_number>
Where <port_number> is the value you got in step 5.
For example,
ssh fakeuser@10.0.69.26 -L 5905:127.0.0.1:5905
This creates a secure, encrypted tunnel which enhances the security of your VNC connection. - Open up TigerVNCViewer and type the following into the VNC server field, and then press connect.
<port_number>:127.0.0.1:<port_number> - Enter your VNC password.
- Viola! It should work now.