X2Go

X2Go

X2Go [1] is an open source terminal server project providing remote access to your desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux etc) and applications.

Important Notes

• • It is recommended to click on "power" icon on X2Go client window to properly turn off the session. Don't just close it.

  • The suspend button helps you to suspend the session. Even if you close your PC and open it from another PC or another location, you can resume your session. If you are frequently suspending and resuming your X2Go sessions, it would be suggested to specify the server (e.g  hpc8 rather than Pioneer), as the host rather than forwarder (e.g. pioneer) so that you will always be getting the same server.

  • Interactive job in the visual head node should be limited to single processor and/or short multiprocessor jobs if necessary. It is still recommended to do interactive job submission once you are in the visual head nodes.

    • srun --x11 --pty bash 

Installation

Choose the appropriate X2Go client for your desktop/workstation from the link below and install the client. 

Different Operating Systems are supported: Windows, Mac,  and Linux.

X2Go Client Download Location for all Operating Systems 

(Note: Mac computers would need  XQuartz installed as well)

RHEL Linux Client specific installation information

Subscribe to the repos:

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-workstation-extras-rpms --enable rhel-7-workstation-optional-rpms

Then proceed

yum install x2goclient

X2Go Session

For Windows and Mac:

Open x2goclient by clicking on the icon

You will see the X2Go Window for a session

For Linux:

Type:

x2goclient &

(Note: Need to have X-Forwarding enabled)

Configuration

Do the following in the session Menu of the new session:

Session tab:

• Session Name: choose the name e.g. pioneer

  • Under Server: host: pioneer.case.edu

  • login: <CaseID>

• Session Type: You can choose three flavors - KDE (default), GNOME, Xfce, Mate (Note: Switch the flavor in case of the failure;

  • KDE. Users need to load StdEnv module using "module load StdEnv".

Connection tab:

• • Connection Speed -> bring the slider to LAN

Input/Output tab:

• • Set the custom display size (default is 800X600)

Media tab:

• • Unselect "Enable sound support"  and then "Client side printing support"

Click OK to save the settings

IN CASE the session is already created, you can manage it

• • On the X2Go Client window, click on Session -> Session Mgmt -> select your session e.g. hpctransfer -> Session Preferences

On th X2Go Client window, click on Options Menu -> Settings  

• • Under Printing tab, choose "View as PDF"

  • Under Pulseaudio settings, check the box "disable audio input"

Click OK

Note: You need to change the option settings ONLY one time.

Logging In

• • Find your session on the right of X2Go session window and click it to get the prompt to enter the password. You can also change few settings from this session block as well.

  • Press Yes, if prompted for "Server is unknown ..."  and see the Running status

  • If you get any warning just cancel it.

  • You can right click on the desktop window and open the terminal (e.g. for KDE, right click and then select Konsole).

(Imp) In the terminal, you may need to load the StdEnv module:

module load StdEnv

Performance Test

Test Matlab and other visualization Software in HPC Software Guide.

Want to Keep your session Alive ?

Click on the suspend button which helps you to suspend the session. Now, you can close your PC and open it from another PC or from other locations. You just need to logged in via X2Go selecting that session.

Note: Please make sure to include the same host (e.g. hpc8, or hpc6 for Markov) when you are opening the session from another computer. The host pioneer.case.edu can direct you to different nodes.

Troubleshooting

Issue: A session is established, but keyboard mapping is badly wrong or encountered other x2Go connection issues

Solution: Try one or more of these steps:

1. Delete the cached directories (e.g. ~/.kde/), ~/.x2go and others x2go related cached from the cluster and ~/.x2goclient/ from your PC. 2. Switch flavors - KDE (default), GNOME, MATE, and Xfce. 

3. Make sure that your ~/.bashrc file doesn't have personalized environments. Create personalized modules instead - https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/hpcc/hpc-tutorials/user-modules. 

4. Try killing all your processes from login nodes (e.g. hpc8) issuing the following command:

kill -9 `ps -ef | grep <caseID> | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`

(Note: This will delete all the processes in the login nodes)

Contact us at hpc-supportATcase.edu

References:

[1] X2GoHome: 

[2] Download & Install