GUI access to the VMs

There is a graphical “console” integrated into the web interface, but non-US keyboard mapping are not working as expected, see this issue on noVNC page. So this method can’t be supported, and will probably be disabled in the future.

This page is about an alternate and manual configuration for accessing the Virtual machines. Please have a look at our pacakged tools before continuing.

VNC versus X11 forwarding

	VNC	X11 forwarding
Display	Full remote desktop	Single application
OpenGL	-	possible

VNC

First of all you need a working ssh connection

On the VM

The required software is already installed and configured in recent images (starting with 2015.02). For older images it is possible to configure the VNC server using the following procedure:

1. Install x11vnc : sudo apt-get install x11vnc
2. Create the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/00_x11vnc containing the following : x11vnc -auth guess -listen localhost -rfbport 5900 -forever -alwaysshared &
3. Restart lightdm : “sudo restart lightdm”

On your machine :

1. Forward the VNC display to your machine : ssh-hades cluster@VM_IP_ADDRESS -L 11234:localhost:5900 -N &
2. Open the display with your favorite client : vinagre localhost:11234 VM_IP_ADDRESS can be found on the web interface : > Compute > Instance , in the “IP Address” column

X11 forwarding for Windows

1. Install our tools
2. Install VcXsrv
3. Run VcXSrv
4. Conntect to your machine using the hadesssh:// link.
5. Test using xclock

X11 Forwarding for Linux

Install our tools, then ssh-hades cluster@VM_IP_ADDRESS -X. Applications started from this ssh shell will be run remotely and will be displayed locally.

If you don’t need the remote shell : ssh-hades cluster@VM_IP_ADDRESS -X command

VM_IP_ADDRESS can be found on the web interface : > Compute > Instance , in the “IP Address” column