useVNC

Download the VNC client software.

1. Go to http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi?product=enterprise4
2. Select the appropriate client for your system (linux / mac / windows, x86 or 64bit)
3. Download the file. It does not need to install; it is a stand-alone executable.

Start an instance of the VNC server on mindhive

1. Connect to mindhive (ba3) using ssh through a terminal. On linux, this can be a gnome-terminal, or xterm on a mac. On Windows, you will need to download terminal emulator like PuTTY http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
2. At the command prompt, type: vncserver
3. You will see the following text, which confirms your VNC session is active:

VNC® Server Enterprise Edition E4.5.4 (r41964) - built Jun 14 2010 09:46:36
Copyright (C) 2002-2010 RealVNC Ltd.
VNC is a registered trademark of RealVNC Ltd. in the U.S. and in other countries.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
Running applications in /users/YourUsername/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /users/YourUsername/.vnc/ba3:32.log
New desktop is ba3:1 (18.x.x.x:1)`

• The last line gives you your VNC session. In this example, it is ba3:1.
• To connect to your VNC session, open the vnc client software on your computer, and input "ba3.mit.edu:1" as the VNC Server address.

Ending a VNC session

1. Typically, you will want to keep your VNC session running even when you are not connected. Just close the window or press the 'disconnect' button. Then you can reconnect to the same session later.
2. If you want to end a session permanently, connect to the same node where the session is running (ba3 in the example above), and type: vncserver -kill :1 Remember to change ":1" to the unique desktop associated with your server.

Do I have any VNC sessions running already?

1. From your terminal window, connect to mindhive via ssh.
2. Type the following: ls ~/.vnc/
3. Any file returned ending in .pid is a VNC session.
4. Rather than start a new VNC session, just connect to an old one that is already running.
5. Some of these sessions might be old. If you cannot connect to them, then delete the .pid file.