FastX from StarNet

FastX is the preferred remote Linux X Windows display solution in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. FastX allows users to take advantage of programs that require some sort of graphical interface while they are connected remotely. Because FastX connects via ssh users can be confident that their information is secure. Similar programs are VNC or X-Win32.

Download the Software
Download FastX3 Desktop client direct from the vendor or our repository. We encourage users to get the most recent version of FastX3.

Connecting
ECE provides a cluster of servers that users of FastX are encouraged to connect to. When connecting a user can use ece-gui.ece.local.cmu.edu and they will be connected to a random host in the cluster. Users may also connect to a specific host such as ece-gui-001.ece.local.cmu.edu if they choose to.

When connecting via ece-gui.ece.local.cmu.edu you should make note of the specific host that you are connected to should you need, or want, to reconnect to an existing session.

Specific research groups may also have hosts that their members can connect to.

Best Practices
The ECE-GUI cluster is intended to be a place that the ECE community can connect to when running remote desktops, etc. It is not intended to be used for running simulations or other heavy work load applications. Once connected users should remote into one of the several compute clusters that we have available. (ssh -X -Y ece0xx.ece.local.cmu.edu)

The reason for this distinction is Linux desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, and XFCE tend to use large amounts of memory. Rather than have that memory consumed on a compute node where it can be at a premium it is best to have machines dedicated to that task.

Additional Information
Watch the introduction video (9:46)

More information can be found at StarNet:
FastX Desktop Client - Creating an SSH session