EEL 6323    Spring 2005    UF
Remote Setup

These are step-by-step instructions on how to setup a remote connection so that you can use Cadence on a Windows PC (either at home or on campus).  The following discussion assumes you are on a machine running some flavor of Microsoft Windows and that the freeware X server package Cygwin is installed.  Cygwin can be downloaded here if necessary (be sure to select all the X11 components when running setup).  It also assumes you have a UF ECEL account.  You can activate/reset your account in the 2nd floor NEB computer lab.

Directions

  1. ***NOTE: If you are at home and working behind a router, you will need to setup Port Forwarding services on your router before continuing.  You will need to forward traffic on port 6000 to your local IP address.  The X Display System uses port 6000 to communicate display information.  Consult your router documentation on how to setup port forwarding.  Most routers have a webpage login interface (usually http://192.168.0.1) which you can use to configure the router.  To determine the LOCAL IP address of your machine, use ipconfig/winipcfg (see Step 5 for more information on IP addresses).
  2. Launch the Cygwin Bash Shell.
  3. Type startxwin.sh in the shell window to launch the X server.
  4. Type xhost + in the shell window.  This allows other applications (e.g. Cadence) to connect to your X server (ordinarily applications running on remote machines would be blocked from connecting to your machine).
  5. Obtain the public IP address of the machine you are on.  The right way to do this will depend on your specific setup.  Use the case below that best describes your situation.  When ipconfig/winipcfg is mentioned below, it means that Windows NT/2000/XP users should use ipconfig and Windows 95/98/ME users should use winipcfg.  The ipconfig command can be typed directly into the Bash Shell window.  To run winipcfg, click on the Start menu, select Run and enter winipcfg.
    If you are using the UF VPN service (either from home or on campus), use ipconfig/winipcfg and take the IP address that is listed for the ufl.edu connection-specific DNS suffix (10.228.XXX.XXX).
    If you are on a campus PC, use ipconfig/winipcfg and take the IP address listed (hopefully there is only one).
    If you are at home and NOT using UF VPN, goto http://www.whatismyip.com, and use the IP address given.  (NOTE: you could also use ipconfig/winipcfg for this case UNLESS you are behind a router.  If you are behind a router, ipconfig/winipcfg will give you your LOCAL IP address assigned by the router which is not the one we want for this step.)
  6. Log into the ECEL server pool by typing ssh login@toons.ecel.ufl.edu in your shell window where login is your ECEL account login.  Enter your password and hit Enter when prompted.
  7. Setup your display so that applications running on toons will display on your local PC.  Do this by typing export DISPLAY=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:0.0 where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the public IP address you obtained in Step 5.
  8. Now you should be able to run any X application (i.e. any Unix application) remotely!  In particular, Cadence, Matlab, etc.  A good way of testing your setup is to type xterm & in your shell window.  This will attempt to launch a new terminal window (called an X terminal) in a separate window.  If your remote setup is working, a window will appear on your desktop.  If there are any problems, the window will fail to appear and some sort of failure message may print out in your shell (like Can't open display or X Display Initialization Failure, etc.).

NOTE: A final note on remote setup...  Cadence prefers to be run in 8-bit color mode.  If you run Cadence in a higher color resolution (i.e. if your PC is not in 8-bit mode), schematics and layout displays will flicker (from bright to dim) endlessly which can get annoying over time.  To fix, you can set your PC color depth to 8-bit before starting Cygwin (through your PC's Display Properties).  If you are a little more savvy, you can consider running Cygwin in full-screen mode.  By default, Cygwin runs in multi-window mode (as specified in the startxwin.sh script) and the X server automatically inherits the color depth of the native machine (i.e. if your PC is running 24-bit color, then the X server becomes 24-bit).  When using the X server in full-screen mode, you can specify a different color depth for the server than Windows is using (i.e. you can leave the Display Properties of your PC the same and just have the X server run in 8-bit).  To run in full-screen mode, you will need to use a Window Manager.  Here is a script that launches Cygwin in 8-bit color mode and uses the Ice Window Manager that is available for Cygwin.  You can download it and substitute it for startxwin.sh in the procedure above.  You will also need to download and install the Ice Window Manager here.  (You can still use your Windows applications when running in full-screen mode.  Use Alt-Tab to switch between applications or use the Windows Start key on your keyboard to open the Start menu.  When you're ready to shutdown full-screen mode, close all your Cygwin windows and hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to quit the server.)

Questions/Comments/Corrections?  E-mail cmcglone@ufl.edu.