Help:Xming

XMing is a port of the X Windows System to the Windows operating system. It allows anyone using Windows to connect to an X server directly or using SSH tunneling.

Software homepage

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming

Software availability

free software for windows

Other related software

list in Help:Remote X Terminals

Help:SSH tunneling for X

xrdp

FreeNX / Nomachine

mobaxterm

View online documentation

http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Xming

Location of example files

\\carnot\msdos\xming\biot.xlaunch

Installation

To install XMing first you must download the latest release. If using a computer in the engineering building you can access it at

\\carnot\msdos\xming\

or download from the software website listed above.

You should install one of the xming versions and probably the fonts.

Then go through all the dialog boxes (defaults are fine in most cases) and thats it!

Connecting to a server

XMing provides four different window types for displaying windows.

Multiple Windows

This mode gives each window on the X server it's own windows in the Windows operating system. This system is ideal for connecting to a server through SSH tunneling and if you don't want XMing taking up extra screen space.

Full-Screen

This mode creates a full-screen window where all of the X windows are contained in. This mode is ideal if you wish to display your desktop from the X server on your screen. In this mode you can alt-tab to return to windows and abruptly close the session by holding down <ctrl + shift + backspace>

One Window

similar to Full-Screen but it is in a window that is smaller then the resolution of the screen

One Window without title-bar

Same as one window but does not have the windows title bar on it.

You can connect to the server via several methods including:

X via XDMCP query

This is the easiest and gives you a complete session, but only works on the internal engineering network

X via automatic ssh tunneling

This works for any machine you can get ssh access to

X via manual ssh tunneling

This is the same as ssh tunneling above, except that you manually set up the tunnel and log in.

X via XDMCP query

If you are on campus and wish to access Biot, run

\\carnot\msdos\xming\biot.xlaunch

This will open a full screen session to Biot.

If you wish to open a full screen session to another server (or biot while off campus)

• go to Start->Programs->Xming->Xlaunch.
• Select full-screen mode and click next.
• Click "Open session via XDMCP" and click next.
• Select "Connect to host" and enter the hostname. Then click next.
• Click next two times then click finish. The full-screen session should open. If you get a grey screen with no windows or the login prompt never appears, try the next method.

X via automatic ssh tunneling

Note: this method seems to fail with Xming 6.9.0.31 and Windows Vista.

If you wish to use ssh and Xming (when outside of engineering, or when the above fails):

• use xlaunch to start xming and putty. Either copy the config file \\carnot\msdos\xming\biot-putty.xlaunch [1] or create it using xlaunch:
  1. Go to Start->Programs->Xming->Xlaunch
  2. select Multiple windows
  3. select Start a program
  4. select Using PuTTY and in Connect to computer enter the server (such as biot.mmae.ucf.edu)
  5. Either make sure you install the xming additional fonts, or (for on campus use only), in Remote font server enter biot.mmae.ucf.edu
  6. save this configuration as biot-putty.xlaunch or similar (unless you want to redo all these steps next time)

1. Once logged in just run the graphical application that you wish to use, or start a session manager (like gnome-session )

X via manual ssh tunneling

If you wish to SSH to tunnel the X Windows using Putty and run putty by hand (older instructions):

1. Go to Start->Programs->Xming->XMing. This will automatically run XMing in multiple windows mode.
2. Open Putty.
3. In putty go to the menu on the left and click on Tunnels (under the SSH category)
4. Check the checkbox that says "Enable X11 forwarding."
5. Click on the Session category on the left menu.
6. Enter the hostname or IP in the text box and click open.
7. Once logged in just run the graphical application that you wish to use, or start a session manager (like gnome-session )

Using Xming with I-Deas and other CAD software

Xming does not support OpenGL correctly for most CAD programs. You may need to tell the program to not use openGL to make it work. Known workarounds are:

• I-DEAS : ideas -d x3d
• Fluent : fluent --display x11
• Gambit (see above): gambit -dev X11

Other applications may or may not work.

Problems with I-DEAS

If you get an error like this:

Messages logged in error29957.out.

examine the error file (e.g., cat error29957.out) and see if one of the following errors is in the file:

Error Can't open display

This means that xming was not correctly started, or only putty was used (without Xming) or X11 tunneling was not enabled in putty or ssh. (ssh -X option enables tunneling)

This run of I-DEAS has ABNORMALLY ended. (Application Abort)

Most likely, your system does not correctly support OpenGL. You can tell I-DEAS to not use opengl by typing ideas -d x3d

Warning Cannot convert string "-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct

I-DEAS was unable to find the fonts necessary to draw its windows. Either download and install the Xming fonts, configure the font server with xlaunch (see above), or add biot as a font server (only on campus):

xset fp+ tcp/biot.mmae.ucf.edu:7100