A CD based on Cygwin for X Windows forwarding via ssh

This CD can be used by Microsoft Windows users to run X Windows, use ssh to connect to remote Unix systems and to run remote X applications that display on their workstations. Software on the CD can be run from the CD and does not need to be installed.

The CD contains the Cygwin environment for Windows, the Cygwin port of the X.org Foundation's X server, and some additional software. All software packages on the CD have open source licenses. Many software packages are included, and the licenses for most are the GNU General Public License (GPL) or X11-style copyrights. The Cygwin libraries and most packages are under the GPL. The X server is under an X11-style license. Scripts written for XLiveCD are under the GPL, and documentation for XLiveCD is under the Open Publication License. Information for specific packages is on the CD in the directory \livecd\licenses. General licensing information for Cygwin is available from http://cygwin.com/licensing.html.

XLiveCD was developed by University Information Technology Services at Indiana University to facilitate use of Unix systems by Windows users on campus. Briefly, many researchers use Microsoft Windows and may be interested in using X Windows applications on central Unix systems. Initially, researchers typically want to evaluate applications. Before the advent of this CD, researchers either found a Unix machine somewhere that was running X windows, purchased an X server for Windows just to try some application, or figured out how to install Cygwin and and an X server. This CD offers the alternative of popping the CD in the drive, having X windows start, typing in the ssh command to connect to a remote machine, and running X applications as if nothing special is happening.

Requirements and known issues

System	Minimum Recommended Memory
Win XP SP2	512 MB
Win XP SP1, 2000, NT	256 MB
Win 98, Me	128 MB

Use of XLiveCD on computers on which Cygwin is installed is not recommended.

To start X Windows:

Windows XP/2000/NT computers

1. When the CD is inserted, a wizard should appear and offer to run X.


2. If a wizard does not appear, use the file system browser to open the CD, and then double-click on the file run.bat to start the wizard. Alternatively, to dispense with the wizard and start X, just double-click on X.bat.

Windows 98/ME computers

1. When the CD is inserted, a wizard should appear and offer to run X.


2. If a file system browser does not appear, click My Computer -> icon for the CD drive to open a file system browser.


3. Double-click on run.bat to launch the wizard. To skip the wizard, double-click on X.bat.


4. Note that some Windows 9X/ME computers are very slow to start X windows and very slow to exit X windows.

Using X Windows

• After X Windows has been started, a new window will open up and display a command prompt. It may take a while for the window to appear (e.g., 1 min on a Pentium 450 MHz, 128 MB memory, slow CD-ROM and Windows XP).


• The command prompts in the windows are for running Unix commands on the windows workstation (Cygwin commands). The current directory is the user's desktop. The Cygwin home directory is the user's desktop.


• From the windows ssh can be run to connect to remote machines. For example, if user hoagyc has an authorized account on steel the command is:
  

  	ssh hoagyc@steel.ucs.indiana.edu
  	

  Replace the user name and host name with appropriate values. Ssh will ask that the identifying key of the remote computer be accepted and prompt for a password. When the command prompt appears everything is ready.


• While an ssh connection remains established, X applications that are run on the remote computer will be displayed on the Windows computer.


• More X terminal windows can be launched by clicking on the "New Xterm" shortcut on the desktop. (The shortcut will be removed when X Windows is shut down.)
• To shut down X Windows after having logged off of remote machines, right-click the X icon in the applications section of the task bar (usually right-hand side) and select Exit.

More information

• Copy and paste with X Windows.
• Editing plain text files.
• Converting plain text files between DOS/Windows format and Unix format.
• Transferring files.
• Forwarding X applications using the SSH Secure Shell client from ssh.com.

• How to use XLiveCD on systems on which Cygwin is installed.
• History of changes to XLiveCD.
• Description of how Cygwin packages have been modified to be run from the CD-ROM.
• X and Cygwin packages can be installed on to your computer from the CD-ROM.
• Cygwin home page, includes links to documentation.

Documentation copyright and license

Copyright (C) 2004 by The Trustees of Indiana University. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/). Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.