Xming

Introduction

Both ChomboVis and VisIt make use of the OpenGL graphics libraries. Unfortunately, the Exceed X-Windows server that you are likely to have installed on you PC cannot handle OpenGL. There is another version of Exceed, called Exceed 3D, but to use it, we would require an additional license. Alternatively, there is an open-source X-server called Xming which we can use and which does handle applications using OpenGL.

PCs and Administrator Access

You should not routinely use your PC with an account that has administrator rights as it is a sever security risk. See:

• http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/security/protectcomp/owncomp/adminrights.html

You will need to have administrator access to follow the installation below. If you need any help, contact Gethin.

Installation

You can download the files you need from:

• http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming

You will need to download:

• Xming-mesa
• Xming-fonts

and optionally (although it Xming will work with the SSH Secure Shell from SSH Communications Security Corp that you may well already have installed on your PC):

• Xming-portable-PuTTy

All are simple to install.

You must enable X11 forwarding in your SSH client:

• If you have elected to install PuTTy, expand the SSH tree from the LHS of the startup window and click on X11.
• For SSH Secure Shell, go to Edit->Settings and then Profile Settings->Connections->Tunneling

Use

You can then connect to, e.g., dartagnan and both ChomboVis and VisIt will render on your windows display.