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CONTACTUsing Cygwin to connect to LAWR Linux/Unix Systems
This is a brief guide on how to set up Cygwin on your PC so you can have graphical access to Linux/UNIX systems from any computer running windows. If you need help with graphical access from a Macintosh, please email LAWR IT staff.
1. First, download this: http://cygwin.com/setup.exe
2. Run setup.exe by double clicking on it. You should shortly see a screen like this:
3. Select "Install from Internet" and then click next:
4. Now select where you would like to install the software. The default is fine, but you are welcome to put it somewhere else. Then click Next:
5. The defaults for this page are fine as well, just click Next.
6. Again, just click Next:
7. Select a good mirror to download the software from. ftp://mirrors.kernel.org is a good choice:
8. Ok, here's the important part. Ensure that both the Net and X11 categories are set to install. You do this by clicking on the text to the right of the category:
9. After it has finished downloading and installing all packages, uncheck the create an icon on the desktop box; we'll add a better icon later. Click finish:
10. Now, browse to the directory using windows explorer which you installed cygwin into. If you chose the default, C:\Cygwin is where you'll want to go.
11. Now you should have an icon on your desktop which you can use to open a terminal. Once you've done that, you can simply interact with your PC like you would a unix machine. For example. To ssh into a remote host, simply type:
ssh -X username@host
Thats it, you're done.
2. Run setup.exe by double clicking on it. You should shortly see a screen like this:
3. Select "Install from Internet" and then click next:
4. Now select where you would like to install the software. The default is fine, but you are welcome to put it somewhere else. Then click Next:
5. The defaults for this page are fine as well, just click Next.
6. Again, just click Next:
7. Select a good mirror to download the software from. ftp://mirrors.kernel.org is a good choice:
8. Ok, here's the important part. Ensure that both the Net and X11 categories are set to install. You do this by clicking on the text to the right of the category:
9. After it has finished downloading and installing all packages, uncheck the create an icon on the desktop box; we'll add a better icon later. Click finish:
10. Now, browse to the directory using windows explorer which you installed cygwin into. If you chose the default, C:\Cygwin is where you'll want to go.
- Double click on the directory usr;
- Double click on the directory X11R6;
- Double click on the directory bin;
- Find the file named 'startxwin' or 'startxwin.bat';
- Right click on it and select Send
To -> Desktop (create shortcut).
11. Now you should have an icon on your desktop which you can use to open a terminal. Once you've done that, you can simply interact with your PC like you would a unix machine. For example. To ssh into a remote host, simply type:
ssh -X username@host
Thats it, you're done.