Sometimes you may want to run applications that are on the linux machines, such as xemacs or matlab remotely on your windows machine, in which case it is nice to be ablt to use the graphics. The XServer we recommend is Cygwin. Click on the 'Install Now' button. The defaults should be fine throught the setup, and it shouldn't matter which site you choose to download from. Note that the default is to install just the base package of Cygwin, so you will need to go through and click the additional packages you want. You will definitely want XFree86:base (will also enable dependent packages) XFree86:fvwm (a more friendly window manager), net:openssh (to enable ssh), a text editor such as editor:nano, and you may want doc:man and text:more and/or less (if you are planning on using cygwin pretty much exclusively for access to remote machines, these might not be necessary). Note that you can go back and install any packages you find you want later on.
Once the intallation is complete, there are a couple of configurations to take care of. The cygwin.bat in the cygwin directory needs to be edited. This can be done in windows if you have a text editor that can read unix files, or it can be done from within cygwin with whichever texteditor you installed.
There is a line that looks like:
bash --login -i
To this line add /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh so it looks like:
bash --login -i /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh
Save the file and exit out of the text editor. You have now set x to start automatically when you login.
Now you need to change the file starxwin.sh to use a decent window manager. This is a unix-type file so you should not use a windows text editor, since it may add extra characters to the file. You can use nano from a terminal to change the file. If you haven't started cygwin yet, do so now. Type 'nano /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh. Btw, completion works, so you can use the tab key to get the path quickly. Page down until you see the lines
# Start the twm window manager. # twm &
Comment out the line 'twm &' (put a # at the front of it). Now add a line 'fvwm2 &' after it. There is a command (XWin...&) in this file, to start the X server, which has additional arguments, by default, that specify a screen resolution, which may or may not be the correct one. If you get rid of these arguments, and leave the command as 'XWin &' the program will pick the appropriate resolution. Ctrl-o saves the file, and Ctrl-x closes nano. Now type exit and quit the application. Now when you click on Cygwin, xwindows should start, and you will no longer be able to see you the windows desktop, so you may want to copy down the following: Left click on the desktop to get a menu. Click on 'setup forms', and you will get a configuration window for fvwm. Check taskbar, and save the configuration. You can also restart fvxm at this point and your window will now have reasonable options, and you will have a little window manager taskbar thing in the corner. You are now ready to go. To connect to a machine type 'ssh -X -l username herbie.shadlen.org' or whichever machine you want to connect to. The -X means that tunneling is on, so now if you type 'xclock &' a graphical clock should show up on your desktop. Have fun.