Step 1

Open the SSH terminal on your system.

Log into users.ncl.sg with your username using the command "ssh [username]@users.ncl.sg"

eg. "ssh ncl@users.ncl.sg"

The password is the same as the one you use to log into here.

Step 2

Log into your experiment node from users.ncl.sg using the command "ssh [quantified_name]"

eg. "ssh n0.demo.testbed-ncl.ncl.sg"

Use the same password as above if prompted.

Step 3

Install deskstop and VNC server using the following commands:

1. sudo apt-get update
2. sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies vnc4server

Step 4

Start and configure the VNC server using the command "vncserver".

Enter and verify a 8-character password for the desktop to access.

Step 5

Verify that VNC server is started and is listening to port 5901 using the command "netstat -pant | grep 'vnc'".

Step 6 (optional)

Reconfigure the VNC server.

Stop the VNC server by killing the VNC process, using the command "vncserver -kill :1".

Update the ".vnc/xstartup" file with the following lines:

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
startxfce4 &

Start the VNC server using the command "vncserver :1".

Step 7

Open another SSH terminal window on your local system.

Set up port forwarding from your local system to your node via users.ncl.sg, using the command "ssh -L [local_port]:[node_address]:[node_port] [username]@users.ncl.sg".

eg. "ssh -L 5901:n0.demo.testbed-ncl.ncl.sg:5901 ncl@users.ncl.sg"

Step 8

Open your VNC client (eg. VNC Viewer) and connect to "localhost:[local_port]", which is 5901 in our example above.

Log in using the password set in Step 4.