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The production SLAC FastX service is available at: https://fastx.slac.stanford.edu:3443

FastX is a modern solution for displaying remote Linux applications (X Clients) on your desktop or laptop.  FastX gives you the option of using any standard web browser to connect to your remote Linux sessions.   Additional information can be found hereon the StarNet web page: https://www.starnet.com/fastx/ .

You can connect FastX works well with Wide Area Network connections from offsite (non-SLAC network). networks), and it can also be used on SLAC Local Area Networks.

The SLAC FastX production service , which is now available, is implemented on a cluster of VMs for redundancy, performance, and horizontal scale-out capability.  

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The easiest way to use FastX is through the your Web browser.  All modern browsers are supported, including Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and IE 10+.

1. Go to this URL:
         https://fastx.slac.stanford.edu:3443
   
   
2.  Log in with your SLAC Unix username and password. 
   
   
3. Do not check the Public Key Authentication option – that will not work well since it will not give you an AFS token.
   
   

4. To start a new session, click on the plus box: 

   
   
   

5. Inside the command box, type a ssh command like the following.you can start an xterm window and connect to a SLAC interactive login pool machine like this:

      xterm -e ssh rhel6-64.slac.stanford.edu

   You can replace rhel6-64 with the hostname of your own group's interactive login machine if you have one.

6. When your xterm session starts, you may wish to start a lightweight window manager so you can resize and move windows around inside your browser window.
   To do that, type these two commands inside your xterm window:

      twm &
      xsetroot -solid grey

   The xsetroot command just makes your desktop background a more pleasing color.
   Starting a lightweight window manager is not required, but it's necessary if you want to move and resize your X Clients inside your browser window.

7. Now you can start your linux Linux X applications by typing the commands inside your xterm window.
   For example:

      gimp &
      firefox &
      /afs/slac/package/anaconda/anaconda3/bin/spyder &
   
   

8. As always, your SLAC Unix AFS token needs to be renewed every 25 hours.   If your AFS token expires, then you will not be able to write files into your AFS home directory.
   When you reconnect to your session later, typing this command in an xterm window will tell you if you have an AFS token:

      /usr/local/bin/qtoken

   If your AFS token expired, you can get a new one with this command:

      /usr/local/bin/kinit

    

   
   

    

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