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FastX is a modern solution for displaying remote linux apps on your desktop or laptop.

You can connect from offsite (non-SLAC network). 

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

Connecting to FastX

Installing the FastX client on your computer is optional.

The easiest way to use FastX is through the browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE 10+ are all supported).

  1. Go to this URL:
          https://fastx.slac.stanford.edu:3443

  2.  Log in with your SLAC Unix username and password. 

  3. Ignore 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.

       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.

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

    For example:

       gimp &
       firefox &

Using the Client application

 

Although not required, you can also download and use the client application for your Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop/laptop.
The FastX client version you use should be the latest available one on the SLAC FastX web login page.
If you previously downloaded a FastX desktop client, please delete it and download the latest version using these instructions:
  1. Go to this URL:

  2. Click on the link that says:       
                     Looking for the desktop client?

  3. After you download and start the desktop client, click the + (plus) icon to configure a new session.

  4. Select "Web" when given the choices of Web or SSH.

    A "Web" session is required for the clustering configuration to work, and also to restore a browser session you already started.  If you select SSH instead of Web, then you may not see all your available sessions – you may only see your sessions that are running on a single FastX server, and not all your sessions running on different servers in the FastX cluster.  Also, you may not be able to reconnect to a session you previously started in a browser connection to FastX.  And if you start a session using the desktop client in SSH mode, you may not be able to reconnect to it inside a browser connection later.

  5. Next to name, type something like:

    slac fastx web

    This can be any name you choose.

  6. Next to URL, type:

    https://fastx.slac.stanford.edu:3443

     

  7. Next to User, type your SLAC Unix username.

  8. You can leave the "Ignore SSL errors" box unchecked.

  9. Click the Save button.

  10. Double click on your new saved session.

  11. You will be prompted for your SLAC Unix password even if you have a Kerberos ticket on your desktop/laptop because this is using https authentication and not ssh.

  12. You can start a new session using the same instructions the the above session for "Connecting to FastX" – click the + (plus) icon.

  13. You can reconnect to one of your already running sessions by double clicking on it under the Name column.   It may take many seconds for your saved session to appear.

  14. You should also see any sessions you already have running that you may have started in a browser connection to FastX.

Protecting your ~/.fastx_server/ directory

Your ~/.fastx_server/ directory contains sensitive information which could expose your X11 connections to others.
This could lead to a compromise of your account, and/or unauthorized keystroke monitoring.  Therefore, please take care
in protecting access to this directory .  The SCS tool "system ranger" will detect and fix any ~/.fastx_server/ directories
in AFS space which are too permissive, and you will get an information email just letting you know it was fixed.  If
necessary, the system ranger will remove the following entries from the Access Control List:

system:anyuser rl
system:slac rl
system:authuser rl

 

 

 

 

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