GUI Programs

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HiPerGator 2.0 documentation

Upstream Xpra Documentation

Step 1: Client Installation

Xpra client installation depends on what operating system is running on your local machine.

Linux

The recommended option is to use the distribution specific packages if possible:

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get install xpra

CentOS/RHEL

sudo su -
rpm --import https://winswitch.org/gpg.asc
cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
curl -O https://winswitch.org/downloads/CentOS/winswitch.repo
yum install xpra

Windows

XP and Newer

Download and install MS Windows files: from https://xpra.org/, Installer file can be found at https://xpra.org/dists/windows/Xpra_Setup.exe. Note that installation will require an account with Admin privileges.

MAC OS

OS X 10.5 and Newer

Download and install MAC installer files: from https://xpra.org/, Installer file can be found at https://xpra.org/dists/osx/x86/Xpra.dmg. Note that installation will require an account with Admin privileges.

Step 2: Starting your application on HiPerGator

The simplest way to start a GUI application session on HiPerGator is to use the wrapper scripts in a job script. For example, a SLURM job script can have the following commands below the '#SBATCH' section to start the emacs editor GUI under Xpra inside the job: 

module load gui
xpra_start emacs

Some applications, like matlab and rstudio need more care to be started under Xpra. For them, we have additional wrappers like xpra_start_matlab or xpra_start_rstudio.

See Matlab GUI job script for an example or look inside the $HPC_GUI_JOB directory once the gui module is loaded.

There are other Xpra wrapper scripts. For example, 

xpra_list_sessions

will refresh the Xpra session list and provide a convenient list of live Xpra sessions as well as commands that can be copied and pasted into a terminal on the client machine.

Example
$ module add gui
$ xpra_list_sessions

Output: 

Refreshing the session list for jdoe to remove stale sessions

Re-probing existing xpra sessions for jdoe:
Found the following xpra sessions:
/home/jdoe/.xpra:
        LIVE session at :2647
        LIVE session at :5727

Xpra session status for jdoe have been refreshed.

Xpra sessions for jdoe:
    i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:2647
        Connection command: xpra attach ssh:jdoe@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:2647
    i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:5727
        Connection command: xpra attach ssh:jdoe@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:5727

You can use the connection commands posted in the output on your client machine as described elsewhere in this document.

See the respective application pages for details and sample job scripts e.g. Matlab.

Step 3: Connect to Xpra Session from the client side

Linux:

Xpra is typically automatically added to your path during installation, so you can connect to your running xpra instance using the following syntax where $USERNAME is your UF GatorLink user-name, $SERVERNAME is the server where your application is running inside xpra, and $PORT is the X11 port you assigned when you started your application. 

xpra attach ssh:$USERNAME@$SERVERNAME:$PORT

As an example: 

testuser@jr-physics:~$ xpra attach ssh:testuser@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:143 --desktop-scaling=on --dpi=96
MatLab running via Xpra under slurm
Please note, if you use the xpra_list_sessions command in the GUI module on HPG2, then it will generate these connection commands for you to be able to copy and paste. In addition, if you close the window using the close button, this will exit your application just like a native application. If you want to simply detach the session and come back later, please follow the detaching xpra session instructions below

MAC OS:

Navigate to the folder that contains the xpra executable: 

cd /Applications/Xpra.app/Contents/MacOS

Alternatively, create the following shell script, name it 'xpra', put it into a directory in your $PATH, make it executable, and run xpra through it with the 'xpra' command instead of going into /Applications... each time: 

#!/bin/bash
cd /Applications/Xpra.app/Contents/MacOS/
./Xpra "$@"

Download the [{{#fileLink: x[ra}} xpra macos script]. {{#fileAnchor: xpra}} 

#!/bin/bash
cd /Applications/Xpra.app/Contents/MacOS/
./Xpra "$@"

Second, connect to your running xpra instance using the following syntax where $USERNAME is your GatorLink user-name, $SERVERNAME is the server where your application is running inside xpra, and $PORT is the X11 port you assigned when you started your application. 

./Xpra attach ssh:$USERNAME@$SERVERNAME:$PORT

Example: 

./Xpra attach ssh:test-user@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:143 --desktop-scaling=on --dpi=96
Please note, if you use the xpra_list_sessions command in the GUI module on HPG2, then it will generate these connection commands for you to be able to copy and paste. In addition, if you close the window using the close button, this will exit your application just like a native application. If you want to simply detach the session and come back later, please follow the detaching xpra session instructions below

Microsoft Windows

First, navigate to the install location of xpra (normally C:\Program Files (x86)\Xpra\).

In MobaXterm
cd /drives/c/Progam\ Files\ \(x86\)/Xpra/

Second, connect to your running xpra instance using the following syntax where $USERNAME is your GatorLink user-name, $SERVERNAME is the server where your application is running inside xpra, and $PORT is the X11 port you assigned when you started your application. 

./xpra attach ssh:$USERNAME@$SERVERNAME:$PORT
Example
 ./xpra attach ssh:testuser@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:143 --desktop-scaling=on --dpi=96
MatLab running via Xpra under slurm
Please note, if you use the xpra_list_sessions command in the GUI module on HPG2, then it will generate these connection commands for you to be able to copy and paste.
NOTE
If you close the window using the close button, this will exit your application just like a native application. If you want to simply detach the session and come back later, please follow the detaching xpra session instructions below

Step 4: Detaching Xpra Session

These instructions allow you to detach a running xpra client without closing the application.

Linux and MAC OS

In the original terminal where you activated the client, simply press Control-C to detach the session. 

2016-04-06 15:18:17,173 Attached to ssh:testuser@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:143 (press Control-C to detach)
^C
got signal SIGINT, exiting
2016-04-06 15:18:42,513 Connection lost

You can re-attach to the running application using the xpra attach command as described in the instructions above.

Windows

  • Start a new console and navigate to the xpra directory as shown above.
  • Run the following command where $USERNAME is your UF GatorLink user-name, $SERVERNAME is the server where your application is running inside xpra, and $PORT is the X11 port you assigned when you started your application.
./xpra detach ssh:$USERNAME@$SERVERNAME:$PORT
Example
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Xpra"
./xpra detach ssh:testuser@i21a-s3.rc.ufl.edu:143
Note
If you are using mobaXterm, you can press Control-C in the mobaXterm window to detach, just like using the Linux client.
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