Using VNC for remote image analysis sessions

In order to use the XVista image processing suite, you must connect to the computer iceberg.rit.edu via a special tool called VNC. VNC will allow you to run a remote session from a PC, in which all the graphical output on the remote machine is redirected to your own screen. It's a good, cheap way to run an X Windows client on your PC.

Here's what you need to do in order to start a session.

Run the Tight VNC Viewer on the PC (you can download a copy of the viewer from the Tight VNC website. )

Type the following as the name of the remote session: iceberg.rit.edu:N, where you should replace N with the following value:

       Aggleton     1
       Alford       2
       Brown        3
       Conrad       4
       Crigger      5
       Cutter       6
       Dank         7
       Schwarting   8
       Sprague      9
       (other)     10

Choose the Options item, and set the following:
- custom compression level to 1
- allow JPEG compression level to 1
- allow Copy Rect
- compression method "Tight"
Leave all other options as they are, and return.
Click on "OK" or "Connect".
You will be prompted for a password for the session. Your instructor will give you the password.
At this point, a window should appear on your computer's screen which shows a stippled grey background. If an xterm window appears on the desktop (which should happen if you've logged into a session recently), you are all set. If your screen just shows the grey pattern, you need to do the following:
Left click and hold, to pop up a menu
Continue to hold the left mouse button and select "Debian"
Continue to hold the left mouse button, slide right to pop up menu
Continue to hold the left mouse button and select "XShells"
Continue to hold the left mouse button, slide right to pop up menu
Continue to hold the left mouse button and select "XTerm"
Release the left mouse button -- the outline of a smaller window should appear.
Position the outline as desired by moving the mouse
Left click -- the window should fill in with an "xterm" terminal process
Type propinit

At this point, you should have an "xterm" process running on the grey background. This window contains a "shell" process, running on one of the College of Science computers. All students in the course will share the same account on this computer, called ccd. The computer runs an operating system called Linux.

If you have never used any Linux or Unix system in the past, you may want to read a book or web site which describes the basic shell commands. Here are some possibilities:

LinuxLinks.com collection of material for beginners
Linux tutorial from the Linux Documentation Project
Tutorials on the shell from Linux Planet
- Part one
- Part two
Unix is a four-letter word ...
Learning Linux/Unix tutorial site
List of books for beginners

Each student has his own sub-directory under the home ccd directory. You can see them all by typing the commands

     cd
     ls

You should see something like this:

Items in this listing with a slash character "/" at the end are directories. If I want to go to my own directory, I would type

     cd richmond

The basic idea is for each student to place all his work in his own directory. To start, you may make copies of the original images for a given night; then, any computations and modifications you make won't affect anyone else.

In the home directory listing -- you can return to the home directory by typing

cd

notice the two items with an at sign "@" at the end:

These are special directories, containing the original raw images taken at the RIT Observatory. You aren't allowed to over-write or modify the files in these directories, but you can make copies of them. For example, if I want to work on a set of images -- all the ones in group "a", for example -- from Mar 27, 2002, I might do this:

    cd 
    cd richmond
    cp ~/mar27_2002/1107a.* .
    ls

This will create copies of the original files in my own subdirectory. I may now work on them as I wish without disturbing others.

One more example: if you want to display an image in the current directory, simply type tv followed by the image's name. For example,

    tv 1107a.001

Last modified by MWR 4/1/2002