Third option: through remote desktop protocols

It might be the SSH server, an incompatibility between remote and local libraries…

It it doesn’t work out of the box, a lot of moving parts must be set up.

If the connection is slow, the graphical information can take a while to be rendered locally, so sometimes is faster to mount the data sshfs and use a local program.

If some parts of the interface do appear, but others don’t (especially 3D renderers), this is a problem with the GL libraries - they might not match between remote and local, etc. If it does not work ( empty DISPLAY, etc), please check the answers to this question in StackExchange for troubleshooting.

Then, once connected, try to launch a graphical interface, like gedit to test basic 2D interaction or glxgears for 3D renders. If you want to be able to open graphical programs from your remote machine (like a 3D viewer), simply add the -X option to your ssh command or ForwardX11 yes in the adequate ~/.ssh/config Host entry. If you have set up your SSH connections as explained in part1, this is the easiest solution and does not require installing anything else ( a priori). If there are licenses involved, this can be tricky or even impossible. You have to install the needed software (viewer, editors, etc) in your home PC.If the files are very big and your connection is slow, the files can take a while to open.No network lag between your actions and the calculations (file loading will take longer, though).If the software runs with local files, it will run with sshfs-mounted files. No graphical incompatibilities between systems.You don’t need to download the files beforehand (they will be downloaded eventually, but on demand).If you use sshfs, you can use your locally installed software to open and edit your remote files because they will believe that the files are actually in your computer.

Redirecting all the graphical interface information (positions, polygons, actions…) through the network connection is usually more expensive than simply streaming the raw data to a local client, that’s why I recommend the sshfs approach commented in part 1 or even the remote analysis from part 2. Remote graphical access First option: don’t!

Third option: through remote desktop protocols.

In this part, I talk about the inevitable graphical access to your remote machine: the different approaches and their pros and cons. This is the third (and last) part of the tutorial series How I work from home, in which I explain how to access your data remotely via different ways.

Ubuntu install nomachine server