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GUI

JupyterHub as a Graphical Environment

Many research applications, including RStudio, Matlab and Jupyter Notebooks are now available natively on the web through the JupyterHub Interface.

Alternatives to JupyterHub

If you plan to run Stata, SAS, or any other Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is not configured for Jupyter, you will need to connect to the Yen servers with X-forwarding enabled. UIT has a page describing this in more detail, along with information about auxiliary, system-specific software that you will need to have installed before proceeding.

Warning

X-forwarding is fundamentally less stable than web-based interfaces and requires an excellent network connection to function well.

  • For Mac OS, you need to have XQuartz installed first. XQuartz usually requires restarting your computer before you can use it.

  • For Windows, we recommend installing Windows Subsystem for Linux for a full-featured Linux experience on Windows.

    WSL Quick Installation Instructions
    • run wsl --install
    • After WSL installs restart computer
    • Open search and look for Ubuntu
    • Follow the instructions to set up your username and password
    • You can now use the Ubuntu shell directly

Login to Yen Servers with X-forwarding

Terminal Command
ssh -Y <SUNet ID>@yen.stanford.edu

The -Y flag here enables X-forwarding, allowing you to run software on the server that uses graphical windows.

When prompted, type your SUNet ID password. Then, complete the two-factor authentication process. After you successfully login, check that X-forwarding works correctly. Choose any of the following commands and type it in the Yen command line interface as all of them will pop up a window if everything is working correctly - xeyes, xcalc, xlogo or xclock (or choose your favorite X11 command line program):

Terminal Command
xeyes
which will pop up a window with eyes tracking where your mouse is.

Examples

Notebooks Can Be Used as an Alternative to a Traditional GUI

SAS, Stata, R, Python and Julia are available to run in a notebook interface within JupyterHub. Have a look here to learn more about JupyterHub on the Yen servers and the software available.

Stata

For the Stata GUI, load the stata module with the version that you want:

Terminal Command
ml statamp
We can now launch the Stata GUI with:

Terminal Command
xstata-mp

The Stata GUI will pop open and you can do anything you would normally do.

SAS

To run SAS GUI, load the SAS module:

Terminal Command
ml sas
We can now launch SAS GUI with:

Terminal Command
sas

The SAS GUI will pop open and you can do anything you would normally do (but with noticeable delay due to X tunneling):

SAS GUI