ECE Linux Server Access Instructions

Server Login Instructions

Install PuTTY (or any other SSH client). If you are running MacOS or Linux, you can skip this step and just use SSH on the terminal. Alternatively, you can use Visual Studio code for SSH and file management. See the instructions below for setup instructions.

First, make sure you are on the UF network, e.g., connected using the UF VPN or being on the campus Wi-Fi network.

The ECE Linux servers are all accessed through the same hostname: linux.ece.ufl.edu

Connect via SSH using your UFL account. E.g., from a terminal:

ssh <ufl_username>@linux.ece.ufl.edu

VNC Viewer Setup (GUI)

Install a VNC viewer on your local computer. Some options are TigerVNC Viewer and RealVNC Viewer. For RealVNC, you have to create an account and log in after installation.

Login to the server as instructed above, then run the following command: vncpasswd

This will ask you to create a password for your VNC session. You can ignore the “view-only” password.

Start an instance of vncserver by running the following command: vncserver

Make a note of the hostname and display number after the command completes, e.g., New 'ece-lnx-03:68 (username)' desktop is ece-lnx-03:68 where in this example, the hostname is ece-lnx-03 and the display number is 68.

Once the server is running, go back to your local machine and open your VNC viewer. If using RealVNC Viewer, navigate to File -> New Connection. Under VNC Server, put hostname.ad.ufl.edu:N, using the hostname you got from the output of vncserver, e.g., ece-lnx-03 above, and where N is the display number you were assigned. Make sure you use the number provided by the output of the vncserver command that you ran on the server. Give the server a “friendly name”, e.g., Reconfig2.

For RealVNC Viewer, double click the server you just created. Enter your vncserver password when prompted. You should now see a RedHat Desktop.

NOTE: If the resolution or screen size is awkward, I recommend trying TigerVNC Viewer instead of RealVNC Viewer, as it has auto-resolution scaling as you resize the window by default and doesn't require creating an account. Another option is to pass the -geometry flag, e.g., vncserver -geometry 1920x1080.

Configuring Environment to Access Tools

Click on Applications at the top left. This will open a panel with various apps. Select Terminal.

From the terminal, to configure your environment, run source /apps/reconfig/enable_pro. You should now be able to open Questa, Vivado, and Quartus Prime Pro using the following:

quartus &
vivado &
vsim &

Make sure to include the “&” so you open each in the background.

If you want to use Quartus Standard edition instead of Quartus Pro, you should source a different script instead:

source /apps/reconfig/enable_std

Visual Studio Code Setup

VS Code can used to connect to remote servers via SSH which allows you to edit files remotely as if they were local, and access a terminal shell.

The newest versions of VS Code no longer support connecting to older Linux servers (like the ECE Linux servers currently are). Thus, you may need to install an older version of VS Code. Version 1.97 worked for me with some warnings about the OS being "old". You can download it at the top of this page: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_97

To enable the remote editing functionality, you must install the Remote-SSH extension. Follow the official documentation.

When you get to the 3rd step of the "Connect to a remote host" section, make sure to choose Linux as the type (since the servers are Linux-based).

Once connected, you can open a directory to edit files, etc. You can also open a Terminal pane from Terminal -> New Terminal or using the hotkey <Ctrl+`>