Fedora, SSH, Killed Processes

[Brainonska511]

I just installed Fedora 11 on a computer in our lab to run crystallography stuff. Some of the calculations can take a while. I can SSH into it from home, but if I disconnected, I assume that anything I was running gets killed.

Is there a way to keep processes active after I am disconnected, as some of these things take a while to run? And if so, if I reconnect, especially if they were running in an X11-forwarded window, how can I re-forward the screens to my computer, to either see how it is progressing or to start a new task?


Edit:
I saw some stuff about "GNU Screen", which looks like it might fit the bill, but how would it handle graphical programs that originated from the terminal?

Edit again:
I'm currently using PuTTY and Cygwin/X to connect with said computer.

 

[Colt45]

screen or dtach for console mode stuff, but I've got no idea as far as X goes.

 

[Nothinman]

You can reattach to a screen with X stuff running in it, however you won't be able to interact with the X programs unless they also take terminal input. For X forwarded stuff I'm not sure, as long as the ssh session stays open inside of screen and connectivity to the X server is still it'll probably be fine. However that's not a very solid solution.

 

[Brainonska511]

That sucks.

It's a GUI program that gets started via the terminal and it controls tons of other programs used in our work. I'm pretty sure many of the other ones can be run from the terminal as well, but it is just so much easier to use them in the GUI because of the amount of options available for each program and such...

 

[Nothinman]

You could run something like Xvnc which gives you a full X session not attached to the console.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You could run something like Xvnc which gives you a full X session not attached to the console.

How would that work?

Would I open that in Screen, then launch my GUI program and then would it stay active if I was disconnected and allow me to re-access my GUI upon reconnecting?

 

[Nothinman]

VNC on Linux has it's own X server that's separate from the local X session, the only way to get there is via VNC. So you'd have to install that and then connect with a normal VNC client which you can tunnel over SSH if you'd like.

 

[Brainonska511]

Just testing out starting a process and then disconnecting the SSH server (even exiting the GUI program) and it appears that the process will keep running. I think I'll hold off on installing VNC/screen for now, but thanks anyway for the suggestions.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Just testing out starting a process and then disconnecting the SSH server (even exiting the GUI program) and it appears that the process will keep running. I think I'll hold off on installing VNC/screen for now, but thanks anyway for the suggestions.

but are you able to reconnenct to the gui? Or maybe the gui program you are using is spawning separate processes to run the calculations in the background? If that is the case, then they would keep running whether you used screen or not.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Just testing out starting a process and then disconnecting the SSH server (even exiting the GUI program) and it appears that the process will keep running. I think I'll hold off on installing VNC/screen for now, but thanks anyway for the suggestions.

but are you able to reconnenct to the gui? Or maybe the gui program you are using is spawning separate processes to run the calculations in the background? If that is the case, then they would keep running whether you used screen or not.

I think the latter is the case. The GUI spawns other processes. I can exit the GUI and reopen it and it'll be fine.

 

[DarkThinker]

When I read the title of the thread VNC was the immediate thing that came to mind, and sure enough it was suggested.
VNC as was suggested is a good option, your best option TBH

 

[Nothinman]

VNC will work, but best is very subjective. VNC is terrible with regards to bandwidth and latency, something like NoMachine's NX is much faster although I don't believe there's a totally open implementation yet.

 

[DarkThinker]

Well, never heard of NX, but if Bandwidth conservation is a concern, you can tweak your VNC session accordingly...you know the details here.

 

[Nothinman]

VNC sucks even on a LAN and everyone else that I know that's used NX says there's no comparison in speed and latency.

 

[DarkThinker]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
VNC sucks even on a LAN and everyone else that I know that's used NX says there's no comparison in speed and latency.

I will have to take your word for it.

I have only had to use VNC on LAN and for simple things, like controlling a couple of graphical apps on a Fedora computer in my basement... but that's about it.

 

[daveqb]

NX is awesome!!

No to OP, x11vnc might be what you need, if the X session you want to connect back to is display :0.0