Lab in advanced VLSI design

EE-490(b)

Working in computer rooms

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The computer rooms are equipped with computers providing access to virtual machines (VM).


  1. Login to the PC with your gaspar account.
  2. start VMWare Horizon Client (recommended as more stable) or from a navigator go to https://vdi.epfl.ch/
  3. login with your gaspar account
  4. Select the Linux virtual machine STI-EDA-LABS-RTX.
  5. Once the Ubuntu desktop is displaying (it may take some time), open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-T or right-click in the desktop area and select Open Terminal).
  6. From the VM terminal window, run the following command : >ssh -X username@helvetios.hpc.epfl.ch , where username is your garpar account username
hints : (i) do not forget the -X option in the ssh command. (ii) when typing your password remember that the default keyboard is qwertz.

From step 6, you are working on a remote Linux server, which means that all commands are executed there, but any display is done on the local display.

Do not confuse the terminal windows running locally on the Ubuntu VM and the terminal running on the remote Linux server. EDA tools are not available on the Ubuntu VM.

You can use any seat in the room and login with your GASPAR account. Do not store important files in the Ubuntu VM, as this machine gets destroyed when logging out or after 1h30 of inactivity.