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Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering

ECE Student Computing Access

The ECE Computer Lab is open 24/7 for UF students either enrolled in an ECE course or registered as an ECE student and is accessible using your UFL (Gatorlink) account credentials. The lab contains Windows and Linux workstations with licensed software preinstalled. If you need night/weekend access to NEB contact the ECE Facilities office staff. Printers are available and are managed by Academic Technology Printing Services. You can contact a System Administrator using the ECE IT Support Request page.

Note: Our remote access services are accessible from anywhere on campus or using the UF VPN from off-campus.

Windows Remote Access

Open a web browser and load the VMware Horizon Desktop webpage. You can choose to install the client locally on your device or access the Windows desktop within the web browser. The local client install will provide slightly better performance visually and will allow you to share local drives/printers to the remote desktop.  A full how-to is located on our Windows Virtual Desktop Access page.

UNIX Remote Access

Linux access with a GUI desktop will require an SSH (secure shell) client and VNC (Virtual Network Computing) client.

Using VNC

  • Download a VNC client (RealVNC is one option)
  • Download an ssh client if needed, (Putty is one option)
    • Mac OSX users can use Terminal app to access ssh
    • Windows 10/11 can use PowerShell to access ssh
  • Open the SSH client on your local machine and connect to linux.ece.ufl.edu using UFL (Gatorlink) credentials
  • From the remote linux host run the following command : vncserver -geometry 1920×1080
    • Note: display size options can be used with the -geometry argument
  • Enter a session password when prompted and note which host and desktop the session is on
    • One example is “ece-lnx-01:36” so the host is ece-lnx-01.ad.ufl.edu and desktop session is 36
  • Run the vnc viewer app on your local machine and enter the full hostname to the session you just created
  • Open a terminal on the remote linux desktop (right-click in empty space on desktop) and enter the following command: source /apps/settings
  • You can run Cadence, Synopsys or any other licensed application at this point
    • VNC sessions will remain running until the remote host (ece-lnx-??) is rebooted.
    • You will only need to start a new vncserver session if your previous one is no longer responding.
VNC Server config
From the example above the hostname and desktop port address would be : ece-lnx-01.ad.ufl.edu:36. You must append .ad.ufl.edu to the hostname to reach it.

FAQ (Linux)

How do i check for existing vnc sessions and terminate?

  • Running the command vncserver -list will display any vnc sessions you have on the host you run that command on
  • Running the command vncserver -kill :36 will terminate session 36 on the host you run that command on
  • Running the command vncpasswd will allow you to change your VNC session password for any host you connect to

How do I remove cadence lock files or reset cadence settings?

  • If you do not close Cadence tools properly before attempting to open them again you may see file lock errors, run rmcdslck from your project folder
  • If Cadence (such as Analog Design Environment) will not open due to a license checkout issue, remove your .cdsenv file (rm ~/.cdsenv) and restart Cadence making sure you answer either Yes or Always to any question about checking out additional licenses.

How do I access tools not automatically in shell?

  • Some tools can conflict with base O/S apps or other user accessible apps so some tools need a shell environment configured before attempting to run
  • Python3: source /apps/anaconda/settings
    Gem5: source /apps/gem5/settings
    GCC-12: source /opt/rh/devtoolset-12/enable
    GCC-6: source /opt/rh/devtoolset-6/enable
    Verilator: source /apps/verilator/settings