CLEAR Access with Putty and MobaXterm

Requirements

You must be enrolled with Duo. If you have not yet enrolled, go to the Duo Enrollment Guide for instructions.

You must be able to act as the root user through sudo to start the OpenConnect VPN session.

Tested with OpenConnect 9.12-1 build 5 on Ubuntu 24.04, 12/01/2024.

Procedure

1. Open a terminal window on your system.

2. Install OpenConnect on your system.

   For Ubuntu or Debian:

   sudo apt install openconnect -y

   For RHEL:

   sudo dnf install openconnect -y

3. Determine the Linux shell you are using on your local system:

   echo $SHELL

   You will see csh or tcsh if your shell is from the csh family, or sh, bash, zsh, or ksh if you are using one of the Bourne shell variants. This determines the file you need to edit when creating the VPN alias.

4. Using the editor of your choice, add the appropriate alias for your shell.

   csh or tcsh

   Edit ~/.cshrc for csh or ~/.tcshrc for tcsh and add:

   # for openconnect, Duo and web browser two factor
   alias ricevpn 'sudo echo "Sudo first" && openconnect https://connect.rice.edu --useragent=AnyConnect --cookieonly | sudo openconnect https://connect.rice.edu --useragent=AnyConnect --cookie-on-stdin'

   sh, bash, zsh, or ksh

   Edit the appropriate shell configuration file, such as ~/.shrc, ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.kshrc, and add:

   # for openconnect, Duo and web browser two factor
   alias ricevpn='sudo echo "Sudo first" && openconnect https://connect.rice.edu --useragent=AnyConnect --cookieonly | sudo openconnect https://connect.rice.edu --useragent=AnyConnect --cookie-on-stdin'

5. You will be prompted for your local password as part of the sudo process when starting OpenConnect.

   

   After your local password is accepted for running commands with sudo, you will see something similar to the following in the terminal window:

   

   Your local system will start a browser window that connects to the Rice Identity Provider infrastructure as the first step in the authentication process. Enter your Rice NetID and Rice NetID password.

   

   After your Rice NetID is accepted, the Duo portion of the two-factor authentication process will appear. Expect a Duo authentication request on your Duo-registered device.

   

   You have successfully completed the Duo component of authentication if you see a screen similar to the one below in your browser window. You may now close the browser as suggested.

   

   Your terminal will now show something similar to the following. Note: Do not close the terminal window while using the VPN. Closing it will terminate the VPN connection. You may minimize the window and use Ctrl-C in the terminal when you are ready to disconnect.

   

   At this point, you have a standard VPN connection to the Rice VPN network.

Working in VPN

You should now be able to connect to systems that are internal to Rice University as well as locate systems that are not visible to the internet at large.

Troubleshooting

If All Else Fails

Submit a support ticket and include as much information as possible, such as your local system type (Windows, macOS, or Linux), operating system version, OpenConnect or VPN client version, and any error messages. Screenshots are also helpful and can provide additional information for troubleshooting.

Start Xming

Start Xming by locating XLaunch on your system and running the application. Accept all of the defaults. This will start the X11 server on your local system. You can then display remote applications on your local system using the X11 protocol.

Start PuTTY with X11 Forwarding on CLEAR Systems

Configure and start PuTTY with X11 forwarding enabled.

Test Login

See CLEAR Account and Home Directory.

Test Connection

With Xming running and an SSH connection established to a CLEAR node such as ssh.clear.rice.edu, run:

xterm

A new terminal window should open on your local system. Type exit in the new terminal to close it.

For a more complex graphical application, you can try:

matlab

Xming Download and Installation

See Xming Installation.