Is it possible to send plots to multiple computers from the same matlab session in Linux?

Is it possible to send plots to multiple computers from the same matlab session. We are using Linux. With HPUX we were able to change the XDisplay parameter. But Linux does not seem to allow that.

[Walter Roberson]

You might have to turn X Windows security way down, equivalent to Xauth +

(that is, admit pretty much anything that wants to display.

I don't know if it is even still pausible. It used to rely upon some rsh / ssh security settings that were disabled later as being just too insecure.

[Bjorn Gustavsson]

Maybe it is possible to squeeze your needs through VNC? Slightly different tack, this would give remote users access to the entire server, at least at the running user's level. But I'm pretty sure multiple users can access the same session via vnc.

I've heard impressive stories about what can be achived with ssh (also rather recently) so that might still be possible, maybe with ssh-keygen as a tool to simplify login.

Answer 1

[Pruthvi Muppavarapu]

Hi Louis,

Currently, you might not be able to accomplish plots on multiple monitors within one MATLAB session.

As a workaround, you could try starting a separate instance of MATLAB for each display, using the '-display' startup flag as follows:

$ matlab -display xDisp  

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Pruthvi

[Louis Arney]

This is the conclusion we are coming up with as well. Is there a reason Matlab removed the capability to change the XDisplay parameter during a session? It used to work great in older Matlab versions.

[Walter Roberson]

My understanding is that Linux distributions have locked down X authentication more due to security risks. I am not sure that MATLAB made any changes on their side.

[Louis Arney]

I would disagree on this. The fact that I can do a setenv('DISPLAY','xxxx'), have it change my local environment but not change XDisplay suggests that this could be done.

[Walter Roberson]

Can changes to your DISPLAY environment variable permit you to display other programs to various displays? xeyes for example?

[Louis Arney]

If I change DISPLAY in my xterminal to another device running an Xserver, like one Linux machine to another, I can open an xterminal (which might contain a plot or be running another program) on the other device. Changing my DISPLAY within a Matlab session does nothing (that I can tell). XDisplay is protected from changes once the session starts.

Answer 2

[Bjorn Gustavsson]

KISS: vnc