WIBR Bioinformatics and Research Computing

Statistics for Biologists (November 2005)

URL: http://iona.wi.mit.edu/bio/education/stats2005/

Connecting to R on tak

We have R installed on tak. Some advantages of using R on tak instead of a desktop computer:
  • No need to install R on your own computer.
  • Tak is more powerful and has more memory than a desktop computer.
To connect to tak, you need a tak account and some kind of secure shell (ssh) with X Windows (to get the graphics):
  • On a Macintosh, use x11
  • On a Windows computer, we recommend Cygwin/X
With either system, double click on the icon to get the "command prompt", the window in which you can type commands.

Windows only: After opening Cygwin, start X Windows by typing "startx". A new terminal window will open, and you should use that one.

From the command prompt, connect to tak (or another Unix/Linux computer) with a command like 

ssh -l username tak.wi.mit.edu -Y
or 
ssh -l username tak.wi.mit.edu -X
where username is the name of your tak account. You'll be prompted for your password.
Once you've logged in, start R with the command 
R
and from then on, issuing commands is just like if R is on a desktop computer. Note: In case of problems with R, an earlier version of R can be started with the command '/nfs/BaRC/R/R'.

Questions or comments?   sherrin@wi.mit.edu
Bioinformatics and Research Computing at Whitehead Institute