Note: If you do not have a CorteXlab account yet, please refer to the account section first.

Currently, access to CorteXlab is done via a direct ssh connection to the airlock. This is an SSH server whose sole purpose is to provide users with a UNIX home directory and several command line tools (CLI) to interact with the testbed. Whenever you see the airlock name appear in this wiki this is the SSH server we are talking about.

CorteXlab is currently running in closed beta. The name of the platform's airlock is: gw.cortexlab.fr.

On a Linux/Unix host, the SSH connection to the airlock can be done with the command:

you@yourpc:~$ ssh -X -v [-i path/to/the/key] [-p PORT] username@gw.cortexlab.fr

Options:
-X is used for X forwarding (do not forget to execute xhost+ on your own machine)
-v is used for verbose mode -p is used to specify the port through which the SSH connection is opened (22 or 2269) -i is used to specify the path to the RSA key if it is not the default one (~/.ssh/id_rsa[.pub])

You are using Linux, so that's about it.
Now you can jump directly to the last section of this page.

On MS Windows, you can use Putty to open SSH connections to remote hosts.
Moreover, you can enable X11 forwarding on Putty and use a X11 server on your PC to open remote graphical applications. Xming is a suitable X11 server for Windows.
To do so, you must configure your connection.

Choose SSH as the communication protocol and set the host name of the server you want to reach, in this case the airlock gw.cortexlab.fr, on port 22 or 2269 (as pictured bellow).

Choose your login username in order not to re enter it every time you log in to CorteXlab. This is your CorteXlab account name (i.e. username).

Of course, the authentication on CorteXlab is based on RSA keys (no password authentication is allowed).
You have to give the path to the private key file (and your public key should be alongside it, i.e same directory and same file name prefix).

More info on the key generation: ssh_key_help

Enable X11 forwarding and specify the X display location. Usually, the X server is hosted on the same PC (i.e. “localhost”) and the first display is used (i.e. display 0).

If the X server is not yet running, don't forget to start it. You can use the Xlaunch frontend of Xming to start the X server easily. Choosing multiple windows and display number 0, then proceeding with defaults in the 3 following screens should be enough for our use case.

In order to be able to use it again in the future, don't forget to save the configuration in Putty. Just enter the desired session name (e.g. cortexlab) in the Saved Sessions field and click save.

Just click the “open” button, no pics included this time ;)

The MacOS procedure for connecting is very similar to the Linux/Unix one, the SSH connection to the airlock can be done with the command:

you@yourpc:~$ ssh -X -v [-i path/to/the/key] [-p PORT] username@gw.cortexlab.fr

Options:
-X is used for X forwarding (do not forget to execute xhost+ on your own machine)
-v is used for verbose mode
-p is used to specify the port through which the SSH connection is opened (22 or 2269) -i is used to specify the path to the RSA key if it is not the default one (~/.ssh/id_rsa[.pub])

That's about it.

You should now have access to your home directory on the airlock, on which you should find:

1. A README file
2. A directory examples containing task examples
3. A read-only directory results containing the results of you experiments

Use scp but be aware that the port option for scp is -P (not -p as in ssh)

you@yourpc:~$ scp [-P PORT] [-i path/to/the/key] yourLocalFile username@gw.cortexlab.fr:distantFilePath