---
title: Connecting from a MacOS Client

#tags:
keywords: MacOS, connecting, client, configuration, SSH, X11
last_updated: 23 Oct 2019
summary: "This document describes a recommended setup for a MacOS client."
sidebar: merlin6_sidebar
permalink: /merlin6/connect-from-macos.html
---

## SSH without X11 Forwarding

This is the standard method. Official X11 support is provided through [NoMachine](/merlin6/nomachine.html).
For normal SSH sessions, use your SSH client as follows:

```bash
ssh $username@merlin-l-01.psi.ch
ssh $username@merlin-l-001.psi.ch
ssh $username@merlin-l-002.psi.ch
```

## SSH with X11 Forwarding

Official X11 Forwarding support is through NoMachine. Please follow the document
[Job Submission -> Interactive Jobs](/merlin6/interactive-jobs.html#Requirements) and
[Accessing Merlin -> NoMachine](/merlin6/nomachine.html) for more details. However,
we provide a small recipe for enabling X11 Forwarding in MacOS.

* For enabling client X11 forwarding, add the following to the start of ``~/.ssh/config``
to implicitly add ``-Y`` to all ssh connections:
   
   ```bash
   ForwardAgent yes
   ForwardX11Trusted yes
   ```

* Alternatively, you can add the option ``-Y`` to the ``ssh`` command. In example:

   ```bash
   ssh -Y $username@merlin-l-01.psi.ch
   ssh -Y $username@merlin-l-001.psi.ch
   ssh -Y $username@merlin-l-002.psi.ch
   ```

* For testing that X11 forwarding works, just run ``xclock``. A X11 based clock should
popup in your client session.

   ```bash
   xclock
   ```