Hi, I'm super new to UNIX, so please don't drown me in techno-speak.

I'm accessing my university's system through a CYGWIN terminal on my laptop and got stuck trying to use a program that needs to open an additional screen. When I type the command for the program (I've seen my advisor use it on a university computer, so I'm sure I have the name right) I get the following response:

(pql:23311): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

a google search took me to another website where for a similar problem it was suggested to enter 'export DISPLAY=:0.0', but that gave me the response 'command not found' and unfortunately I couldn't understand enough of the rest of the post to continue.

Sorry this is so wordy, I guess the short question is how can i use SSH and get a window on a remote screen?

Oh, I've turned the Norton security off too.

Thanks,

would be nice to explain what did you make. So you opened a cygwin terminal (at home?) and ....

I opened a cygwin terminal at home.
I logged onto the university computer using SSH -XY
I moved into my files and used a few scripts (that had been set up for me) successfully
I typed pql [A-Z]*.xdr
I got the message '(pql:23311): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:"

I've seen my advisor use this same command successfully on the university computer, so I know it works. It opens another window and allows me to manipulate earthquake seismograms using the program pql.
When I had my laptop at school yesterday he couldn't get something to work on it and told me to research how to use SSH and get a window on a remote screen. I think he was trying to run a different program on my laptop, but had the same problem, it wouldn't open the display.

Please let me know if you need any more info

A Cygwin terminal is insufficient. You will need to have a Cygwin desktop environment running (I use Windowmaker) so that X windowing is available. Then open a terminal from within that to make the ssh connection.
Use either the -X or -Y option but not both together. Unlike Windows, the Cygwin environment is case sensitive, so the command will be 'ssh -Y' with extra options to suit your connection.

thanks for the info allend.

I'll try a Cygwin desktop environment if I can find one free. Otherwise I can work at school (its just not as comfortable).

I entered the -XY because my professor told me to, but I'll try it with just the -Y if I get the desktop environment.

in the cygwin setup window you need to select and install Xwin and you can start it by the command startxwin. http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using.html. You need to open a terminal inside that X windows (probably called xterm), the usual cygwin terminal is not ok. You need to execute that ssh command inside that xterm.

Thanks. I used the link you provided and it looks like it will work, but I'm in the last week of the term with finals next week, so it will be 2 weeks before I can get back to my research and using UNIX and can give it a more complete tryout.

Michelle