A window manager controls the placement and appearance of windows on your screen.
When using the ⇒ DICE remote desktop you use a window manager called MATE. This can't be changed. But when you use a DICE computer directly - actually sitting in front of one - you have a choice of window managers.
How to try another window manager once
You may get this error from the ssh command:
kex_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer
Or it might look like this:
ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer
These are the most likely reasons for the error:
The Google Play Store for Android devices (largely tablets and phones) offers a massive choice of SSH apps which provide an SSH client and terminal emulator combined, allowing your device to login to Informatics machines. Popular ones include JuiceSSH, Termius and ConnectBot but there are dozens available, many for free.
If you work from home, you might find that your ssh sessions to the Informatics ssh servers unexpectedly time out. If so, the problem is almost certainly being caused by your home NAT router timing out what it considers to be an 'inactive' session.
The solution is to use 'ssh keepalives' - to configure your ssh client to automatically send some 'no-op' protocol codes to the server every now and again, in order that the NAT router considers the session to be active.
How to configure this will vary from OS to OS.
We’re not planning to refresh Virtual DICE for 2025/26, because of resource constraints.
Last year’s version is still available, but its software will be at least a year out of date compared to proper DICE.
If this is a significant problem for you, please let us know.
We’re not planning to refresh Virtual DICE for 2025/26, because of resource constraints.
Last year’s version is still available, but its software will be at least a year out of date compared to proper DICE.
If this is a significant problem for you, please let us know.
If you're having trouble with Virtual DICE, these suggestions may help.
Your home directory in Virtual DICE is /home/guest. This is where your files will be saved to. It's a local directory in the virtual machine.
Unlike on a normal DICE machine, all users of Virtual DICE can use the superuser root.
When Virtual DICE starts, you're logged in automatically.
Virtual DICE is distributed in a virtual machine image file. This page explains how to install it.