remocolab

remocolab is a Python module to allow remote access to Google Colaboratory using SSH or TurboVNC. It also install VirtualGL so that you can run OpenGL programs on a Google Colaboratory machine and see the screen on VNC client. It secures TurboVNC connection using SSH port forwarding.

• FAQ

Requirements

• You can use Google Colaboratory
  • That means you need Google acount and a browser that is supported by Google Colaboratory.
• ngrok Tunnel Authtoken
  • You need to sign up for ngrok to get it
• SSH client
• (Optional) TurboVNC Viewer if you use it.

How to use

1. Create a new notebook on Google Colaboratory
2. Add a code cell and copy & paste one of following codes to the cell

• SSH only:

!pip install git+https://github.com/demotomohiro/remocolab.git
import remocolab
remocolab.setupSSHD()

• SSH and TurboVNC:

!pip install git+https://github.com/demotomohiro/remocolab.git
import remocolab
remocolab.setupVNC()

3. (Optional) If you want to run OpenGL applications or any programs that use GPU, Click "Runtime" -> "Change runtime type" in top menu and change Hardware accelerator to GPU.
4. Run that cell
5. Then the message that ask you to copy & paste tunnel authtoken of ngrok will appear. Login to ngrok, click Auth on left side menu, click Copy, return to Google Colaboratory, paste it to the text box under the message and push enter key.
   • ngrok token must be kept secret. I understand people hate copy & pasting ngrok token everytime they use remocolab, but I don't know how to skip it without risking a security. If you could specify ngrok token to remocolab.setupSSHD() or remocolab.setupVNC(), you can save ngrok token to a notebook. Then, you might forget that your notebook contains it and share the notebook.
6. Select your ngrok region. Select the one closest to your location. For example, if you were in Japan, type jp and push enter key.
   • You can also specify ngrok region to remocolab.setupSSHD() or remocolab.setupVNC() in the code like remocolab.setupSSHD(ngrok_region = "jp").
7. remocolab setup ngrok and SSH server (and desktop environment and TurboVNC server if you run setupVNC). Please wait for it done
   • remocolab.setupSSHD() takes about 2 minutes
   • remocolab.setupVNC() takes about 5 minutes
8. Then, root and colab user password and ssh command to connect the server will appear.
9. Copy & paste that ssh command to your terminal on your local machine and login to the server using displayed colab user password. (Even if you just want to use TurboVNC, you need to login using SSH to make SSH port forwarding)

• If you use TurboVNC:

10. Run TurboVNC viewer on your local machine, set server address to localhost:1 and connect.
11. Then, password will be asked. Copy & paste the VNC password displayed in remocolab.setupVNC()'s output to your TurboVNC viewer.

When you got error and want to rerun remocolab.setupVNC() or remocolab.setupSSHD(), you need to do factory reset runtime before rerun the command. As you can run only 1 ngrok process with free ngrok account, running remocolab.setupVNC/setupSSHD will fail if there is another instace that already ran remocolab. In that case, terminate another instance from Manage sessions screen.

How to run OpenGL applications

Put the command to run the OpenGL application after vglrun. For example, vglrun firefox runs firefox and you can watch web sites using WebGL with hardware acceleration.

Arguments of remocolab.setupSSHD() and remocolab.setupVNC()

• ngrok_region Specify ngrok region like "us", "eu", "ap". List of region
• check_gpu_available When it is True, it checks whether GPU is available and show warning in case GPU is not available.

How to setup public key authentication

By using public key authentication, you can login to ssh server without copy&pasting a password. If you don't have an SSH key pair, generate it with ssh-keygen:

ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521

Add following code after remocolab.setupSSHD() or remocolab.setupVNC(), and replace "my public key" in following code with your public key.

!mkdir /home/colab/.ssh
with open("/home/colab/.ssh/authorized_keys", 'w') as f:
  f.write("my public key")
!chown colab /home/colab/.ssh /home/colab/.ssh/authorized_keys
!chmod 700 /home/colab/.ssh
!chmod 600 /home/colab/.ssh/authorized_keys
!chown -R colab /home/colab/.ssh

If you want to login as root, use following code:

!mkdir /root/.ssh
with open("/root/.ssh/authorized_keys", 'w') as f:
  f.write("my public key")
!chmod 700 /root/.ssh
!chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys

And replace user name colab in ssh command to root.

Experimental kaggle support

remocolab in kaggle branch works on Kaggle.

1. Create a new Notebook with Python language.
2. Set settings to:
   • Internet on
   • Docker to Latest Available
   • GPU on if you use TurboVNC
3. Add a code cell and copy & paste one of following codes to the cell

• SSH only:

!pip install git+https://github.com/demotomohiro/remocolab.git@kaggle
import remocolab
remocolab.setupSSHD()

• SSH and TurboVNC:

!pip install git+https://github.com/demotomohiro/remocolab.git@kaggle
import remocolab
remocolab.setupVNC()

4. Follow instructions from step 4 in above "How to use".