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Short question: is there any terminal multiplexer that runs in a Windows CMD shell? I suppose PowerShell could be enough too.

Complete question: I have a Windows 7 SP1 on a powerful computer intended to run OCLHashCat, that is an intensive command-line number cruncher who uses to keep running for hours before finishing. Due to its needs of GPU power, this program must be run on this computer with Windows 7 SP1.
When I am "on the road", I use to connect to this computer to manage such program with my portable (netbook) and through a mobile internet line that is often very slow, expensive, and uses to disconnect unexpectedly.
I can connect to the GUI of my Windows 7 via, for example, VNC Server, but it consumes a great bandwith, it is slow, and the screen of my portable is too small (the Win7 computer features a 32" screen, and that makes window-moving rather awkward).

So the ideal solution would be to use only text/terminal transfers:

  • Connect via remote text console (SSH, for example) to the Win7 SP1 machine.
  • Manage OCLHashCat to start/stop/review the specific process.
  • Disconnect keeping the process running when needed.

By working this way I will reconnect later to check the progress of OCLHashCat.
This is the default behavior of the classic GNU Screen in Linux.

But there is no screen for Windows capable of running in text mode, or I have not been clever enough to find it.
The best I have found until now is CygWin's Screen version, but it only runs in graphics terminal, like mntty.

So, my question is: is there any GNU Screen or equivalent for Windows capable of running in text mode (not GUI), so I can run OCLHashCat remotely?

I have checked:

  • CygWin's Bash terminal, that runs in remote SSH sessions, but can not work with screenor tmux. They fail with a open terminal failed: not a terminal message.
  • Any other terminal I have checked, wheter Cygwin's or Windows native (Tera Term, Babun... etc), needs GUI to start, so it can not be run from remote SSH.

I know that there is a version of OCLHashCat for Linux, but I need my powerful computer to keep Windows 7 SP1 for now.

I know about this method based on PowerShell background jobs, but it does not allow me to check the progress of the remote command-line program.

Any ideas, please?

2 Answers 2

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If you install Cygwin then both tmux and screen should work. If you are able to login to a shell running bash in a cygwin environment then you should be able to start tmux. Being unable to find a terminal/tty suggests a possible security restriction inside your remote login shell or the server process. Have you eliminated that as a source of your error? If you start a shell and a tmux session on the server can you attach to the existing session or see it running (tmus list-sessions) when you login remotely?

Do your security or SSH server logs show any useful message? Cygwin also includes a sshd server - perhaps using that application on the server side may make management of access controls easier to isolate and debug.

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  • ConEmu is too a GUI-requiring terminal. Just like the others you mention, as I told in my original question. Nov 16, 2014 at 5:45
  • Perhaps I misunderstood. You want a terminal multiplexer you can leave running on your Windows server and then connect to with a terminal application on your netbook? To do this you would be installing tmux and screen on the server and making them accessible over SSH to console based client applications. Is this what you want to do?
    – G. Cito
    Nov 16, 2014 at 6:21
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    That is correct. Remote access to tmux, screen or equivalent via SSH running on my Windows 7 machine should solve my problem. Nov 16, 2014 at 6:41
  • I assumed your problems were client side - but it does seem more like a server side issue. Windows user and admin security contexts are complicated when it comes to services and remote connections and these may be affecting your SSH installation. Will watch this thread and add any information I can glean. Good luck!
    – G. Cito
    Nov 16, 2014 at 7:20
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I recently ran into the issue myself. I was not happy with the current solutions (making multiple ssh connections in a tabbed console).

So I made my own tool (similar to tmux).

https://github.com/osen/vimux

Dead simple, just extract and run bin/vimux.

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