[SOLVED] SSH - X Forwarding

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 03:27 AM

Hi all,

I used to have my computers set up brilliantly for me. I have a media computer which has speakers attached and I use SSH X forwarding so I can control Rhythmbox on my netbook. Recently after a Distro upgrade this has all stopped working.

I use

Code:

ssh -X user@server

to start the SSH session and then type rhythmbox to start the program. It now returns the following error:

Code:

rhythmbox
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

(rhythmbox:4752): Rhythmbox-CRITICAL **: Error connecting: Connection refused

** (rhythmbox:4752): WARNING **: Error connecting: Connection refused

It's not just rhythmbox though, as when I try gedit just for testing purposes, a common theme appears.

Code:

 gedit
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

** (gedit:4763): WARNING **: Could not connect to session bus

DuckDuckGoing produces little help in the way of the "Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"" error message. I have libcanberra-gtk-module, libcanberra-gtk0 and libcanberra-gtk3-0 installed.

My most sincere apologies for this long post, but I've tried to post all the relevant information to aid you gurus in knowing what I'm doing wrong. I'd like to finish this by pointing out I'm not very good with computers, I'm not 'into' computers, I just like them when they work.

Thanks

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 04:59 AM

Check your /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the server side for the line:
X11Forwarding yes

Remove the # at the beginning of the line and either restart the server machine or restart sshd.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 05:13 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the fast reply, checked the file and there's not # in the beginning of that line.

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 05:28 AM

Try to run xcalc. Might be a problem with dbus not running. In short, try running something that doesn't require dbus. I'm guessing old xcalc might not require it.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 05:44 AM

Xcalc works!

What's dbus? Why might it not be running? Do I want it running? I'm running Cinnamon if that's any help on both systems.

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 06:00 AM

Well then we've established that your ssh connection is working for X forwarding. Now if you're able to run that program on the media center box directly then dbus should be allright. (dbus is a program used by programs to communicate with eachother). If dbus is running and your Gnome programs can't connect to it (connection refused message in your terminal output) then this might be a permission problem.

This is interesting:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...nf/+bug/367169

Basically says to check that everything in your ~/.dbus/session-bus directory is owned by you. Try that.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 06:03 AM

On the media PC I've done this:

Code:

ls -l ~/.dbus/session-bus
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 myuser myuser 463 Jun 21 09:19 3c57545fd9007fcac1f08fcd00001118-0

I've also just double checked, Rhythmbox does run when you launch it from the media computer directly.

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotAComputerGuy

On the media PC I've done this:

Code:

ls -l ~/.dbus/session-bus
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 myuser myuser 463 Jun 21 09:19 3c57545fd9007fcac1f08fcd00001118-0

Is 'myuser' your current user account? Run the following as your own user (not as root). Nothing should be displayed. If something is displayed then that means something is not owned by you.

Code:

$ find ~/.dbus/ ! -user $USER
$ find ~/.dbus/ ! -group $USER

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 06:15 AM

Hi,

Due to paranoia, I have replaced my username with myuser just for the sake of the public domain. I'm sure it's daft but the internet, quite frankly, scares me.

I've Have run both of those, and nothing is returned.

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 06:29 AM

I'm betting on this being a dbus problem. Try this:

Code:

dbus-launch <name of program>

Where program would be the command to launch the program. This will set up some environment variables for the program so that (hopefully) it will connect to dbus.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 06:34 AM

Wow!

Code:

dbus-launch rhythmbox
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(rhythmbox:5808): Rhythmbox-WARNING **: Unable to grab media player keys: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface `org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.MediaKeys' on object at path /org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/MediaKeys

But it launched and worked! I guess I can just alias it!

Any suggestions for a 'better' way of doing it would be appreciated.

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotAComputerGuy

Any suggestions for a 'better' way of doing it would be appreciated.

Great! Try to add:

Code:

if test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ; then
     ## if not found, launch a new one
     eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
     echo "D-Bus per-session daemon address is: $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"
fi

To your ~/.bash_profile so that it gets run automatically whenever you login through ssh.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 06:53 AM

Hi,

Created the file ~/.bash_profile and added that, it works, but it's made ssh go *really* slow and ignore a few of my key strokes. Is that normal? Is there a fix?

i_joh · 06-22-2012, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotAComputerGuy

Hi,

Created the file ~/.bash_profile and added that, it works, but it's made ssh go *really* slow and ignore a few of my key strokes. Is that normal? Is there a fix?

Try to reboot if it stays slow. dbus shouldn't mess up ssh at all. Might be the other dbus session that was started that's still around. That shouldn't happen with that code though after you reboot.

NotAComputerGuy · 06-22-2012, 07:12 AM

Rebooted and it's still quite slow:

Just an example I typed: Hello, world. This a test.
It came out as: Hllo, wrld Tisis ts

Am I right in thinking if I remove that and just stick to 'dbus-launch' that's a perfectly acceptable way of running programs or does it have potential to cause long term hassle and issues?