Hi,

I am having trouble running gui apps with vncserver.

On the server I run vncserver :0

I connect with vncview to the server ip + :0

at the prompt I run DISPLAY=mypcip:0 (I have also tried :0.0)
export DISPLAY

when I run xclock I get an error Can't open display: mypcip
BUT I can run xclock -display :0

Can anyone think of what is wrong

Thanks
Randy

Just hazarding a guess, but it sounds like your confusing vnc with X forwarding. Running a VNC client should get you a view to a desktop on the remote machine that you can use as if you were there. You shouldn't have to use DISPLAY or worry about the screen.

Am I missing something?

I am/was confusing X forwarding with vncserver. Still not sure what the problem is though

randy

OK, if you want to do X forwarding you need two things: 1) An SSH connection to the remote computer with X forwarding enabled (the -Y flag) and an X server running on the local machine. So here is an example.... Lets say your remote computer has the IP address of 1.1.1.1, so you would establish the SSH connection like this:

ssh user@1.1.1.1 -Y

Once that is established, then, in the SSH console you would enter the xclock command. As long as you have X running on the local computer, xclock should appear. If the local computer is Linux, then there shouldn't be a problem with having X available, however if the local computer is Windows, you'll need to install and run something like Cygwin to get a local X server. Windows by itself can't handle X forwarding.

My local box is running windows. Shouldn't I be able to do this with realvnc?
Since xclock -display :0 DOES work with realvnc, I would think I am close.

Where are you entering that command? It is absolutely and utterly irrelevant for VNC.

All a VNC viewer is doing is showing you a picture of an X environment that is running remotely. It is literally as if you were sitting at the remote computer. Everything is being run on the remote computer, and all the VNC viewer is doing is showing you what is happening on the remote. Think of VNC as a monitor connected to the remote with an infinitely long cable.