Help running remote X sessions between windows and Linux
 

Hi all

Here is my situation:

I have 2 boxes connected via LAN. Box A is running OpenSUSE 10.2 and box B is running Win XP Pro SP2.

What I would like to accomplish, is to be able to log in to box A's X server from box B and run X applications.

I have found an X Server for windows called Xming only I cannot work out how to use it from the documentation. I also do not know which commands/environmet variables to set on the suse box in order to be able to log in to it. (FYI XMing uses putty to connect to remote hosts).

Ultimately I would like the Suse box to set/run all the appropriate commands automatically when it boots so that I can remove the monitor and so that it is easy to log into from the WinXP box.

So in summary, my questions are this:
1) What commands must I set on the linux box and how can I set them automatically
2) How do I go about setting up Xming (or any other X server for windows - I'm open to recommendations)

I'm a noob in terms of remote X stuff so explanations in full detail would be nice :) :P

Thanks in advance
Combrains

The variable you need to be concerned with is 'DISPLAY'. In the first X environment (you can run dozens on a single machine) with the first graphics card (again, many cards are possible) it should look like DISPLAY=localhost:0.0 sometimes set as the pseudonym DISPLAY=:0.

I remote xwindows applications to windows machines as part of my job. I use RedHat's cygwin environment. It has a full port of X.org's xwindows server for MS Windows. http://cygwin.com/setup.exe Scroll down and click the xwindows category and it will auto select all the dependencies. The scroll up a bit and make sure ssh is selected. Click install and wait awhile.

It will put a green icon on your desktop to run a bash shell. Double click it and type 'startxwin.sh'. A white xterm windows will pop-up. You are now running xwindows on MS Windows. From the new xterm type 'ssh -X username@linuxbox.ipaddr' and login.

Now 'echo $DISPLAY' should show something weird. DISPLAY=:10 This is because ssh can 'tunnel' xwindows over it's encrypted network session. Go ahread and run 'firefox http://linuxquestions.org' and see what happens. If all is well, it will pop open on your MS workstation.

Cheers for that. Is there any way that I can operate as if I was sitting in front of the linux box? i.e. have my KDE session in front of me instead of simply a console? Also, will I need any extra cygwin packages besides the basic X11 packages in order to accomplish this?

Thanks again
combrains


Update:

OK, I have managed to log in to the linux box via OpenSSH for windows and XMing but it is SO SLOW even though it is on a 100Mbit LAN. Plus I don't have a window decorator.

Will CYGWIN be faster and how can I use the window manager that is on my linux box (KDE)?

I think this could be easier with nxserver. Get and install the nxclient, nxnode, nxserver rpms from nomachine.com and the windows client. It seems to run faster over the network than remote X sessions (compression).

I have no idea about speed comparisons, I haven't used Xming in ages.

You could 'ssh -XC username@machine' to turn on compression, but it might actually slow things down on a 100Mpbs LAN (CPU overhead > network speed).

As for KDE:
Cygwin has a windows port of KDE you can run locally, or run 'startkde' on the remoted ssh session.

problems with Xming to Fedora 6
 

Quote:
It will put a green icon on your desktop to run a bash shell. Double click it and type 'startxwin.sh'. A white xterm windows will pop-up. You are now running xwindows on MS Windows. From the new xterm type 'ssh -X username@linuxbox.ipaddr' and login.

Now 'echo $DISPLAY' should show something weird. DISPLAY=:10 This is because ssh can 'tunnel' xwindows over it's encrypted network session. Go ahread and run 'firefox http://linuxquestions.org' and see what happens. If all is well, it will pop open on your MS workstation.

ME:
I tried this because I've been having a horrible time trying to figure out how to use XMING from a XP to a Fedora 6 box. When I did the above I got the following:

[root@pscsec ~]# echo $DISPLAY
localhost:11.0
[root@pscsec ~]# firefox http://linuxquestions.org
(firefox-bin:17211): Gdk-WARNING **: Connection to display localhost:11.0 appears to be untrusted. Pointer and keyboard grabs and inter-client communication may not work as expected.

(firefox-bin:17211): Gdk-WARNING **: Coercing GDK_INPUT_ONLY toplevel window to GDK_INPUT_OUTPUT to work around bug in Xorg server

(Gecko:17211): Gdk-WARNING **: Coercing GDK_INPUT_ONLY toplevel window to GDK_INPUT_OUTPUT to work around bug in Xorg server

(firefox-bin:17211): Gdk-WARNING **: Connection to display localhost:11.0 appears to be untrusted. Pointer and keyboard grabs and inter-client communication may not work as expected.

(firefox-bin:17211): Gdk-WARNING **: Coercing GDK_INPUT_ONLY toplevel window to GDK_INPUT_OUTPUT to work around bug in Xorg server

Sorry for all the junk. The information I've read keeps referring to gdm.conf or the custom.conf file in the /etc/X11/gdm directory. But my set up has the gdm directory in the /etc/gdm.

It's probably 6 of 1 and half a dozen of another. The problem is that I do not have a gdm.conf file located in that directory or any other directory for that matter. When I try some Xwin stuff I get a blue screen on the Linux box that says the X Server didn't start correctly for me to go to the console and restart X. I've done that.

Ok too cool, sorry for the jibberish, but after looking at my task bar I noticed a firefox session running that looks as if it came from the above command.

But that still doesn't get my XMing thing running. When I click on XMING.exe and then XLaunch.exe I can see that I'm connected to the box but no gui. Any hand holding is permitted.

Thanks
Frank