Hi friends,

Can I do something like this,

Linux Server on Machine A (No X)

Linux Workstation on Machine B (with X)

Now can I use the Machine B's XWindows to parse through and work around on the complete file/directory structure of Machine A ?

Thanks
Ashwin

I am not sure of what you are asking.

You can display an X-session remotely... for instance, you can launch an application on a server and have it display on your workstation instead of the server.
This is how "X-stations" work.


And.. you can export parts or all of the filesystem on a server and mount them remotely so that you can look around in the directory structure

Hi KevinJ,

I want to do a thing like this using a linux server and workstation.

eg. If I have a Win NT server and a Win NT workstation and I share all the drives of the Win NT server with full rights, I would be able to parse through the entire directory from the WinNT workstation through network neighbourhood.

So similarly I want my X-Window window manager on my workstation to parse through the entire file structure of the server. This I need as my server does not have GUI and I would like to view the file structure of the server through GUI. Besides this I also want to run applications / commands on the server through the GUI on the workstation.From your reply I have a feeling that you have hinted it can be done. How I do it is now my question since, actually, the concepts of exporting filesystems and mounting filesystems remotely is not yet completely clear to me.

I hope I have made my doubt clear.

Thanks for your time,
Ashwin

If you were only interesting in being able to access the files, you might just want to look at NFS:

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/index.html

But it sound like what you might also want is to be able to export an Xdisplay. Thats easy to do. Lets say you are on a box called "remote" and you want to run an X app on a box called "server". First... you have to give permission to "server" to display on "remote" so you issue:

xhost + server

Then, you telnet or ssh into server. From your remote shell, you issue:

export DISPLAY=remote:0

Then you just run an X application, in this case since you want to look through the file system, you might issue:

gmc &

and the Gnome Midnight COmmander will be running on "server" but displaying on "remote". Now.. than can get very confusing.. be careful.

Check out these for more info:
http://jgo.local.net/LinuxGuide/linux-X-remote.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Remote-X-Apps-1.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LBX.html

One other thing you might want to look into is 'Xnest'. There is info on http://www.xfree86.org
That allows you to create and export entire desktops instead of just apps. I don't know a whole lot about it though.