running remote applications on my X server

frankie_DJ · 01-26-2006, 07:32 PM

Hi everyone,

I've been unsuccesfully trying to run X applications from the remote server (my department's) on my office machine. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

On my machine I allow remote server's access with:

Code:

xhost +departments.server

then I ssh on departments.server and set up display with:

Code:

export DISPLAY="my.machine:0.0"

when I try to run

Code:

xinit

while I am still logged into department.server
I get

Code:

PAM authentication failed, cannot start Xserver.
Perheps you do not have console ownership?

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server.
Xlib: no protocol specified.

giving up.
xinit: unable to connect to xserver.
xinit: no such process (errno3): Server error.

Can running remote Xapps on my Xserver be somehow disabled by administrators for security reasons? BTW I have root control on my.machine.
Thanks.

bosewicht · 01-26-2006, 07:41 PM

You need to make sure you have X fowarding allowed, if so try ssh -X <hostname> /usr/bin/X11/xterm

frankie_DJ · 01-26-2006, 08:40 PM

bosewicht thanks for the reply. I tried as you suggested, adding -x when I ssh in the remote host:

Code:

ssh -x -l myusername department.server

Type in the password, set up the DISPLAY variable on department.server as I already explained and then type:

Code:

/usr/X11R6/bin/xinit

I get the same error, plus additional line

Code:

Couldnt get file descriptor refering to the console

DO I have to maybe set up .xinitrc file in my home dir on department.server? I just wanna see it working first, any application will do. I thought xinit would be the simplest command.
Thanks.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I don't shut down X server for the local machine, just switch virtual consoles.

JimBass · 01-26-2006, 11:14 PM

Bosewicht didn't say ssh -x, he said try ssh -X. -X enables X forwarding, and -x disables it. That is of course assuming that the sshd.conf file on the server has X forwarding as an option. By default it is usually off.

Peace,
JimBass

frankie_DJ · 01-26-2006, 11:41 PM

sorry, misprint. Yes I tried -X option. And my sshd_config file has X forwarding option set to yes by default. I still can't make it work. I am getting the same output as before.

EDIT: ALso, I don't know if this makes any different, it shouldn't IMHO, but department.server is Fedora 4 machine and my.machine is FreeBSD 6.0.

spooon · 01-27-2006, 02:07 AM

If you use SSH X forwarding, don't set DISPLAY or do xhost, xinit or anything like that.