On Vista Machine cmd prompt
Putty/SSH into linux box


root@james-desktop:/home/james# gedit
cannot open display:
Run 'gedit --help' to see a full list of available command line options.
root@james-desktop:/home/james# DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit
root@james-desktop:/home/james# DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit &
[2] 6846
root@james-desktop:/home/james#
So from above: Gedit cant open DISPLAY and fails
Setting DISPLAY to :0.0 and executing gedit gives no failure msg but doesn't open GEDIT on the Vista Screen
Adding a trailing Ampersand gives [2] 6846 and still fails to open Gedit on the vista screen

Any help will be appreciated

Do you have X11Forwarding enabled ?

What command would I need to execute to discover if I have X11 forwarding?
And can I execute the command from a Vista laptop across a putty ssh or do I need to travel to the linux box to execute?
Thank you for your rapid response

Wait, hold on....

If you want gedit to appear on your Vista system, you need to be running an X11 server on Vista.

[ stuff below applies only if you want to run gedit to a local x server ]

In your sshd_config file (probably in /etc/ssh) on the ssh server, there are configuration options for X11Forwarding:

X11Forwarding yes
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes

You want X11Forwarding yes. Edit the file as root, add the option, and then restart the ssh server.

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

It is a good idea to have a couple of ssh connections to the server, so that if you make a mistake in the sshd_config file, you aren't locked out of the server.

Do you have an X server running on the Vista machine? 'Cos you'll need one if you want to run graphical programs like gedit over ssh.
You could of course just use a non-graphical interface editor. If you're only used to GUI editors then pico is possibly the easiest non-graphical interface text editor to pick up and use. Certainly easier than vi or emacs, though not as powerful as either.

Here is the content of /etc/ssh/ssh_config
I am unfamiliar with X Syntax but I see # symbols to the right of all entries. Some apps use that as a comment. Second line comes close to your X11forwarding yes
Do I need to edit that line to delete the # and change the No to Yes? if so what other changes do I need to make?

Host *
# ForwardAgent no
# ForwardX11 no
# ForwardX11Trusted yes
# RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# RSAAuthentication yes
# PasswordAuthentication yes
# HostbasedAuthentication no
# GSSAPIAuthentication no
# GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no
# GSSAPIKeyExchange no
# GSSAPITrustDNS no
# BatchMode no
# CheckHostIP yes
# AddressFamily any
# ConnectTimeout 0
# StrictHostKeyChecking ask
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/identity
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Thanks for the help

What do I need to do to get an Xserver running on the Vista machine?

Don't know exactly as I've never done it. Maybe http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/

Well, you could use Cygwin and install/configure its X11 server.

See the list of available X servers for Windows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Windo...mplementations

I've used each of the X servers from Cygwin, XWin32, and Exceed.

Not sure just what to download to get cygwin. Hit a mirror site but the file names did not see to make much sense. Can you help?

You use the setup.exe program, and select the packages you want.

http://www.cygwin.com/

The big Installing and Updating Cygwin area indicates how.

You might find xming a simpler option.

Installed Cygwin on my Vista Laptop
I have two windows open 1 Putty 2 cygwin
Cygwin window can't find Gedit
putty can't open display
at the SSH windows

root@james-desktop:/etc/ssh# DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit &
[4] 6907
[3] Done DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit
root@james-desktop:/etc/ssh#

With putty, you need to connect to your Linux box with SSH, and hae X11 forwarding enabled on both the client and server.

See: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XDMCP-HOWTO/ssh.html

In Post #6 above there is a copy of ssh_config
Do I delete the # symbol and change NO to Yes in line 2 and delete the # symbol in line 3?

found a note to run start x did that and it appeared to install here is the result

root@james-desktop:/etc/ssh# startx
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.serverauth.6917
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority

X: warning; process set to priority -1 instead of requested priority 0

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
and start again.

root@james-desktop:/etc/ssh#
Will do more Reading :-)