All,

I just upgraded my OS from RHEL 3 to RHEL 4 (WS). I did a fresh install of RHEL 4, not just an upgrade. I am currently running kernel-2.6.9-11 on a Dell PC.

Okay, I used x2x and x2vnc extensively (prior to the fresh install) to translate my mouse and keyboard between a second Linux PC running RHEL 3 and a Mac. They worked very well. After my fresh install, however, neither x2x nor x2vnc work with the '-north/east/south/west' flags that enable me to slide my mouse off of the "from" display to the "to" display. It is almost as if my desktop is locked somehow. I don't understand what the problem could be.

Here are the commands that I use for x2x and x2vnc, respectively:

#> ssh remote_host x2x -to remote_host:0.0 -north

#> x2vnc -passwd $HOME/.vnc/passwd -resurface -wheelhack -mac -east remote_host2:1

I am running 'xhost' where necessary, just like I had before. I'm not sure what the problem could be. Any ideas?

Thanks,

BW

You may have checked this already, but have you tried xforwarding regular apps to/from remote to local consoles on each pc to make sure some default security setting of ssh on RHEL4 or RHEL3 isn't causing the blockage?

elfoozo,

Thanks for the response. You know, this is the first time I have posted something to the forum and not received a lot of feedback. So I really appreciate your response.

Yes, xforwarding is enabled on both machines and seems to be working properly. For instance I can launch xmms from a remote machine and have it play on my desktop. I double checked all settings in ssh_config and sshd_config and even restarted sshd just to be sure. Still...no dice. I believe there may still be a problem with ssh that I have not completely diagnosed: there is one machine (a Mac to be more specific) on our network that I cannot ssh to from my machine. I can, however, ssh to it from another Linux pc in our office. I have compared all ssh settings between these two Linux machines to see if I can pinpoint what is happening on the one that doesn't connect to the Mac, but I don't see any differences. I can ssh to all of the other Linux pc's on our network, so it's not a port blocking problem...at least I don't think that it is.

Okay, here's another possibility about the x2x problem: perhaps there is some window manager working on top of my desktop (gnome2) that is preventing me from sliding off of the screen. I read somewhere that these desktop environments, especially gnome, use some fancy window managers that actually overlay one large window over the desktop to manage apps. If this is happening, it could explain why x2x won't place the tiny little edge window for the side mode to work. I'm not sure how to determine if I have a window manager or something else blocking the desktop.

Thanks for the suggestions all the while. I'm sure I will get to the bottom of this sooner or later.

Cheers,

BW

Problem solved.

So even though I explicitly enabled X11Forwarding in the ssh_config and sshd_config files, X still was not being forwarded properly. I even restarted sshd multiple times and it never seemed to affect the behavior. This was solved by using the -Y flag with ssh. Now all of my X forwarded apps, x2x, and x2vnc work properly.

Hope this helps someone else.

Cheers,

BW