Linux to Linux Gui through SSH

Trying to grasp the whole remote desktop connection. For my Electrical Computer Engineering class, we have a lab on the far side of campus, and my professor gave us the option of ssh to the lab for our projects. I'm running bootable Knoppix v4.0, and I don't know what versions of linux the other computers are running. So when I have terminal open, I do the ssh -l (username) flux.ece.utk.edu, and get to the shell of the remote computer and I can run apps from that, but my professor told me that a gui can be brought up instead of running terminal. I have found something else. It is ssh -x [email protected]. I have tried that line but my terminal crashes for reasons I don't know. If anybody knows any suggestions, please post because I need to know how to do this before I bring up my Counter-Strike server to my dorm room. I was thinking about putting old red hat and working ssh with it. Please help!!! -ccbr01

 

I think it depends on the distribution. I know that we use Fedora Core 4 here and when you install the Server side of FC4 it doesn't install the X Windows interface. I will try it later tonight when I boot back up to linux and see if that will work, but I am pretty sure if there is a server installation it won't work. But you may need something else for the GUI to show up and might need another program. I know here there is something else that I can use instead of SSH that would be able to bring up a GUI, but I have never gotten that to work. I would have to get you the name of it tomorrow, as I am not in the labs, but I think it is a proprietary program someone wrote here. But if I can get a hold of it, maybe I can lend it to you.

 

Ok, I found out what the computers in the lab are running. They are running Debian GNU/Linux - Sarge. That should connect via ssh to my Knoppix because Knoppix is Debian Linux.

 

Well it doesn't seem to work here for me. I think it is because of what I said before of the X Windows interface not being installed on a server.

 

Hello! Yea, at my campus we do that too.
Here is a guide by our Computer Science Department, maybe it can help you.

SSH, but you already know how to do this:
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/network/help/ssh.php

Running remote X-Applications:
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/network/help/ssh.php

READ THIS FOR A BETTER SOLUTION!
I've run Debian GNU/Linux for several years. And whenever I wanted to run Linux applications on my Windows computer, I got CygWin and then I got the CygWin Xserver package. Then inside of CygWin, I SSH into the Linux box that I want to connect to and then initiate an X session and then connect from my CygWin-X session on the local computer to that. This lets me run whatever X programs I want (or KDE, Gnome, whatever). The performance of this method is typically MUCH faster than booting from a Knoppix CD. It is also MUCH faster than running a VNC Server. PLUS you can work in Windows and copy-paste back and forth from Windows applications to Linux applications.

To do this is a bit complex, but the performance is incredible.
http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/cygwin-x-ug.html

The best setups are this:
1. Either do a pure install of Linux to your hard drive and run that...
2. OR Run CygWin/X in Windows XP/98, and run the Linux apps remotely on the Linux box. Of course.... This will put load on the Linux box. But it works very well.

I'm guessing you don't want to do #1 which is why you're running Knoppix. I don't suggest you run Knoppix, it boots way too slow. Try #2.

 

You need to run an X client locally on the computer.. If you're in Linux, then just install XFree86 and instead of initializing it onto the local monitor (default) initialize it over the network to a remote X-session. If you're running Windows, use CygWin-X and do the same thing.

EDIT: I just tested the CygWin, and it works...

First I ran startx in CygWin-X
Then a xterm came up. Its an X-application, but it's running locally. I want to run applications on the remote linux box... So....
Then I typed ssh -Y -l smithd12 belle.cs.sunyit.edu
which connects to my school's Linux box
Then I ran xeyes& and *poof* it just works lol..
This is the easiest way, and gets good performance... You can also stream OpenGL stuff through SSH X-Servers as well.
There are guides to do this.

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.

 

CygWin-X isn't stable with our lab. Professor told us that. I don't know why. Our backbone is very slow in the Electrical Computer Engineering building. I'm going to stick to my Knoppix hopefully. Thanks for the info.

I found this site on your servers ( http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/network/help/x11remote.php) I just printed it off and going to try that. Thanks again

 

Knoppix is great. I use version 3.6 (3.8 is the latest) it runs pretty stable.

 

I tried using cygwinx but i guess our servers here don't really have the X Windows installed. Too bad. I sound like a broken record.

I have a question though. I know you can use the secure shell transfer client to move files back and forth. Can you do the same in cygwin, such as typing "sftp username@hostname" and when i "get" and "put" files, where do they get "put", is it under my install directory, then "\home\username" ?

If I want to install more packages, do I then have to rerun the executable that was downloaded from the site or do I have to install them manually?

Thanks for the help. I am a relative novice at this.

 

I tried the Remote X command last night (ssh -x remotemachine), and it just went back into the terminal. I tried to excute some gui commands but nothing works. I don't know what to do...

 

ssh -x will appear to be the same terminal you get as if you didn't use the -x option. You may need to just be more patient. You said earlier that the network connection to the remote machine is very slow. Remote X sessions take a lot of bandwidth. I have a server that I connect to from home, fast cable connections on both ends, and it can take a full minute or two before the window will come up on screen. Unless the program is just dying in the terminal...

 

Are you doing ssh -x or ssh -X? The latter enables X forwarding, the former disables it...

EDIT: And you may want to use -XC as the C enables compression.

- Trip

 

Haha! This thread was made 22 months ago when I was in my c++ class. lol I've long been knowing how to do this, but thanks for your help with this thread. rep+

 

Sorry about that. I must've hit "Last page" instead of "Next page" again. Heh, I'm feeling pretty stupid...