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windowsx11xming

Running X windows applications remotely from a Windows server


This may seem like a strange question but it has some value for the project I am currently working on.

I have a Windows 2003 server running XMing (or Cygwinx). I am connecting to the server from Ubunutu using ssh with X11 forwarding enabled. When I launch any X application on the Windows 2003 server (such as xeyes) the application displays on the Windows server and not on the local Ubuntu machine.

Xming is a fully implemented X Server so I assumed it would support serving X applications to remote clients. Any suggestions why this is not working?


Solution

  • Sounds like the ssh server is not acknowledging the X forwarding request. After you login, check the environment and you should see the DISPLAY variable set, indicating host and display (e.g. localhost:10); if that is missing, the X clients will use the default (e.g localhost:0) DISPLAY.

    Also, the X server on the remote machine (the one ssh'd into) has no bearing on this, only the X clients installed there. When you ssh to the remote machine, your local Ubuntu host is the X server, accepting connections from the remote X clients.