Hi all,
I am brand new to the Unix/Linux world, just started taking the plunge. First of all, please forgive me if this is not the appropriate place to ask such questions...
I just installed Fedora Core 4 and have been playing around with it for several weeks now. I also have a Windows XP machine connected to the same router as the linux box. I'd love to be able to do everything from one machine, therefore setting up an X server on the windows box to run X programs and have them appear on my windows machine. I downloaded Xwin32 and have been able to do what I just described.
However I'd like to take it to the next level and be able to popup the entire KDE desktop on my windows machine. I believe that the way to do this is using XDMCP, and then Xwin32 is only remotely managing the KDE session running on the Linux PC. However, upon trying to use the XDMCP option in Xwin32 to connect, my entire Windows desktop turns grey, with a slightly linux-y looking mouse pointer, but nothing ever happens. I need to Alt-tab to get back to any of my other windows programs. Has anyone ever seen this before?
A few things:
1. In the KDE Login settings (I believe that runs gdmsetup), I've checked "Enable XDMCP" on the XDMCP tab (I'm using the SAMS Red Hat Fedora 4 book and it led me to believe that this is all I would need to do). 2. I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config to comment out the line "DisplayManager.requestPort: 0". I added a "!" in front of that line. 3. I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/kdmrc to change the line "Enable=false" to "Enable=true" under [Xdmcp]. Both this step and step 2 I found from various internet postings and thought I'd give them a try. 4. On my network, my windows PC gets a dynamic IP address from my router and I configured the Linux machine to use a static IP. I've set up Xwin32 to connect to Linux using it's IPaddress, and the Xwin32 configuration specifies the IP address of the windows machine to route its display back to. Both machines can only ping each other using their IPaddresses, not hostnames (I've nothing set up in the host files for either machine).
Between each configuration steps 1, 2 and 3, I restarted the Linux machine (the postings mentioned restarting just X, but I didn't know how to do that. They actually mentioned restarting the X server, but that didn't make sense to me. Isn't the Xserver what is running on my Windows PC, but I made the changes on the Linux side? I thought I would need to restart whatever is running on the Linux side, is that referred to as the X client?).
Well, that's really it. Have I missed a magic step somewhere along the line, or is the problem more complicated, related to my hardware/firewall setup perhaps (I tried this while disabling my Windows firewall, no luck)? At this point, I'm not really sure if the issue is the Linux configuration, my network or the X server configuration on my PC. Maybe a different X server (CygwinX perhaps?) would give me better luck?
Sorry if this is such a basic thing, I really am just barely starting to figure this thing out.
Thanks, any help would be appreciated!
Jason
Jason M. Dolinger wrote:
Hi all,
I am brand new to the Unix/Linux world, just started taking the plunge. First of all, please forgive me if this is not the appropriate place to ask such questions...
I just installed Fedora Core 4 and have been playing around with it for several weeks now. I also have a Windows XP machine connected to the same router as the linux box. I'd love to be able to do everything from one machine, therefore setting up an X server on the windows box to run X programs and have them appear on my windows machine. I downloaded Xwin32 and have been able to do what I just described.
However I'd like to take it to the next level and be able to popup the entire KDE desktop on my windows machine. I believe that the way to do this is using XDMCP, and then Xwin32 is only remotely managing the KDE session running on the Linux PC. However, upon trying to use the XDMCP option in Xwin32 to connect, my entire Windows desktop turns grey, with a slightly linux-y looking mouse pointer, but nothing ever happens. I need to Alt-tab to get back to any of my other windows programs. Has anyone ever seen this before?
A few things:
- In the KDE Login settings (I believe that runs gdmsetup), I've
checked "Enable XDMCP" on the XDMCP tab (I'm using the SAMS Red Hat Fedora 4 book and it led me to believe that this is all I would need to do).
Are you sure? I don't have a Fedora 4 setup to hand at the moment. But the default in RHEL 4 is to use gdm, and this is controlled by /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf. Check which display manager is actually running.
Also, to see if your display manager is accepting connections from the network do a 'netstat -l' and see if there is a udp server listening on *:177 or *:xdmcp.
- I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config to comment out the line
"DisplayManager.requestPort: 0". I added a "!" in front of that line. 3. I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/kdmrc to change the line "Enable=false" to "Enable=true" under [Xdmcp]. Both this step and step 2 I found from various internet postings and thought I'd give them a try. 4. On my network, my windows PC gets a dynamic IP address from my router and I configured the Linux machine to use a static IP. I've set up Xwin32 to connect to Linux using it's IPaddress, and the Xwin32 configuration specifies the IP address of the windows machine to route its display back to. Both machines can only ping each other using their IPaddresses, not hostnames (I've nothing set up in the host files for either machine).
How is the X server started? Does it broadcast, or query the XDMCP server? It's strange that the X server would need to be configured with its own IP number.
Between each configuration steps 1, 2 and 3, I restarted the Linux machine (the postings mentioned restarting just X, but I didn't know how to do that. They actually mentioned restarting the X server, but that didn't make sense to me. Isn't the Xserver what is running on my Windows PC, but I made the changes on the Linux side? I thought I would need to restart whatever is running on the Linux side, is that referred to as the X client?).
In these situations the idea of server and client gets somewhat blurred. What actually needs restarting is the XDMCP server on the Linux box. This is, in fact, the X server on the Linux box, which communicates with the X server on your Windows box. During XDMCP the X server on your Windows PC is acting as a client to the XDMCP server (X server) on the Linux box. After login the XDMCP server is no longer in the loop, and the X clients on the Linux box communicate directly with the X server on the PC. Confused? You will be.
Well, that's really it. Have I missed a magic step somewhere along the line, or is the problem more complicated, related to my hardware/firewall setup perhaps (I tried this while disabling my Windows firewall, no luck)? At this point, I'm not really sure if the issue is the Linux configuration, my network or the X server configuration on my PC. Maybe a different X server (CygwinX perhaps?) would give me better luck?
Sorry if this is such a basic thing, I really am just barely starting to figure this thing out.
Thanks, any help would be appreciated!
Jason
The Windows firewall must permit the X11 port for connections. This is normally port 6000 for display number 0, and increments by 1 for each display.
Do you run a firewall on the Linux box? XDMCP requires port 177. You might also need to enable the font server (xfs) to listen on the network rather than just the UNIX domain socket (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/config), and also open that up through the firewall on port 7100.
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
1) Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
NOTE: To check if your sshd is running on your linux/unix machine use command "service sshd status". If not running start it by "service sshd start".
Regards, Sundar.
On 11/30/05, Nigel Wade nmw@ion.le.ac.uk wrote:
Jason M. Dolinger wrote:
Hi all,
I am brand new to the Unix/Linux world, just started taking the plunge. First of all, please forgive me if this is not the appropriate place to ask such questions...
I just installed Fedora Core 4 and have been playing around with it for several weeks now. I also have a Windows XP machine connected to the same router as the linux box. I'd love to be able to do everything from one machine, therefore setting up an X server on the windows box to run X programs and have them appear on my windows machine. I downloaded Xwin32 and have been able to do what I just described.
However I'd like to take it to the next level and be able to popup the entire KDE desktop on my windows machine. I believe that the way to do this is using XDMCP, and then Xwin32 is only remotely managing the KDE session running on the Linux PC. However, upon trying to use the XDMCP option in Xwin32 to connect, my entire Windows desktop turns grey, with a slightly linux-y looking mouse pointer, but nothing ever happens. I need to Alt-tab to get back to any of my other windows programs. Has anyone ever seen this before?
A few things:
- In the KDE Login settings (I believe that runs gdmsetup), I've
checked "Enable XDMCP" on the XDMCP tab (I'm using the SAMS Red Hat Fedora 4 book and it led me to believe that this is all I would need to do).
Are you sure? I don't have a Fedora 4 setup to hand at the moment. But the default in RHEL 4 is to use gdm, and this is controlled by /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf. Check which display manager is actually running.
Also, to see if your display manager is accepting connections from the network do a 'netstat -l' and see if there is a udp server listening on *:177 or *:xdmcp.
- I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config to comment out the line
"DisplayManager.requestPort: 0". I added a "!" in front of that line. 3. I've edited /etc/X11/xdm/kdmrc to change the line "Enable=false" to "Enable=true" under [Xdmcp]. Both this step and step 2 I found from various internet postings and thought I'd give them a try. 4. On my network, my windows PC gets a dynamic IP address from my router and I configured the Linux machine to use a static IP. I've set up Xwin32 to connect to Linux using it's IPaddress, and the Xwin32 configuration specifies the IP address of the windows machine to route its display back to. Both machines can only ping each other using their IPaddresses, not hostnames (I've nothing set up in the host files for either machine).
How is the X server started? Does it broadcast, or query the XDMCP server? It's strange that the X server would need to be configured with its own IP number.
Between each configuration steps 1, 2 and 3, I restarted the Linux machine (the postings mentioned restarting just X, but I didn't know how to do that. They actually mentioned restarting the X server, but that didn't make sense to me. Isn't the Xserver what is running on my Windows PC, but I made the changes on the Linux side? I thought I would need to restart whatever is running on the Linux side, is that referred to as the X client?).
In these situations the idea of server and client gets somewhat blurred. What actually needs restarting is the XDMCP server on the Linux box. This is, in fact, the X server on the Linux box, which communicates with the X server on your Windows box. During XDMCP the X server on your Windows PC is acting as a client to the XDMCP server (X server) on the Linux box. After login the XDMCP server is no longer in the loop, and the X clients on the Linux box communicate directly with the X server on the PC. Confused? You will be.
Well, that's really it. Have I missed a magic step somewhere along the line, or is the problem more complicated, related to my hardware/firewall setup perhaps (I tried this while disabling my Windows firewall, no luck)? At this point, I'm not really sure if the issue is the Linux configuration, my network or the X server configuration on my PC. Maybe a different X server (CygwinX perhaps?) would give me better luck?
Sorry if this is such a basic thing, I really am just barely starting to figure this thing out.
Thanks, any help would be appreciated!
Jason
The Windows firewall must permit the X11 port for connections. This is normally port 6000 for display number 0, and increments by 1 for each display.
Do you run a firewall on the Linux box? XDMCP requires port 177. You might also need to enable the font server (xfs) to listen on the network rather than just the UNIX domain socket (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/config), and also open that up through the firewall on port 7100.
-- Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK E-mail : nmw@ion.le.ac.uk Phone : +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555
-- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
-- Trinity: Maybe we did something wrong. Neo: Or didn't do something. Morpheus: No, what happened happened and couldn't have happened any other way. Neo: How do you know? Morpheus: We are still alive.
On Thu, 2005-12-01 at 05:31, Sundarapandian A wrote:
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
- Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh
is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
NOTE: To check if your sshd is running on your linux/unix machine use command "service sshd status". If not running start it by "service sshd start".
Two other ways: Run gdmconfig on the linux side, click the XDMPC tab and enable XMDPC logins. On the windows side run Xwin -query linux_server You should get a graphic login prompt. This gives you a complete Linux desktop in what appears as one MS window. Note that you have to disable the XP firewall for this to work.
Or,
From a cygwin bash prompt on the windows side:
export DISPLAY=:0 Xwin -clipboard -multiwindow & ssh -y linux_server log in, start X program(s) by typing their names Each program started should open in it's own individual window on your desktop and appear like separate MS programs. Note that you can run 'nautilus' and get what looks like the desktop without menus or task bars, and you can then start programs which have launchers in the filesystem (and you can create these easily by dragging them off the gnome menu during a normal login). Programs started this way also get their own window. I'm not sure if there is a KDE equivalent.
Sundarapandian A wrote:
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
- Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh
is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
Boooom!! - anyone else who can login to your Linux box can see everything you do, and type. Only do this if security isn't an issue for you.
You are right Nigel. Telnet is not secure but ssh will not let you down.
Regards, Sundar.
On 12/2/05, Nigel Wade nmw@ion.le.ac.uk wrote:
Sundarapandian A wrote:
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
- Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh
is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
Boooom!! - anyone else who can login to your Linux box can see everything you do, and type. Only do this if security isn't an issue for you.
-- Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK E-mail : nmw@ion.le.ac.uk Phone : +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555
-- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
-- Trinity: Maybe we did something wrong. Neo: Or didn't do something. Morpheus: No, what happened happened and couldn't have happened any other way. Neo: How do you know? Morpheus: We are still alive.
Nigel Wade wrote:
Sundarapandian A wrote:
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
- Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh
is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
Boooom!! - anyone else who can login to your Linux box can see everything you do, and type. Only do this if security isn't an issue for you.
How is this Nigel? Can you suggest a better way, and explain why it's better?
John Summerfied wrote:
Nigel Wade wrote:
Sundarapandian A wrote:
There is one more easy way of doing this. Just follow the steps below
- Make sure you have XFree86 with cygwin is installed on your XP, ssh
is available on XP machine <you can use telnet also>, X server is running on linux/unix host, sshd is running on linux/unix host. 2) Make sure your <cygwin dir>/usr/X11R6/bin is specified in PATH then start X Windows using the command "XWin.exe -fullscreen -clipboard -unixkill -nowinkill" 3) Now you will get XWindows sceen without any applications or window (You can use ALT+TAB to switch between windows and XWindows) 4) Start xterm on your XP machine (terminal will appear on xwindow screen) 5) On the command prompt of xterm say "xhost <linux/unix server name or IP>" 6) Now on xterm type the command "ssh <username@linux/unix servername>" enter password to complete the login 7) On the xterm now type "export DISPLAY=<windows XP hostname/IP>:0.0 8) Now on xterm execute "startkde &" 9) Boooom!! now you'll see KDE on your XP machine!!!!
Boooom!! - anyone else who can login to your Linux box can see everything you do, and type. Only do this if security isn't an issue for you.
How is this Nigel? Can you suggest a better way, and explain why it's better?
The reason is that "xhost host" permits any X client from host "host" to connect to your X server, irrespective of who is executing that client. That X client is permitted to to anything - post modal windows to block the display, receive keyboard events etc.
The way to allow certain clients to connect, whilst refusing others, is to use xauth and the standard MIT_MAGIC_COOKIE. Clients which are unable to supply the correct cookie for the server will be refused connection. This is only as secure as the filesystem security on any system which holds the xauth files for clients which are allowed to connect.
ssh X11 forwarding is no more secure in this respect than xauth - it uses xauth on the client. It simply provides a secure tunnel over the network between the client and the server. Any user who has access to the xauth file containing the cookie can use that tunnel.