SSH Forwarding
One thing I see a lot of people in the dark about is “SSH X Forwarding”. Yes, it sounds scary. But it really just means that you can run applications from any computer that has an “X client”. Yes, that also sounds scary. But if you are running Ubuntu as a desktop, then you are running an “X server”. For example, at work I have a vmware-server that I have various operating systems so I can test web layouts in different browsers.
# ssh -X sharms@mywork.com
# vmware
When I run this, even though vmware is installed on my system at work, I can use it from my laptop! Check it out:
Yes. It was that easy. And for another neat feature, now I took a screenshot with Gimp, which is basically photoshop for linux. I needed a way to upload these files to my webhost. So I went to “Places -> Connect to server” and filled this in:
Then all I did was drag my files into the folder, and bam, I uploaded my files. Easy. Cool. Ubuntu.
FreeNX
For some people, ssh X forwarding may be a bit slow. If you don’t have a fast connection, you can try FreeNX instead.
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#1 by Mike on November 14, 2006 - 5:23 am
One of the coolest things you can use with X forwarding is Xnest. From my MacBook Pro I often do:
ssh -x 192.168.0.50 Xnest :1 -query localhost
so I can use a full Gnome or KDE desktop from the other room.
#2 by mindwarp on November 14, 2006 - 5:53 am
Actually probably gnome users would want to run: gdmflexiserver –xnest
#3 by William Grant on November 14, 2006 - 10:00 am
Actually, in that case VMWare is the X client, and your Ubuntu machine is running the X server. The clients are the applications, which connect to the server to display themselves.
#4 by RichB on November 14, 2006 - 1:33 pm
I find ssh -Y runs apps that otherwise don’t run (Xara Xtreme springs to mind).
-Y Enables trusted X11 forwarding. Trusted X11 forwardings are not
subjected to the X11 SECURITY extension controls.
#5 by Jon on November 14, 2006 - 8:09 pm
Yes, I think you’ve proved that it *is* often confusing, by mixing client and server up