[LUGSB] Remote desktop from SINC site?

[Michael F. Lamb]

Michael wrote:
> As the subject explains, I'd like to be able to control my desktop, on 
> the computer in dorm room, from a SINC site computer. I've been able to 
> SSH in to my box
> and that's all worked fine, but I haven't been able to use X-session
> forwarding. For example, when I attempt to start my (graphical, not lynx)
> web browser, I get a message along the lines of "display not found". Does
> this indicate that I have not setup SSH or X correctly, or is there a
> (artificial) limitation of the SINC site computers/network? If it's the
> later, is there a solution anyone could suggest to me that they've gotten
> working, such as VNC or RDP?

You're probably aware that you need an "X server" on the machine you're 
connecting from, in order for the client (web browser) tunneling through 
your ssh connection to have somewhere to display itself. I don't know of 
any Windows boxes in the SINC sites that have this, so you must be using 
a Mac (which come with an X server program?) or one of the Unix machines 
in the Math/Physics SINC site?

Assuming you've got that part set up properly, have you remembered to 
set 'X11Forwarding yes' in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the box in the dorm, 
and enable X forwarding in your client? With linux ssh, if it's not set 
up to forward X by default (configurable in ~/.ssh/config) you have to 
launch it with the '-X' command line option.

I haven't ever tried to run an X11 app remotely from the macs or the 
Math SINC site boxes, but I think I have from a computer lab in the CS 
building.