topic Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH in Operating System - OpenVMS

DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

VinceC — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 11:38:58 GMT

Hi community

I'm trying to setup X11 forwarding over SSH and everything seems to be working fine except for CDE/Motif. I've configured SSH on the server and I can open applications like DECterm, clock, EVE without any problems.

At the moment I use the old session manager (decw$session) but would like to get CDE working. Normally when I telnet to the server and set my display I can open it using decw$startlogin but when using ssh it doen't work

Any advice?

I've got HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Industry Standard 64 Version V5.6 - ECO 4
on an HP Itanium (OpenVMS V8.3-1H1)

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

Steven Schweda — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 23:06:12 GMT

> I'm trying to setup X11 forwarding over SSH [...]

   I've never really made this work (or tried very hard), so I know
nothing, but ...

> [...] set my display [...]

   Set it _how_, exactly? My vague impression of X forwarding over SSH
was that the SSH server set the display itself. (Unlike a Telnet or RSH
connection, which requires you (or your LOGIN.COM script) to set it.)

> [...] when using ssh it doen't work

   "Doesn't work" is not a useful problem description. Actual behavior?
Actual error messages?

> I've got [...]

That's one system, apparently the X client. What's the other one
(that is, the X server -- the system with the display/keyboard/mouse)?
And how, exactly, is the SSH connection made? The command-line SSH
clients which I've seen typically have options like "-X" or "-Y" which
control if/how the X forwarding is done.

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

VinceC — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 07:59:21 GMT

Hi Steven

I use

set display/create/transport=tcpip/node=localhost/server=11

to set my display on VMS. The server number corresponds to the remote port that I'm forwarding in my ssh connection (In this case with server=11, I forward remote port 6011 on VMS to the X server's port 6000 to make sure it uses display :0.0)

For my X server I make use of Xming or Reflection X. I use PuTTY for windows for the SSH connection. I use the PuTTY GUI to set up the connection but the command would look like this:

putty.exe -ssh -X -R 6011:localhost:6000 <user>@<IP>

I can then open DECwindows applications without issues, but when I try to get the CDE/Motif login to work by running

mc decw$startlogin

nothing happens... No refresh on my X server display, no error message, just nothing...

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

VinceC — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 11:21:28 GMT

I've noticed that I can get the login to display if I open a DECterm window and then use the decw$startlogin command.

Not sure why this would work but running the command from the PuTTY terminal doesn't... does create/term/detach set some logicals that I don't know about?

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

Craig A Berry — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:01:10 GMT

There is a bug fixed in VSI DECwindows Motif V1.7-D that may or may not be related. There the report describes multiple appearances of the hourglass when attempting to start the login screen rather than nothing as described here. Don't know if HP has plans to port this back to v8.4. My guess would be almost certainly not to v8.3-1H1, which ends support in 3 weeks.

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

Steven Schweda — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 01:30:01 GMT

> [...] does create/term/detach set some logicals that I don't know
> about?

      show logical /output = sholog1.out
      show logical /output = sholog2.out
      differences sholog1.out sholog2.out

   Are the "show display" data the same?

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

VinceC — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 07:02:47 GMT

Both the DISPLAY variables are the same

For the logicals there are small differences in things like SYS$OUTPUT and TT

"TT" = "_FTA307:"
"TT" = "_FTA309:"

but I guess this is just because they are two different processes. In my ssh session I have the following define and these are not present in the DECterm that I open

"SYS$REM_ID" = "<user>(LOCA"
"SYS$REM_NODE" = "<IP>::"
"SYS$REM_NODE_FULLNAME" = "<IP>::"

Where <IP> is the address of the PC I'm connecting from and <user> is my username on VMS

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

VinceC — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 07:06:50 GMT

Hi Craig

Is there anything I can check to verify that it is the bug you described causing this behaviour?

Re: DECwindows X11 forwarding over SSH

Craig A Berry — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 03:33:36 GMT

No idea. I just read the release notes available to anyone with patch access. If you don't have patch access, then this information is of no use to you. If you do have patch access, then you must also have a support contract, and you should be taking this up with HP.