topic Re: can only run X as user system in Operating System - OpenVMS

can only run X as user system

Arne Korpas — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:23:13 GMT

Hi,
I wonder if anyone have any ideas on this one.
I login on a 8.3 AXP/OpenVMS machine running TCPIP Services 5.6 as user system via Reflection and SSH with Xtunneling enabled.
I set up the display with
$ SET DISPLAY/CREATE/NODE=myclient-/TRANSPORT=TCPIP and $ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:DECW$STARTLOGIN.EXE, works fine, I get the cde login and I'm able to login.
I have tried the same with different users, but the only user that works is SYSTEM. Cant figure out why, so I hope that anyone can give me a clue, not even sure how one should trace this. Regards /Arne Korpas

Re: can only run X as user system

Heinz W Genhart — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:33:42 GMT

Hi Arne

this could be a privilege issue.
You could enable Opcom with
$ Reply /Enable
and then look at the messages during start of X.
Give all privilegies to another account than system and retry to start X.
If that works, how does the logical LNM$TEMPORARY_MAILBOX looks ?

Regards

Geni

Re: can only run X as user system

Joseph Huber_1 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:08:13 GMT

SYS$SYSTEM:DECW$STARTLOGIN.EXE is for the privileged users only, it is the login targetted at the LOCAL display.
For remote X sessions there is XDM, but unfortunately the present VMS version delivered with TCPIP services does no secure connections.
Since You are logging in through SSH with X11 forwarding, why do You create the X display using tcpip transport ?
This defeats the SSH tunnel (and consequently requires X11 access security set to off on the X11 server side).
(do a SHOW DISPLAY after SSH login, You will
see a display already).

Why not simply login using SSH with Your userid, then start the session by
@cde$path:xsession.com
?

Re: can only run X as user system

Rick Retterer — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:59:31 GMT

Arne,
Engineering never intended for the Decw$startlogin program to be run interactively by users to get logged into a session.

You can certainly have all sorts of problems when running Decw$startlogin.exe interactively, and you are running into one of the problems now.

The best way to do this so that all users can get a session is to create a DCL script and place it in SYS$MANAGER so that user's can execute it interactively, or call it from a application launcher like in eXcursion, or ReflectionX:

Example:
$!***************************************
$!START_CDE.COM *
$!***************************************
$ define sys$output sys$login:startcde.log
$ set noverify
$ SPAWN/NOWAIT MCR CDE$SYSTEM_DEFAULTS:[BIN]DTHELLO
$ @CDE$SYSTEM_DEFAULTS:[BIN]XSESSION.COM
$ LOGOUT

Once you copy this file into SYS$MANAGER, you will want to make the DCL script (W:RE).

If you use this script with eXcursion and PCX$SERVER.COM, you do not have to worry about setting the DISPLAY environment variable.

Same thing with ReflectionsX, as you can use PCX$SERVER.COM and this command-line in ReflectionX's application launcher:

"@sys$system:pcx$server.com 4,%#%,0,tcpip,%IP% @sys$manager:start_cde.com"

In the start_cde.com file, DTHello, holds open a channel so that properties can be set on the root window that CDE will require, and until the DTWM and Session manager get started. This will permit you to save your settings when you logout and ensures that your settings will be read in when you login.

When the session is ended, the logout is completed, and the session ends cleanly.

I hope this helps you.

Cheers,
Rick Retterer

Re: can only run X as user system

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:35:31 GMT

Rick, does login through application launcher and @pcx$... involve encryption, since Arne does SSH, i.e. doesn't want clear-text traffic ?

Re: can only run X as user system

Arne Korpas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:03:36 GMT

Ok, I think I have misunderstood the way it should have been done. A big thank you to all of guys, and an extra thank you to you Rick, the command procedure works great. I really appreciate the quick and great support I got from you.

Best regards, /Arne Korpas

Re: can only run X as user system

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:20:23 GMT

Arne, concerning my second reply,
do You see a file TCPIP$SSH_RCMD.LOG for the reflection login ?
If not, then be aware that the X session is not (SSH-)encrypted !

Re: can only run X as user system

Arne Korpas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:33 GMT

Hi Joseph,
NO I cant find the file, should it show up in the users default dir ?
Regards /Arne

Re: can only run X as user system

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:19:52 GMT

Yes, should be in sys$login:, the home directory.
Could of course be that refection is doing something I don't know to suppress logging, but I doubt it.
So I presume the session is not SSH tunneled.
I don't have reflection to find a way to force SSH or some other encryption scheme.

Re: can only run X as user system

Arne Korpas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:23:45 GMT

Ok thank you for the info, it's ok for now to run unencrypted so I do the work anyway, but of course it would be great to solve it, I will dig deeper in the case later but for now I'm satisfied with the solution. Thanks again for your help.

Cheers, /Arne