DISPLAY for X

[Joe Kanakaraj]

Hi,

I would like to know how to go about configuring and setting the X DISPLAY for a Terminal session to run GUI via TELNET/SSH terminals using a centralized X server.

Right now I can run GUI programs on a PC if I have X installed locally and by setting the display to the local IP (e.g. :0.0).
What I really would like is to install X on a centralized PC and then set that machines IP as a global IP for X server and be able to run GUI programs on any machine without setting the local IP or running X locally. Something like a caching proxy.

I have heard of it being done but can’t seem to find any documentation regarding it.

Has anybody done this sort of a setup, any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Joe

[Mel Burslan]

Never heard such a thing being done for X displays so far. The only way that you are going to be able to do something like this is to set up your X on the "centralized" PC and have other PC's do remote desktop connections and use this machine for graphical displays.

As a matter of fact, I am doing this exactly on an operator's PC as he had to take off on an emergency and I am watching the console for him over the night and I chose to remote destop to his workstation instead of setting all applications on mine. A little slower but works.

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

I do not think that you will be able to achive this. What you are trying to do is technically not possible atleast as on date. This is only possible on a PC running Linux in GUI mode where you can directly login to the desired host using XDMCP without requiring to load X Browser software & exporting display.

The procedure what Mel described also is not suitable for this, as it can be used for managing to solve certain problems remotely but not for online working as its is deadly slow. Morover this allows only one user to have control at a time which can be either local or remote.

HTH,
Devender

[Bill Hassell]

Xwindows is a graphics application and very ill-suited as a tool for telnet/ssh interfaces. I suspect you want a central PC so you don't have to buy licenses for an Xwindow emulator on other PCs. The problem is that you must now buy some sort of PC display exporter plus associated PC clients to talk to the PC server...and massively increase the LAN load for a simple text interface. Xwindows increases the LAN load by about 10x for a simple xterm window when compared to a local Hypererminal window.

Telnet/SSH tools are simple and many different platforms can run them, all at the same time. And they are a much traffic load than Xwindows and terminal services for PCs.

[Kryno Bosman]

Try VNC. Install VNC-server on the centralized pc and VNC-viewer on any other host.

[M.sureshkumar]

Hi Joe,

This is really amazing idea.
But with the present available technology, this is not feasible.

In case if I get any new technology, I will update you.

Regards,
Suresh.

[Joe Kanakaraj]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I guess we do have to wait for that kind of technology. Bill gave a good point regarding LAN load and I cannot afford that in my setup right now.

Joe

[Bill Hassell]

Telnet/SSH is the most efficient protocol for managing servers. I have worked with as many as a dozen servers at the same time using a modem in a hotel that barely ran at 14k baud due to their phone switch. Yet, all the menus and commands ran at full speed since only the individual characters are sent. For HP-UX, the best HP terminal emulator is AttachmateWRQ's Reflection for HP (not Reflection/Xwindows) but for extreme budget restrictions, the QCTerm program is the best (free) emulator for HP terminals. Menu programs like swinstall and sam are very easy to use with HP emulators--the vt100 interface is a bit clunky to use (softkeys are not available).

[Dave Hutton]

There is a product called Exceed on Demand by Hummingbird: http://www.hummingbird.com/products/nc/eod/index.html

We use it here, it runs on a linux box. You point your web browser to that server, it downloads some java. Once you have it downloaded you can have the whole HP CDE desktop or just a single XTERM session sent to you.

It kind of sounds like what your looking for.

[Wodisch]

If you want it free, how about CygWin?
Get the original OpenSSH and X-Windows compiled and installable from http://www.cygwin.com

Or if you only need the SSH, use "PuTTY"...

FWIW,
Wodisch (using both for years)