Problem forwarding gnome using X11 and SSH

Try it with

ssh -Y

I just tired it (with Ubuntu) and it seems to work ok, and then the whole screen goes blue (probably my default desktop). But when I use the F8 key to see all my OS X desktops, I can see the whole of the gnome environment, so I think it must be some sort of spaces/x11 bug. The same thing happens with xfce4-session, so I don't think it is gnome per se.

Maybe try with spaces turned off?


Edit: No. That didn't work. X11 bug.

Grr.

A workaround is to run the whole thing in one window -- xnest.

Another option is nomachine. That seems to work much better for me than conventional X-forwarding.

There is doubltess a better way, but I can get it to work like this:

xinit ~/.remotegnome -- /usr/X11/bin/xnest :$$[3]$$[4]

I made a bogus .xinitrc file called ~/.remotegnome

in it I have lines like

ssh -Y -q -t -f wgscott@my.linux.machine gnome-session
exec twm

(You don't have to use twm if you have something less fugly).

Cheers for the tip... seem to almost have it working, but while ssh is looking for my password, the terminal has already moved on to the next line.. Any way around this?

Hello....is there any further information on this topic?

I am also trying to forward the Gnome desktop to the Mac and get the same warnings. The desktop is clearly there but I am unable to get to it. I can see it using Expose but when i switch to it the only visible trace of Gnome is the background image and a few icons...that are not selectable.

Any idea how to correct this problem?

Cheers...

I have the same problem. Any hints would be great!

The only thing I can see is the bird on desktop picture in Ubuntu Hardy Heron. The windows are visible through Expose but I cannot get to them. Very frustrating!

I resolved the problem by using the command ssh -Y. Now I can see my Firefox & and Transmission & windows on my Mac.

I found the solution here:
http://anxiousmofo.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/ways-to-remotely-control-your-ubuntu -machine-with-pros-and-cons-of-each/

That is basically what I do, but you don't need to create extra xinitrc scripts. All you need to do is run the appropriate commands. For instance, here's how I might start a full-blown GNOME desktop environment on my Mac OS X 10.5.4 system so that I have full access to the menu bars and what not. Obviously, this requires X11 to be installed and all that good stuff.

-----

MyMachine:~ meitar$ ssh -X username@my.linux.machine
username@my.linux.machine's password:
Last login: Fri Jul 11 18:58:41 2008 from MyMachine
[username@my.linux.machine ~]$ echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0
[username@my.linux.machine ~]$ Xnest :1 &
[1] 32215
[username@my.linux.machine ~]$ Couldn't get keyboard.

[username@my.linux.machine ~]$ gnome-session --display :1
SESSION_MANAGER=local/my.linux.machine:/tmp/.ICE-unix/32216

** (eggcups:32254): WARNING **: IPP request failed with status 1030

** (eggcups:32254): WARNING **: IPP request failed with status 1030
Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension

-----

The trick is to create pick the right X displays. As you can see, I first echo $DISPLAY to check which display ssh has forward to (in this case it was localhost:10.0, or :0), so I run Xnest and attach it to display :1.

At this point. A blank (black) Xnest window opens up in the Mac's X11 application. It looks like nothing's happening and that's because Xnest is running as a server for the X11.app client without any clients of its own. So all you need to do is start one.

To start a full-blown GNOME desktop instance, run gnome-session and pass it the --display option with whatever display you've attached Xnest to, in my case this is :1.

Hope this helps.