remote X display

Malcolm Kay malcolm.kay at internode.on.net
Thu Jan 22 07:27:46 PST 2004


On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 01:23, Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been looking all over for a concise howto for remote X on FreeBSD. 
> I see some that involve changing config files in the xdm directory, others
> use xhost, and another uses xfig, which doesn't exist under FreeBSD AFAICT.
>
> All I want to do is use a laptop in a local network to be an X client
> connected to a more powerful desktop machine.  I'm not worried about
> security.
>
> Is xhosts and the DISPLAY variable all I need?  Or do I need to go through
> all of the xdm configuration hoops?
>

The machine you're actually sitting at needs to be running X-terminal software,
that is X server and xdm or some equivalent. X applications can be run on either 
machine for control from there.

In my opinion ssh is a much tidier way than rsh/xhost for running X applications 
remotely. Have a look at the special options in ssh for X transport in the man page, 
particularly -X and -f.

xfig I only know as a (rather good) vector based drawing program but 
is just an ordinary X application without any special connection with operating
across the network.

Malcolm Kay



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