The Goal:
I would like to open a program from my ubuntu server in my windows 7 desktop.
Steps Taken:
Putty > SSH > X11 check 'enable port forwarding'
I have started VNC Viewer in listening mode
started putty ssh session
apt get install xinit
startx &
geany (it's a c language ide; it uses the GUI so I"m using it to test x forwarding)
Error Messages:
geany returns "cannot open display"
startx returns "setversion 1.4 failed"
I'm working on Windows 7 and headless Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS
Obviously I forgot something, but I'm having difficulty figuring out what. The goal is to not use sudo apt get install desktop, since I only want to use one program at a time, and anyway my server isn't hooked up to a monitor.
Any ideas? Questions?
Thanks for your help!
Curios
Best Answer
To forward X11 apps over your ssh connection, there needs to be something on your Windows client to which the X11 applications can connect. In other words, you need to run an X server for Windows, which will translate X11 protocol messages from the ssh connection into graphical drawing commands and send mouse and keyboard actions back across the network.
There are several options for this, one is Cygwin/X: http://x.cygwin.com/