Ssh – Must an X11 server be installed for X11 forwarding over ssh to work

sshx11

I would expect that my local X11 server and sshd X11 forwarding turned on is all that is needed for X11 over ssh to work, but I haven't been able to get it. Am I wrong about this? Does the remote system need an X11 server?

Best Answer

You don't need an X server on the remote side of the X session, but you will need xauth, which is usually included in an X-related package (xorg-x11-xauth in RHEL and Fedora). If you want to run any programs that use X libraries (or libraries that require the X libraries), you'll need X libraries on the remote end to execute those programs.

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SSH X11 Forwarding – How to Forward X11 Over SSH When Server Configuration Doesn’t Allow

@Demi 's answer is good but I think filling it out would be great help.

local -- the local machine serving an Xserver.
remote -- the remote machine serving the application which drives the data going to the Xserver

Remote /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

X11Forwarding no
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

Remote ~/.Xauthority is empty or does not exist

On local:

Xephyr -ac -screen 1280x800 -br -reset   :2 &
DISPLAY=:2 ssh  -fR 6010:/tmp/.X11-unix/X2  user@remote "DISPLAY=:10 xeyes"

In the test, local was running Ubuntu 18.05, remote was running Debian Jesse.

Ssh – How to troubleshoot failed X11 forwarding with ssh

For me, it has previously helped to erase .Xauthority-files. You should probably back them up.

 mkdir ~/Xauth-old
 mv ~/.X* ~/Xauth-old/

Further, in ~/.ssh/config you can avoid some other woes with authentication using

ForwardX11Trusted yes

Reasoning to be found here.

Best Answer

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SSH X11 Forwarding – How to Forward X11 Over SSH When Server Configuration Doesn’t Allow

Ssh – How to troubleshoot failed X11 forwarding with ssh

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