This tutorial will cover how to forward X11 applications from a remote Unix/Linux host to a local Windows machine. On a Unix/Linux machine, you can run remote applications via XForwarding with something like: ssh -X rnixon@dthroat.cat.pdx.edu “gimp”. In order to get this same functionality on a Windows machine, we need to start an Xserver that can display the remote X11 application. We will be using Xming for this purpose.

You will need an account on a remote Unix/Linux machine, PuTTY and Xming. If you are working on a CECS machine, both PuTTY and Xming can be found under Start->All Programs->General Applications. Ensure that the remote Unix/Linux machine is running and has the software you wish to forward installed.

 

Simply run Xming from the Start menu. Instead of a window or prompt, Xming will sit in your taskbar, as pictured:

That’s all there is to it!

 

First, open PuTTY and specify the address of the remote Unix/Linux host:

 

Next, select Connection->SSH->X11 in the left pane:

 

Check ‘Enable X11 Forwarding’:

 

After successfully logging into the server, you should be at a console prompt. Here you can just enter the name of the program you wish to run and a new window will open up:

 

 

You can also run a VNC server using Xforwarding. To do this, start a VNC session on the remote host with the following:

 

vncserver –localhost

 

You should get output similar to:

New ‘COMPUTERNAME:# (USER)’ desktop is COMPUTERNAME:#

Starting applications specified in /u/USER/.vnc/xstartup

Log file is /u/USER/.vnc/COMPUTERNAME:#.log

 

Where COMPUTERNAME is the name of the remote Unix/Linux host, USER is your remote account name, and # signifies the display number the VNC session is started on. In order to start using your VNC session, run:

vncviewer :#

 

Where the ‘#’ is the display number mentioned earlier. Your should now have access to your Unix/Linux desktop!