[H-GEN] help setting up linux

[Tony Nugent]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Sat Sep 13 2003 at 11:56, "Rick Phillips" wrote:

> > 	X -query LINUX_BOX
> 
> Now that's pretty nifty.

Yep, very cool.  But you usually need to specify a display number
("X :2 -query LINUX_BOX") especially if you already have X running
locally, and you need to have an xdm daemon running on a network
socket on LINUX_BOX (or whatever box, running an X server) for this
to work...

> I have been using Cygwin for a little while to
> connect to my server using command line but I was not aware that one could
> use X..
> 
> I tried the above command (changing "LINUX_BOX" to the real name of my
> server) but all I get is a blank screen with "Cygwin/Xfree86 - 0:0" at the
> top.  The cursor is alive and well.  What is missing from my set up?

Make sure that the X server is listening on the xdmpc port (177).
I'm not sure about cygwin, but for most xdm servers (xdm, gdm, kdm,
etc) their config file (usually somewhere in /etc/X11/) usually has
a directive similar to this:

[xdmcp]
Enable=false
Port=177
(...etc...)

Change this to true, then (re)start the xdm server.

Other sections allow you to run the daemon _only_ on a network
socket (and not start an X session on the local box itself),
runlevel 5 will not start with X on the local box).

This can be very useful for X logons to servers from a local LAN
(with tcp_wrap/firewall security) or other boxes non-workstation
roles (routers etc) when you only want to access them like this
occasionally.  It's brilliant (and oh so easy!) for creating
terminal servers (that's essentially how they work).

> The
> server display configuration is set to 800x600 but my Windows Box has been
> set to 1600x1200.  Could this be the problem?  The Cygwin X display fills
> the 1600 x 1200 screen.

Hmm... try using "Xnest :2 -query" instead of "X :2 -query" from a
console in your local linux box, the session will then come up in a
window on the current display, rather than on a separate virtual
console.

There are a lot of other very cool things to be discovered with X,
for example, you can "tunnel" X sessions over low bandwidth links
(such as modems) using tools like lbxproxy.

> Regards,

Have fun!

> Rick

Cheers
Tony

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/