putty + xming: cannot connect to Xserver in Windows 7 - linux

I am trying to use putty and XMing to run programs from my Fedora 20. I used this configuration before on other machines and I was able to run GUI programs on Linux and display them in my windows 7. But this time I have trouble and get the "cannot connect to X server" error when I try to launch kwrite and kdesvn which are GUI programs in Fedora 20. The connections were good. And the XMing server was running and the X11 forwarding was enabled in putty, like the instruction here.
From my another Fedora 20 machine, I was able to connect to and run GUI programs from the target machine with ssh -X and the same username. So I am thinking the settings of the target machine was right.
Then what else I can try? how to figure out where the problem is?

Ensure that X11 forwarding is enabled in /etc/sshd_config.
X11Forwarding yes
Ensure in your home directory that you have an .Xauthority file. Permissions should be set 0600. If the file does not exist create it.
touch ~/.Xauthority
chmod 0600 ~/.Xauthority
As was previous stated first make sure that X11 forwarding is enabled in PuTTY.
Config > Connection > SSH > X11 > Enable X11 Forwarding. Based on your question it appears you already did this. Make sure you save this config.

I had a problem much like this, what happened to me was that my DISPLAY was being set elsewhere. If you can, try opening a new settion via putty from the same Windows machine using another user and then checking the display and testing your GUI programs
Another thing would be to use your own user but remove any custom work you may have done in your configuration, login fresh, check the DISPLAY and then test X

Did you enable X11 in putty?
It's under SSH | X11 | Enable X11 Forwarding
Then save the putty profile and click on session | save | open
Should work perfectly after you make those changes.

Related

How to start a GUI software on a remote Linux server via SSH?

I am trying to open Matlab software installed in remote Linux server from my Windows 7 PC. I am using SSH secure shell to connect with the Linux server. After successful connection, I am able to see and access the folders under my user account. I am able to start Matlab software using the following command in the SSH secure shell window:
[sushma#scorpio home]$ matlab
On doing so the following message gets displayed on the SSH secure shell window:
MATLAB is selecting SOFTWARE OPENGL rendering.
No protocol specified
< M A T L A B (R) >
Copyright 1984-2015 The MathWorks, Inc.
R2015b (8.6.0.267246) 64-bit (glnxa64)
August 20, 2015
From the above message it seems that the software is running. I want to access the GUI of the software.
Give a try to ssh -X
From ssh manual:
-X Enables X11 forwarding. This can also be specified on a per-host basis in a configuration file.
X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution. Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host (for
the user's X authorization database) can access the local X11 display
through the forwarded connection. An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring.
For this reason, X11 forwarding is subjected to X11 SECURITY extension restrictions by default. Please refer to the ssh
-Y option and the ForwardX11Trusted directive in ssh_config(5) for more
information.
-Y Enables trusted X11 forwarding. Trusted X11 forwardings are not subjected to the X11 SECURITY extension controls.
steps that worked for me:
connect to the server by using the ssh -X flag
execute Matlab with matlab & (you should see Matlab opening on your local machine)
check within Matlab with the command opengl info if either software or hardware opengl is being used (if you're having trouble loading opengl go to step 2 and execute matlab -softwareopengl &)
run your gui script with run <script>
If the script is supposed to run independent of your ssh connection, I suggest to use the program tmux and repeat step 2-4 inside a tmux session

SSH Secure Shell Tunnel X11 - Display not shown

I am using SSH Secure Shell to connect to a server. My connection is allowed to Tunnel X11 connections but when I execute the command. The display is not showing up. I get the message:
couldn't connect to display "localhost:12.0"
I have a ssh server installed and running on my machine.
Remember: Both the client and the server have to allow X forwarding.
On the server look in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and make sure you have X11Forwarding yes. You will need to restart the service if you edit this file.
On the client look in /etc/ssh/ssh_config (your user ~/.ssh/ssh/config will override global settings, if you have created this file) and make sure you have ForwardX11 yes.
Alternatively give the -X switch when you create your client connection. e.g. ssh -X user#host
Oh and of course, your client needs to be running an X server which you have authority to use! E.g. if you connect from Windows using PuTTY it will never work, as Windows is not an X server!
I figured it out. I needed to have X-Server installed on my computer instead of SSH-Server. I installed Xming for that purpose and now everything works as it should.

Forwarding X11 without SSH? How do I run local apps on another Pc running X Server?

I am using Cygwin X and Debian. I can forward my X session via SSH but what happens is that I seem to loose the display forwarding in the X session once in a while (from Cygwin to Linux). So i am guessing that that is an imnplementation thing with Cygwin because I never loose X11 display in the same ssh session when I use Linux to Linux.
This also happens when a X11 forwarded app tries to fork another process lets say I run Thunderbird and I click on a url inside an email. Naturally Thurderbird will try to start the default web browser but it is not doing it with Cygwin X server and here is the message I get when SSH session gives up the display for various reasons that I am not able to know.
"Error: cannot open display: localhost:10.0"
The other issue is that since the ssh gives up the display variable, I have to restart my ssh session to get it working which also kills other apps that I might be running during the ssh session.
Anyway after struggling with this for a while I am thinking that I want to be able to open my apps on another display without using ssh forwarding. I am using it internally and it is almost a closed lan so I am not worried about the security for now. I just want to be able to run the app on the Linux then see the app on the Pc that is running Cygwin.
I tried basic DISPLAY variable thing like "export DISPLAY=MY_CYGWIN_PC_IP:0.0" (on Linux Pc) but it does not work.
So I am wondering about how I can achieve this. What are the proper settings to achieve what i need?
Your direction was OK. export DISPLAY is what you want. But it is not enough.
On the target, you need to type
xhost +from.where.the.windows.are.coming.com
It gives the X server the permission to allow remote windows from this computer.
Beware, it is not really secure! A possible attacker could not only windows shown by you, but even control your mouse/keyboard. But for simple solutions, or if you can trust the remote machine and the network between you, it may be ok.
If not, there is an advanced authorization, based on preshared keys. It is named xauth. Google for xauth.
The Xorg server has an option to disable the remote windows, and there are distributions, (f.e. ubuntu!) who turn this option by default on. You can test it - if you can telnet to the tcp port 6000, it is allowed.
If you are using ssh -X, don't. Use ssh -Y
Cygwin XWin server randomly loses connection
Basically to work as old times , we need enable xdmcp on display manager and use X11 , Xwayland seems to me that doesn't work either.
sddm doesn't support xdmcp , but gdm does , you need edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf and add
[security]
DisallowTCP=false
[xdmcp]
Enable=true
xhost + ip_of_remote_computer
echo $DISPLAY (the number of the display usually :0 or :1)
after you can verify :
netstat -l | grep xdmcp
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:xdmcp 0.0.0.0:*
lsof -i :xdmcp
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
gdm 862335 root 12u IPv4 71774686 0t0 UDP *:xdmcp
on remote host :
export DISPLAY="ip_of_server:0" (see if is 0 or other number in echo $DISPLAY on server mention above )
xclock &
References:
http://www.softpanorama.org/Xwindows/Troubleshooting/can_not_open_display.shtml
https://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/XDMCP-HOWTO/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDMCP

Cygwin home directory on target system inconsistent

I am having difficulty connecting to a remote Windows system running cygwin.
When I connect from a linux box to cygwin, it connects fine and "sees" the
remote home directory as /home/userID
When I connect from Windows cygwin to the remote windows cygwin, it sees
the home directory as /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/UserID
Finally, when I am logged onto the remote Windows machine (the one with the problem)
home is /home/UseID but the value for cygpath -H is
$ echo $(cygpath -H)
/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings
This seems to be causing my connection problem from windows to windows
and no problem from linux to windows
Any ideas how to fix it?
Since you have the correct path in /etc/passwd, one possibility is that perhaps the SSH client you are using from your Windows systems is sending custom environment values.
If you're using PuTTY, before connecting, look in the tree panel on the left hand side of the dialog. There should be an entry called Connection and a sub-entry called Data which will bring you to an option screen that has a section called Environment variables. Check if the HOME var is being overridden there and if so, remove it.
If you're using a different SSH client, check its configuration to see if its using the SendEnv option. More info on that here: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ssh_config.
Or you could try blocking off custom environments on the destination/server side by disabling AcceptEnv in the SSHd configuration on the system you're connecting to. More info on that here: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sshd_config.
Hope this helps.

Executing exe or bat file on remote windows machine from *nix

I am trying to execute a bat file on remote windows machine on cloud from my Linux. The bat files starts selenium server and then my selenium tests are run. I am not able to start selenium RC server on that machine. I tried with Telnet but the problem with it is when telnet session is closed the RC server port is also closed. As my code my code has to start the server so I tried with ANT telnet task and also executed shell script of telnet in both ways the port was closed.
I read about Open SSH, psexec for linux and cygwin. But i am not getting how to use these and will they will solve my problem.
I have tried to start a service which will start the server but in this method i am not getting browser visible all tests are running in background as my script takes screen shot browser visibility is must.
Now my Question is what to use and which will be preferable for my job.
and what ever i choose should be executed by code it may be by shell, ant or php.
Thanks in advance.
Let's go through the various options you mentioned:
psexec: This is pretty much a PC only thing. Plus, you must make sure that newer Windows machines can get through the UAC that are setup by default. UAC is the thing you see all the time on Vista and Windows 7 when you try to do something that requires administrator's privileges. You can try something called winexe which is a Linux program that can do the psexec protocol, but I've had problems getting it to work.
OpenSSH: There are two main flavors of SSH, and Open SSH is the one used by the vast majority of sites. SSH has several advantages over other methods:
SSH is secure: Your network traffic is encrypted.
SSH can be password independent: You can setup SSH to use private/public keys. This way, you don't even have to know the password on the remote server. This makes it more secure since you don't have passwords being stored on various systems. And, in many Windows sites, passwords have to be changed every month or so or the account is locked.
SSH can do more than just execute remote commands: There are two sub-protocols on SSH called SCP and SFTP. These allow you to transfer files between two machines. Since they work over SSH, you get all of the advantages of SSH including encrypted packets, and public/private key protection.
SSH is well implemented in the Unix World: You'll find SSH clients built into Ant, Maven, and other build tools. Programs like CVS, Subversion, and Git can work over SSH connections too. Unfortunately, the Windows World operates in a different space time dimension. To use SSH on a Windows system requires third party software like Cygwin.
Cygwin: Cygwin is sort of an odd beast. It's a layer on top of Windows that allows many of the Unix/GNU libraries to work over Windows. It was originally developed to allow Unix developers to run their software on Windows DOS systems. However, Cygwin now contains a complete Unix like system including tools such as Perl and Python, BASH shell, and many utilities such as an SSH server. Since Cygwin is open source, you can download it for free and run SSH server. Unfortunately, I've had problems with Cygwin's SSH server. Another issue: If you're running programs remotely, you probably want to run them in a Windows environment and not the Cygwin environment.
I recommend that you look at WinSSHD from Bitvise. It's an OpenSSH implementation of the SSH Server, but it's not open source. It's about $100 per license and you need a license on each server. However, it's a robust implementation and has all of the features SSH has to offer.
You can look at CoSSH which is a package of Cygwin utilities and OpenSSH server. This is free and all open source, but if you want an easy way of setting it up, you have to pay for the Advanced Administrator Console. You don't need the Advanced Administrator Console since you can use Cygwin to set everything up, and it comes with a basic console to help.
I prefer to use cygwin and use SSH to then log in to the windows machine to execute commands. Be aware that, by default, cygwin doesn't have OpenSSH installed.
Once you have SSH working on the windows machine you can run a command on it from the Linux machine like this:
ssh user#windowsmachine 'mycommand.exe'
You can also set up ssh authentication keys so that you don't need to enter a password each time.
I've succeeded to run remote command on W2K3 via EXPECT on Debian Buster. Here is the script of mine:
#!/usr/bin/expect
#
# execute the script in the following manner:
#
# <script> <vindoze> <user> <password> <command>
#
#
set timeout 200
set hostname [lindex $argv 0]
set username [lindex $argv 1]
set password [lindex $argv 2]
set command [lindex $argv 3]
spawn telnet $hostname
expect "login:"
send "$username\r"
expect "password:"
send "$password\r"
expect "C:*"
send "dir c:\\tasks\\logs \r"
# send $command
expect "C:*"
send "exit\r\r\r"
Bear in mind that you need to enable TELNET service of the Win machine and also the user which you are authenticated with must be member of TelnetClients built-in Win group. Or as most of the Win LazyMins do - authenticate with Admin user ;)
I use similar "expect" script for automated collecting & backup configuration of CLI enabled network devices like Allied Telesyn, Cisco, Planet etc.
Cheers,
LAZA
Not a very secure way, but if you have a running webserver you can use PHP or ASP to trigger a system command. Just hide thgat script under www.myserver.com/02124309c9867a7616972f52a55db1b4.php or something. And make sure the command are fixed written in the code, not open via parameter ...

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