Goal of this document is to learn how to launch a Xnest server on another box.
Our server is called: guibpiv, and his IP address is: 192.168.0.253. To launch multiple X, we need to choose an unused one: ":3" could be a good one. We use xauth to define wich host is authorized to access this Xnest server. mcookie generate magic cookie for xauth:
mcookie bc85bb773ae8897d9569ddbe69684411
Now we need to authorize node10 to connect our Xnest server on display:3. We use xauth:
xauth add node10/unix:3 . bc85bb773ae8897d9569ddbe69684411
we can list all xauth in X authority file utility:
xauth list 192.168.0.253/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 64e3e9fead5031070d4bfe8527d056a9 node10/unix:3 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 bc85bb773ae8897d9569ddbe69684411
Our client is called: node10, and his IP address is: 192.168.0.10. We just need to authorize Xnest server to connect on our X (192.168.0.10:0). Todo that we use xhost, the server access control program for X:
xhost +192.168.0.253
If you are working on your client (node10), and connected to your Xnest server through ssh (with ssh -x user@192.168.0.253), you don't need to do that, ssh will do it automatically.
Now on server just launch the Xnest server:
Xnest -display 192.168.0.10:0 -geometry 800x600 -depth 24 :3 &
-display specify the IP address of the client (use it only if you launch it directly from server)
-geometry define geometry of the Xnest window
-depth define the color depth, could be: 8, 16, 24 (please use the same as your X client)
:3 the display of your Xnest server
Use the script below, and just launch it through ssh
ssh -X guibo@192.168.0.253 xnest
#!/bin/sh # quick way to launch Xnest to another display display=:3 IPCLIENT="192.168.0.10" # define mcookie for xauth MCOOKIE=$(mcookie) # add xauth xauth add localhost/unix$display . $MCOOKIE # launch Xnest to IPCLIENT Xnest -geometry 800x600 -depth 24 $display & Xnest_pid=$! sleep 1 #export display to Xnest server export DISPLAY=$display fluxbox kill $! #remove all xauth key xauth remove localhost/unix$display exit 0
