[LUGSB] SSH Help?

[Benjamin Kudria]

On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 13:49, Tam Nguyen <tamsanh at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't understand why I would need an X server on the windows side, because
> I'm running the applications on Ubuntu's side, just controlling them from
> the windows machine. And inside the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, I've got the
> X11Forwarding option set to 'yes'

The SSH option controls forwarding when you have an X server.  Since
you don't, it's not doing anything.

Sure, the Linux applications are running on the Ubuntu machine, but
they need to display to an X server - that's how they are written.
The X protocol is flexible enough to allow that display to be on any X
server on the network.  SSH allows tunneling this X connection to the
other end of the tunnel, that's the "X Forwarding" part.

Does that clear things up?

> VNC was my earlier solution to this problem, but the thing is that this
> laptop is particularly old, and doesn't like running Amarok while being
> VNC'd on, resulting in an uncontrollable computer.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend VNC.

> That Amarok PHP controller was definitely very interesting, but it seems to
> require a bit of set up.

Why don't you give it a try?  The list can always help if you run into
problems.  Perhaps after you've figured everything out you can present
to the group your solution.  I'd be interested, and I suspect some
other members would like such a set up too.

> I've taken the iniative to look around for music players that don't require
> an GUI, and found a great one called orpheus. I've been playing around with
> it, and it's pretty well off so far. It has an option that allows you to
> control an already-running orpheus process, so I can use 'orpheus -r <cmd>'
> in the ssh window to control the other's music. That, coupled with
> alsamixer, has pretty much gotten me the effect I wanted: controlling
> currently playing tracks, adding new tracks, and adjusting volume.

Great!  Doesn't exactly sound like a friendly interface, however.

> But the real reason I wanted to do this was because I felt this simple set
> up would be a good excercise in using ssh. I still don't understand the X
> server requirement. Shouldn't that X11Forwarding option cover that? I was
> following the tutorial on the ubuntu wiki
> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSHHowto), and it didn't mention anything
> about X servers except for nested windows, or something.

Yes, see my explanation above.  SSH and X generally don't have
anything to do with each other, except for this small part where they
intersect.  The only reason you're having any trouble is because
you're not running an X server.  This is more commonly done with two
Linux boxes.

Ben Kudria
-- 
http://ben.kudria.net | Jabber: ben at kudria.net