Celestial Software

I use AbsoluteTelnet 1.84 to connect to an SGI box. If I try to open some new
X11 program, such as xclock, nothing happens.

When I log on using, for example, ssh32 instead, I receive the clock display.

What should I do in AbsoluteTelnet? For xwindow on my pc (running Windows
XP professional), I use exceed (works with ssm32).

TIA

Sam

[ May 01, 2002, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: Brian T. Pence ]

AbsoluteTelnet supports X11 port forwarding, but does not include an X11 server, which is what you need to actually do the X display. Exceed *does* provide an X server, which is why it works there. If you prefer AbsoluteTelnet's terminal features, you can probably use a combination of Exceed X11 server and AbsoluteTelnet SSH features, but otherwise you could try somthing like XWin32 (www.xwin32.com) in conjunction with Absolute.

BTW, X11 forwarding is *not* enabled by default, but can be turned on at Options->Properties->Connection->SSH2->Forwarding.

When you log in the next time, your DISPLAY variable should be set for you automatically.

Brian,

is there any way to control what DISPLAY variable is being set to? In my case it's not picking up the name of my local X server (I'm using Exceed).

When using X11 forwarding, the DISPLAY variable will appear strange and will *not* be the network name of your client machine. The reason for this is that the X programs are *not* connecting to your X server directly any more. The SSH server running on your unix host *acts* like an X server and forwards all of the X communication to you through the SSH encrypted tunnel.

Cool, huh??

Brian, thanks, now I get it.

It makes it very nice to use X through firewalls. Without the tunneling, the DISPLAY variable has to point to the IP address of your client machine running an X display which is usually impossible if you're crossing network boundaries. With tunneling, the X programs think they're displaying locally plus the X data is encrypted through the SSH tunnel which makes it safe to use across the internet.