[posted to linux-x11, linux-apps, linux-config]
I have a tricky xauthority problem that I desperately need help in solving.
I have read the Remote-X-Apps and LBX mini-HOWTOs, but perhaps I've missed
something...
To summarize the main question:
- How do you run lbxproxy with valid xauth from a remote dialup box which
can have a varying IP address?
The details:
At work: workbox (permanent IP address)
At home: homebox (variable IP address)
Fictious names used to make things clearer. Both are running RedHat 5.1
(i386 with all updates).
The big problem I'm having is trying to run lbxproxy and then exmh
remotely on my workbox using homebox as my remote DISPLAY... I keep
getting the infamous "don't have permission to connect to X server"
error :(
I have local xauth working on both machines, no problems. I'm using
something like this in my ~/.xinitrc files:
xauth add $DISPLAY . `mcookie`
I can connect to my workbox via any of three (33.6k) modems, two which
will give me a stable IP address, the other dynamically allocated.
(All dialup servers are NT boxes, but that's irrelevant).
I can (and prefer to) use ssh to get access to my workbox from
homebox. Works great.
I want to use X applications remotely on workbox from homebox (no
matter where I come in from). I have two choices to make it usable:
- ssh does a reasonable job at data compression to make X usable.
- lbxproxy does a better job at protocol compression to make X very
comfortable to work with over a 33.6k link.
I was under the impression that ssh automagically sets up all the
$DISPLAY environment and xauth verification that you need. Apparently
not so. When I try to use "async-exmh" to use my editor (gvim), I get
"X server is insecure" errors. This shouldn't happen, shouldn't it?
lbxproxy definitely gives better performance over ssh for remote X,
and I'd prefer to use it. (Pity they don't seem to be able to be used
together). But setting it up with xauth working with lbxproxy is
proving to be a nightmare.
On my homebox I do something like this to set up the authority:
% xauth extract - $DISPLAY | ssh workbox /usr/X11/bin/xauth merge -
Checking the new entry on workbox with "xauth list" shows that a new
entry has indeed been made, but while it exactly matches the entry on
homebox, it refers to the local hostname for homebox - which has no
DNS entry. How does it know where to send the packets? (Or is this
automagically taken care of by something else?)
>From workbox, I try to setup and start lbxproxy...
% export SSHDISPLAY=$DISPLAY # keep the original value
% export DISPLAY=:2 # set the proxy display
% lbxproxy -display homebox:0 $DISPLAY & # start the lbx proxy server
lbxproxy immediately exits with complaints about permission refused.
If I do "xhost +" on homebox, it works, but then things like exmh then
start complaining about an insecure X server.
I actually did get lbxproxy working with specific xauth permissions.
I forget exactly how, but I suspect it was by doing something like
creating an xauth entry for DISPLAY=:2 before running lbxproxy.
But when I did get it working, all attempts to run *any* X application
resulted in nothing at all happening... no complaints from the apps,
but nothing comes back to my display on homebox! Where is it all
going?
Perhaps I need to set up xauth entries on the fly that refer to the IP
address that homebox is using? I have tried a few things along these
lines, but without much success.
I would be very grateful for any pointers in helping to solve this
problem.
Thanks in advance...
Cheers
Tony
-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-
Tony Nugent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Computer Support Officer Faculty of Science
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Oueensland Australia
-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-
