On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:22:24 PDT
Emmanuel De Paepe <emmanuel_depaepe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I don't think it's related to setting the display.
> Perhaps I should clarify more.
> When I start an application that exists on both machines (like firefox), it
> starts the local firefox although it should start the remote firefox.
> I have this issue between Solaris machines.
> It seems to work fine when I login with a machine running Ubuntu.
I still don't have a clear picture of what you're doing and what you
expect to happen, partly because you're using ambiguous words to
describe the machines, applications and results.
At a guess, you're sitting at machine A. It has a local display and an
X server using that display. From a terminal emulator running on
machine A using that X server, you issue an ssh command to connect to
machine B, with a command of the form "ssh -X -l remotename machineB".
So now, in a shell on machineB, you run a firefox command. What
*should* happen is that firefox runs on machineB, and connect to an
ssh proxy to the X server you're using on machine A to display there.
Now, you say "it starts the local firefox". Is that "local" to the
machine you're working on (machineA), or the machine you typed the
command on (machineB)? And where does it display to? The X display
you're typing into, or an X server displaying on machineB?
What I suspect is going on is that FireFox tries to be clever when it
thinks you're trying to run a second copy, and will cause the "other"
copy to open/map/raise a window instead of starting a second instance
of Firefox. But Firefox can't handle talking to multiple X displays,
so the window will often wind up on the wrong display, or from the
wrong firefox, in anything but the simplest environments. However,
until I know what's really happening and what you think is wrong with
it, it's hard to know for sure.
<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.
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