Re: GDM over X forward

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 02:56:21PM +0200, Maik Hentsche wrote:
> Hi,
> I need your help with the following problem, since I did not find anything
> usefull in the documentation:
> 
> I am logged in to a linux host from my Win2k-machine, which has an X-server
> for window running. I now set the DISPLAY appropiate and started gdm, but even
> though it appears in ps, it does not show up on my local host. (I assume, it
> shows up on the local display of the linuxserver, but since there is an ocean
> between me and this host, I can't tell. How do I tell gdm to go through the
> xforward of ssh?

GDM is not really an X program like other X programs.  GDM manages X servers
or X connections.  The only way to connect remotely is through XDMCP which
you cannot forward through ssh afaik.

There's also no point in doing it this way.  Once you are already logged in,
why not just start a session with gnome-session, or whatever other session
you are using?

> If there is no chance of doing the above, a different solution to the
> following problem would also be suitable:
> I got a host A, where a user shall log in and work. I got another host B, that
> works as some kind of proxy. Finally there is the local host C of that user,
> that can not run gdm locally. My idea of a solution is to start gdm via
> xforward on B, let it contact gdm on A via XDMCP and transfer the opened
> session via xforward to C.

Why not run gnome-session through ssh to machine A from machine C?

Note that it would be possible to do a setup like this by somehow putting vnc
into the picture, but not otherwise, there is a patch for vnc and gdm to
allow something like this but I don't think it would work securely over ssh
or some such.  GDM manages the session and the login so you want to run it on
A really, if you could somehow then proxy XDMCP traffic through the ssh
tunnel, you could run the local X server on C.

Though the truly simplest way I see is just running an X server on C,
starting an xterm and in the x term running ssh tunnel such as:

xterm -e ssh -X user C domain com gnome-session

Then the user would log in and a session was started and the xterm could be
minimized.

George

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
                       -- Franz Kafka