Getting a Remote Xserver to run my Local Dispaly

[jesterspet]

OK, this seemed like a cool Idea to try but I cannot get it to work.

Here is the deal:

I have 3 computers

1 Beefy Dual Proc Tweeaked to the max and purrin like a kitten. Let's call it 'Terminator'.

2 Whimpy 600mhz celeron boxes picked up at auction. Let's call them 'Terrance' and 'Phillip'.

I want Terrance and Phillip to have X displays but I do not want them to have to run an Xserver.

Xfree86 is supposed to be able to serve as the Server for all my computers. I currently have XFree86 running on Terminator.

I know that there is supposed to be a way to get Terrance and Phillip to be able to invoke 'startx' from the command line and instead of trying to connect to a local Xserver, run over to Terminator and use it's server instead, while running Xclient localy.

About the only thing I 'know' I have done correctly is run:
'xhost +terrance.myhomelan.org' & 'xhost +phillip.myhomelan.org' on Terminator.

The output I got was '[terrance/phillip].myhomelan.org being added to access control list'

I know that if terrance or phillip ssh to terminator with x11 forwarding on, they can invoke anything installed on Terminator, and it displays localy on the computer that invoked the command. Terminator handles all the resource intensive stuff, and Terrance & Philip can browse without dragging down their resources. This is easy if you only have a couple of things that you want to avoid running locally you can just alias whatever you want with a ssh command:

[Black]

Not sure if what I'm going to say is a good and/or bad news, but here goes anyway:

You still need to have an XWindow server on Terrance and Phillip.

I suggest you read the following documents:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XDMCP-HOWTO/index.html
http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/0823.xterminal.html

Using the info in both documents, I made up my first Linux terminal about 2 weeks ago. The main machine was running Mandrake 9.0 while the terminal was running Debian (whatever the latest stable version was).

This should be good news, however: a P100 should be more than powerfull enough. I used a Pentium 300MMX with 64Mb RAM, and everything ran fine. While XWindow must be installed, KDE/Gnome/other doesn't need to.

For the really bad news: forget playing games on your terminal. It appears that anything that requires "special" video/audio access (like OpenGL) won't work, which makes sense, because the CPU on Terminator can't talk fast enough to Terrance's video board. Likewise, it seems remote audio hasn't been thought in the XWindow protocol. Also, consider the amount of information the computers must exchange in order to show you a fast action game.

XDM, xscreensaver will both run on Terminator. And I see that you have excellent gaming tastes!

[David_Escott]

I think your understanding of how X works is backwards. The X server runs on the device which does the display. I recieves drawing commands from the client.

Another way to think about it is to say that the X server serves screen space to client programs, just as ssh serves a shell environment to client terminals.

these commands
xhost +terrance.myhomelan.org
tells terminator to accept drawing request from terrance

so what you need to do is set up x servers on terrance
do xhost +terminator
and then ssh into terminator to execute programs.

hope that helps

[grepsedawk]

First you have to configure Terminator to allow for remote connections for kdm, gdm, or xdm. Here is the gist:

# Edit /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config and put an exclamation mark in front of this line:

DisplayManager.requestPort: 0

# Edit /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess and remove the hash (#) in front of this line (if there is one):

* # any host can get a login window

# Edit /usr/kde/3.1/share/config/kdm/kdmrc and change

[Xdmcp]
Enable=false

to

[Xdmcp]
Enable=true

# Log out of your X session and log in again.

You don't actually have to have an XF86Config file setup on Terminator. It is sufficient to edit /etc/rc.conf for the display manager to be set kdm, and then rc-update add xdm default. Of course, start xdm with /etc/init.d/xdm for the current session.

What you'll end up with is Terminator will boot, and if you don't have an XF86Config file it will still launch kdm which will receive requests (via XDMCP) from Terrance and Phillip. You won't see that, it will be at a command prompt. But, if you do have a config file, you'll probably end up with the kdm login screen on Terminator.

On Terrance or Phillip, where you must have configured X and have a functioning XF86Config, you enter:
# X -query terminator

This will launch an X server on Terrance or Phillip, but all the applications (like KDE) will be running on Terminator.

[kermitjunior]

Check out www.ltsp.org

You can run the ltsp package and phillip and em won't need to install an x server. In fact, you could make them diskless clients if you so desired.

This is probably the easiest answer to your problem. Or maybe TinyX with Tight VNC. Quick and easy.
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[mlybarger]

thanks!! grepsedawk, it worked very nicely. this should be an excellent guide. i was able to connect to a remote xdm while in a local x session using X :1 --query remoteHostName.

now if only i could find a good way for etc-update to automatically avoid these files, or give a good way to diff/merge individual changes in the files.