How can I launch a GUI session on a remote Ubuntu Desktop via SSH from a non-GUI Linux shell?

Posted by Vihung on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Vihung
Published on 2012-07-09T14:04:18Z Indexed on 2012/07/09 15:17 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 188

Filed under:

ubuntu

|

ssh

|

gnome

|

display

|

x-windows

I am setting up a test environment, made up of various Linux boxes, and I have the need to launch an instance of Firefox on a remote machine via ssh.

The remote machine has Ubuntu Desktop (11) and Firefox installed.

The source machine is a Continuous Integration server and it creates an ssh session to the remote machine from a non-GUI environment. It then runs a script, which tries to launch Firefox on the remote machine.

However, since the ssh session is a from a non-GUI environment, there is no display.

Is it possible to have a headless X-windows display? i.e. a virtual display in the remote environment for Firefox to run in? What options do I have?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about ubuntu

Cannot update, apt-get cannot fetch index files

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 from the iso 'ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso'. I installed this in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 running on OSX 10.7.3. When setting up the VM, I allowed easy install to take care of creating my user and installing VMWare tools. No problems during installation, everything… >>> More
'sudo apt-get update' error on Ubuntu 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
When I type in 'sudo apt-get update' I get this mohd-arafat-hossain@TUD:~$ sudo apt-get update [sudo] password for mohd-arafat-hossain: Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu… >>> More
Opening Skype, Opera, OpenOffice logs me off

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Whats common among Skype, Opera, OpenOffice in Ubuntu ? Whenever I open these applications I get logged off and shows back me the login screen. This started happening since the 10.10 upgrade. Forgot to mention : Yes, its x64.Each time I open these applications, the UI shows and then crashes. I… >>> More
Update information outdated

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a warning triangle that my update information is outdated, the last update was 12 days ago. I use Ubuntu 11.10. A run of sudo apt-get update produces the following output: Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric InRelease Ign http://de.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease … >>> More
ubuntu/apt-get update said "Failed to Fetch http:// .... 404 not found"

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, I'm trying to run apt-get update on ubuntu 9.10 I've configured my proxy server and I can access the internet without any problem: /etc/apt# wget "http://www.google.com" Resolving (...) Proxy request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 292 [text/html] Saving to: `index.html' 100%[=================================================================================================================================>]… >>> More

Related posts about ssh

Problem with hadoop start-dfs.sh

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I installed and configured hadoop on my Ubuntu 14.04 server, virtualized inside of hyper-v, however I am getting an issue when i run start-dfs.sh root@sUbuntu01:/var/log# start-dfs.sh 14/06/04 15:27:08 WARN util.NativeCodeLoader: Unable to load native-hadoop library for your platform... using builtin-java… >>> More
SSH problems (ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I was running 11.10 and decided to do the full upgrade and come up to 12.04 after the update SSH (not SSHD) is now misbehaving when attempting to connect to other OpenSSH instances. I say OpenSSH as I am running a DropBear sshd on my router and I am able to connect to it. When attempting to connect… >>> More
SSH main process ended

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a running ubuntu server 10.04.1. When I tried to login to the server via ssh, I could not. Instead, I got connection refused error. I tried to ping the machine and I got reply! So, the clear reason is that SSH daemon is stopped. After reboot, I was able to login to my server via ssh. After… >>> More
SSH server not working (respawns until stopped)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a running Ubuntu Server 10.04.1. When I tried to login to the server via ssh, I could not. Instead, I got connection refused error. I tried to ping the machine and I got reply! So, the clear reason is that SSH daemon is stopped. After reboot, I was able to login to my server via ssh. After… >>> More
Cannot SSH after resetting firewall on VPS

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm having trouble trying to SSH to my Debian 5 VPS with blacknight. It was working fine until I did the following: Logged into 'Parallels Infrastructure Manager' - Container - Firewall - Set to 'Normal Firewall settings'. It told me there was an error with the IPTables and offered the option again… >>> More