start gdm over portable ssh (xming and portable putty)

Anyway, start an xterm and run

/etc/gdm/Xsession default

                                              

1:

I don't want the XDM of XDMCP  I want only the dashboard.

ai_ja_nai
I had some real issues with cygwin as well and could not locate you.
I would be pleased for your further assistance.  can you contact me at anonsce at gmail

of course NOT. Your solution has to be available in future to others.

Did what I suggested you earlier work?

no, it did not

to connect to a machine, first you enable X forwarding on the remote machine

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
# X11 tunneling options
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

Then, in Putty enable X forwarding (Connection->SSH->X11, check "Enable X11 forwarding") and the compression.

Finally, connect with Putty to remote host, launch Xming and you should be done

Ah OK this might be good.  I'm new to linux though and a little unsure how to decipher it.  

in response to the following, please see my questions following the arrow -->

to connect to a machine, first you enable X forwarding on the remote machine

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config:  --> can I execute these from the cygwin command line on the windows machine?  If so, how do I first connect to the machine?
# X11 tunneling options
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

Then, in Putty enable X forwarding (Connection->SSH->X11, check "Enable X11 forwarding") and the compression.

Finally, connect with Putty to remote host, launch Xming and you should be done"

Can I do this using cygwin

No, of course you have to make sure those settings are already settled in the remote machine

"of course", i would have no need to ask these questions here if I were familiar with linux

From start to finish where I end up with a GUI login via ssh and cygwin, would you mind laying it out step-by-step.  Your process doesn't quite get me what I was after.

1.
2.
3.

(It wasn't meant to be uneducated, just to put a stress on it)
Actually, you can normally ssh to the remote box and change the settings via command line

OK perfect,
so 1.2.3 from the beginning, using the windows box for the commands, can you provide the steps?

Connect with putty to the remote host (I assume you know how to do that) and double click on the Xming logo in the desktop

ai,
I REALLY appreciate your help but I am having some difficulty following your steps.  Here is what I have so far.

Task:  Connect to GUI Login and subsequent GNOME desktop via SSH (now using the suggested xming product and putty)
Steps:
 

In this thread, in post #24427286, you say that "Xming has too many bugs", and to use cygwin.
Then you say, in post #24431521, to "launch Xming and you should be done".

Just a little confused.  Thank you very very much for your assistance.  You appear to be the only one who has figured any of this out.

>choose one window
>presented with start no client, start a program, or open session via xdmcp

you should choose the third, session via xdmcp (and that's another thing that has to be enabled on the remote box)

>In this thread, in post #24427286, you say that "Xming has too many bugs", and to use cygwin.
>Then you say, in post #24431521, to "launch Xming and you should be done".
>Just a little confused.
I don't like Xming because it has(had) some problems in XDMCP protocol. I find myself more comfortable with Cygwin/X.
Anyway, as you chose to stick with Xming I respect your will and go ahead.

After you started a ssh connection if you launch Xming you are done in your goal of connecting because you can launch remote box's apps or an entire desktop (via xdmcp)

>choose start a program --> is this correct so far?, what program do I choose?
It's up to you. If you connect to a remote box is because you want to do something, right? But maybe you don't want to fire up an entire desktop window, so Xming lets you start a single app on your Windows desktop to save resources

You say that you "don't like Xming because it has(had) some problems in XDMCP protocol. I find myself more comfortable with Cygwin/X."

I am beginning to agree though am having some issues when trying to portabilize cygwin. When I use xdmcp with xming, i get a black window where I do not with cygwin.  I agree with you that xming has xdmcp issues.

Suppose I wanted to go with Cygwin, would you like me to open another question?

How would you suggest I proceed to connect to the desktop over ssh with cygwin?  Previously I have done the following, and the below was my result:

 
ssh -x root@server
gnome-session &

result: Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display

That is to say,
1) xming - ssh + xdmcp returns a black window (despite recommended preparations to the sshd_config file)
2) cygwin - ssh + gnome-session or kdestart returns the Gtk warning

may I have a look at your /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf?

<font id="linkPlaceHolder">http://drop.io/n3psslw </font>

Note that I can connect via xdmcp and cygwin but I wish to use ssh as above.

To recap:
1) xming - ssh + xdmcp returns a black window (despite recommended preparations to the sshd_config file)
2) cygwin - ssh + gnome-session or kdestart returns the Gtk warning

Are you on Gnome?

Issue

setenv DISPLAY youripaddress:0.0

before launching the gnome-session command

returns: -bash: setenv: command not found

DISPLAY=yourip:0.0

I can only try this during the day at work.  Just noticing the error though, it would appear that it is the setenv command that appears to not be found.

Thanks for the suggestion.  That got us a little closer.  

I typed only DISPLAY=IP_OF_WINDOWS_MACHINE:0.0
It returned a prompt where I typed gnome-session.

Unfortunately, I still get the same Gtk warning while using cygwin and the same black screen following initial login using xming.

When you say "- Give "xinit -- -clipboard" in the command line", you mean to type the command: xinit -clipboard ??
When you say "-Give "xhost +" in the command prompt, you mean to simply type the command: xhost + with no variable after the space +, correct?
When you say "start an ssh connection", you mean to type ssh -X root@server and then enter the password
When you say "set the display variable with..." you mean to type the command: export DISPLAY=windows_ip:0.0
Then type the command: gnome-session, correct?

Please confirm and I will try in the A/M.

1) I typed: xinit -clipboard, got some flashing, and a return of the command prompt; so that appears to have done something.
2) I typed: xhost + as well as xhost, and xhost+ which all returned command not found.
3) Login via ssh -X root@server was successful.
4) I typed: export DISPLAY=windows_ip:0.0 and that appears to have worked
5) I typed: gnome-session and got the same Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display

Perhaps it is step2 that I am missing?

OK very interesting.  In step 2 I still got command not found but i continued with the rest of it and did get a gnome-session!

The session did return significant error text though in both the command window, and the window from which gnome-session GUI was successfully launched.  Here are those screenshots.

Very encouraging but it appears the X11 isn't tunneling 100% correctly via ssh.  The plan is to be able to turn off XDMCP and complete the connections 100% securely via SSH.

I think we are almost there and your suggestions would be very helpful.

error1.png reports no important errors, just some minor glitches more than tolerable for a Win->Lin connection (remember that Windows is not interoperable even with itself, figure out the difficult of making it possible to Linux).

error2.png reports some warnings that should not be fatal. Did you experience any sudden stop of the transmission, or any crash of the Gnome session?

Ssh is indeed cyphering the transmission. If you don't belive it, sniff the traffic with a packed inspector and see if you can read the traffic (tip: you won't)

understood
The problem is that I have to sell this procedure for accessing the GUIs to my department.  All those errors are far from acceptable.

You can hide those, if you want, by redirecting the output of the command by appending "&2>1 >mylogfile.log &" at the end of a command, so that it's all logged
And remember that warnings are common and are a blessing. If you want slick software that obscures warnings and error messages to appear just cooler and that when something goes wrong just crashes without reasons you should turn to MS products...

fact remains that i know i cant sell this if errors are popping up

So let's say I was comfortable with the errors, and wanted to accomplish the following:

• suppress the errors to a log file  
• allow copy and paste to/from the cmd window  
• and allow each history to be recorded to local log files 

>fact remains that i know i cant sell this if errors are popping up
Wrong. Does it work? It is salable. Does it crash? It's not. Period. All the rest is just debug output

> how would I re-write the cygwin.bat file?
what bat file?

cygwin setup is downloaded from x.cygwin.com and the default cygwin is set to start from cygwin.bat

In other words, how would I accomplish the above post with a single click for a server named serverx?

post here the batch

Here is the batch file.

Thanks for the suggestion regarding redirection of the log.  Perhaps you are right that there is some debugging to do first.  I decided  try this on a CentOS box at home with xcygwin, to see what I would run into that might be different from the errors at work.  They were largely the same.  Here are those results.

It is important to note that as far as I can tell, neither 1) modifying the sshd_config to include X11Forwarding yes, X11DisplayOffset 10, X11UseLocalhost yes, or 2) changing the remote and security tabs to reflect 'remote login same as local', and 'allow remote system administrator logins', did not seem to have any effect.  As at work, despite the errors, I was able to get a gnome-session.

The path I followed was as follows:

Screenshot 6 above should be removed as the Gtk error referenced in it is no longer relevant.  Screenshot labeled 3, 4, 5 includes the remaining relevant errors.

Screenshot 3-4-5 are not errors, just the system that warns you about things that you have to know. They are not a problem. BTW, 4-5 appear only the first time you connect to that host

#5 is of particular concern.  I'm trying to 'deploy' this tool to be used by others in the department.  Something that says insecure, warning, authenticity issues, etc raise red flags.

I need to know how to 'fix' them, not just bypass them.

You can't, because there's nothing to fix.
The first time it asks for yes/no it's telling you "hey, you want me to connect to an unknown host. It's fingerprint is this. What do you want to do? "
The other warnings are because you use password authentication, instead on the key based one; as it prefers key based auth it says "hey, you are not giving me keys, the key based auth can't go, I'll try something else". It's not a concern. If you really want to suppress those use -Y instead of -X, but I discourage you: warning messages are good. Groping and stumbling in the dark is not

If it prefers key based authentication, how can I provide what it wants?

Great job getting me through this!  At least I can get to the gnome-session using cygwin which is what I wanted.  The primary goal has been accomplished.  I still need to debug the errors I am getting but it works.  The steps I am taking are now narrowed to the following:

xinit
xhost +
ssh -X root@server
gnome-session

done!