Linux X Windows Remote Access

From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support

A program running on one Linux computer can remotely display windows on an X-Windows display server running on a different computer.

To do this requires two steps:

• On the computer running the X display (e.g. your Linux desktop workstation or laptop, or a Windows or Mac computer running an X Server), first ensure that remote network (TCP) connections are not disabled. This can often be configured in the login/display manager configuration. Once the X session is active, then run the xhost + command in a terminal shell. This disables access control and will allow any remote computer to access the display. Run man xhost for more options.

• On the remote computer (e.g. the robot's onboard computer, accessed via ssh), run the command export DISPLAY=remotehost:0, where remotehost is the host name or IP address of the computer running the X display server.

Now any X-Windows program run on the remote computer will display on your local X display (e.g. run "xclock" to test). However, GUI/graphics updating will be slower, especially for graphics or image intensive programs such as video display programs.

Note that there must be a network route from the remote computer (e.g. robot computer) and the display. (Use the ping command to test.)