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Re: $DISPLAY variable empty after SSHing


On 04/08/2009 05:27, Andrew DeFaria wrote:
mcoughlin wrote:
Well it is good to know that it is doable.

My computer is running Windows Vista, the middle computer runs Red Hat
3, and the work computer runs Red Hat 4.

ssh -X computer #2

Warning: untrusted X11 forwarding setup failed: xauth key data not
generated
Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11
forwarding.
These warnings are significant. Why don't you resolve them first then
see if the problem persists.

I doubt very much that these warnings are significant.


The OP says he tried with ssh -Y (which is the way to 'resolve' these warnings), as well as ssh -X.

Not having X11 forwarding on the server as suggested elsewhere seems a far more likely cause. Adding '-v' to the ssh command line is usually helpful in debugging ssh problems.

Note I have not totally figured out what causes this and what the proper
solution is. It does involve using xauth and adding the proper auth key.
My internet research on this has yielded hazy results. I also noticed
that this tends to happen when you are not yourself. By that I mean that
I've seen this happen when I su as somebody else then do an ssh to
another machine. IOW somethings screwy in the authentication of the user
thuse ssh/X considers it unsafe and perhaps is not passing along the
proper DISPLAY because of this.

A very clear explanation can be found in point 3 in this email [1]


This is pointed to by the Cygwin/X FAQ and these issues discussed there, although I agree the language there could use some clarifications.

[1] http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2008-11/msg00154.html

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