[plug] Connecting to a Linux Desktop from Mac OS X

[Michael Hunt]

Hiya all,

I'm trying to figure out a way I can connect to my Linux Desktops from a
Mac OS X machine (Panther 10.3.7, Apple's X11 installed). At the moment
I have XDMCP enabled on two of my Linux boxes on my local LAN and by
running tsclient on one Linux box and choosing to connect to the other
host using XDMCP, I can login to the box graphically (GDM in this case)
and run a remote desktop in a window. [0] (For all intents and purposes
the experience is the same as if I was sitting in front of the machine).
Both Linux machines are running Debian Sarge with GDM as the display
manager.

Since there is no tsclient for Mac OS X, I took a look at the process
table and discovered that the command being run was :-

<hostname>:~ <user>$ Xnest :1 -once -query <hostname>

Running this from within a standard terminal session results in a :-

Fatal server error:
Unable to open display "".

If I run Apple's X11 from the Applications --> Utilities folder and then
issue the same command in a xterm I get also get a xnest window and
cursor plus the standard X background, but no GDM login window.

I wonder has anyone else on this list had any success in running a
remote Linux desktop on Mac (OS X Apple X11)???

I know there are other solutions such as VNC, but I'm not particularly
interested in exporting a running session, rather I want to run the Mac
as a 'X terminal'. [1]

In some of my googling I came across various posts that talked about
different problems with Apple's X11 implementation including this one on
XDMCP :-

http://lists.apple.com/archives/x11-users/2004/Apr/msg00015.html

'It is worth noting in this discussion that XDMCP is one of those
features that is reportedly broken in Apple's X11. If you need this
feature, make sure you have installed XFree86 4.4.0 and use XDarwin.'

Can anyone with experience clarify if this means that Apple's X11 cannot
be connected to using XDMCP or that its ability to connect to XDMCP
enabled host's is broken? The former would I assume need a display
manager like XDM which is not included in Apple's X11.

I'm thinking that Apple's X11 isn't as fully featured as Xfree86 [2],
but wonder what others thought or knew about it before venturing off to
install it. What methods would people suggest as being easiest to
install/setup? Xfree binaries, XonX, Fink etc??? At this stage I'm
leaning towards fink because it separates the packages it installs from
the rest of the system. If anything goes wrong I know I can just delete
one directory and start again.

A little beyond the scope of this question, but in the same sort of ball
park does any one know of quick setup guide to setting up X forwarding
over ssh tunnels? Running an app (say BlogGTK) remotely and securely on
any of my desktops would be great. Especially when I travel East in a
few weeks. [3]

Thanks for any assistance. Hope you are all having a good weekend.

[0] In a window is important for me :-)
[1] Skribe might say it is a rather expensive one. :-)
[2] See http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-7049.html for
an interesting post on the whole issue.
[3] Of course there maybe other performance issues that inhibit the
practicality of doing this.

-- 
Michael Hunt <michael at aussie.oddsocks.net>