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Home › User Support › KnowledgeBase › X11 Forwarding

X11 Forwarding

Systems: Lens, Sith, Smoky, Titan
Categories: Connect & Login
Last Update: 1/13/13
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See this article in context within the following user guides: Titan

Automatic forwarding of the X11 display to a remote computer is possible with the use of SSH and a local X server. To set up automatic X11 forwarding within SSH, you can do (1) of the following:

  • Invoke ssh on the command line with: 
    $ ssh -X hostname

    Note that use of the -x option (lowercase) will disable X11 forwarding.

  • Edit (or create) your $HOME/.ssh/config file to include the following line: 
    ForwardX11 yes

All X11 data will go through an encrypted channel. The $DISPLAY environment variable set by SSH will point to the remote machine with a port number greater than zero. This is normal, and happens because SSH creates a proxy X server on the remote machine for forwarding the connections over an encrypted channel. The connection to the real X server will be made from the local machine.

Warning: Users should not manually set the $DISPLAY environment variable for X11 forwarding; a non-encrypted channel may be used in this case.