os X X11r6.6 and linux X11

[drspin]

Question - at work I run Mac OS 10.2 -> At home I run Suse 8.1 - I know that X is designed to allow remote desktop sharing - my question is how can I use my X desktop at work on my home system? How can I configure SSH to do this securely - at home and work - and how fast is a setup like this... compare to TIMBUKTU on MAC or Remote Desktop sharing on m$ -

Cole

[Dolda2000]

You are aware that most OSX programs use the Aqua graphics library, not X, right?

In any case, X11 doesn't really work in the same way the Remote Desktop on Winbloze. MS's Remote Desktop is a VFB (Virtual FrameBuffer) solution, which at least I consider inferior to X11, but there are multiple opinions on this. If you want a VFB for UNIX, then you'll need to use VNC. The thing with VFB solutions is that they represent the desktop area as a bitmap image, and then updates that image over a network connection.
X11 is completely different. An X11 program connects to the X server (over a TCP/IP or UNIX socket) to, well, do stuff. If you start an X program on another computer making it use the X server on your local computer over the network, it will present its application window on your local X display, just as if you had started it on your local machine. That way, you don't get another desktop area in a seperate window in which the networked programs display their windows, like with VFB solutions. You still have a single desktop, where all windows, be they controlled by local processes or processes on another computer, are managed by the same window manager.
For example, see this screenshot that I made:
http://www.dolda2000.com/~fredrik/lf/emacses.png
It displays four emacs windows, but as you can see in the title bar each is coming from a different computer, running over a networked X11 channel (except the one from pc7; pc7 is my workstation, so that one's running over a local UNIX socket). Such is the power of X11.
I started the other ones using "ssh -f <hostname> emacs". If you don't have X11 forwarding enabled by default, you'll need to use "ssh -Xf <hostname> emacs". Of course, you can just go to the other computer with "ssh -X <hostname>" and start an X program program with the shell; since the DISPLAY variable is set properly, it will work just as it would usually.

[drspin]

I am aware of the difference between Aqua and X - There is an install of X available for os X - It's downloading now at work...

Your saying if I ssh into my system at work via a terminal in X on my home system - all I would have to do is issue the command for the program I want to launch???

Cole

[Dolda2000]

Yep, that's right. But can you really log into your work machine from home? Isn't there a firewall in the way?

[drspin]

Yes, there is a firewall -> Since the rest of the staff use Macs and I use Linux, That is the only way I'm able to "telecommute" I have already gotten approval to open up what I need open to make this work - do you know???

Cole

[Dolda2000]

Yeah, you just need a channel to the SSH port; that's port 22. Of course, you will also need sshd running on the Mac.

[drspin]

That's what I thought - thanks much - this will also make configuration of the Gentoo laptop MUCH cleaner... what would be the ideal way to transfer files (10G) from one comp to another on local network?

Cole

[Dolda2000]

On a secure network, FTP is probably the best, since it uses a raw TCP transfer.