Launch Xterm from a Browser

[seattleweb]

As a testbed, I'm trying to develop a PHP GUI for a Linux computer - the GUI is a webpage that is run on the local machine.

From this GUI, I want it to be able to launch shell scripts that I have written which are on the same machine.

The problem that I am facing is that I can't figure out how to launch these scripts outside of the browser, as it is unable to open a display.

I have tried to create a shell script for the PHP to call, such as:

export display=localhost:0.0
xterm &

with no success of launching the application, as there is still a display problem.

So keeping in mind that this entire GUI is for the local machine, how does one launch an application such as this example from a browser?

[Roxoff]

Hmmm, there is no route to display 'localhost:0.0' over the X if the final display is a browser. You'd need to do some kind of vnc service, which has a broser compatible javascript engine I believe.

What you're trying to do does strike me as being a security nightmare. All the big browsers have security models that are intended to prevent what you're trying to do - access the local filesystem directly.

Maybe you should look to setting up a logged-on user's own private 'browser-based-desktop' area in their own space on the server, create the 'desktop' files in that, and find a way to interpret that data store to provide a browser compatible/visible display?