Xserver problem

[Nerd_2_the_Nth]

Hi All,

I can GUI boot programs no problem on two machines, call them HARTREE and HOME. But if I

ssh -X HARTREE

from HOME then when I try to run a specific graphical program I get:

** The DISPLAY environment variable is not defined.

and when I try xclock I get:

Error: Can't open display:

So it would appear that the xserver on HARTREE and on HOME work fine from their respective mainframes but when I use ssh to access HARTREE from HOME the graphical information won't port. Any ideas?

[hans51]

first things first
did you try to successfully login remotely to your machine HARTREE from HOME ?
in CLI (bash)
ssh user@HARTREE (replace user with existing user-name of the remote machine) and then correctly authenticate ?
see YAST > system > network settings
before any GUI remote work with X server

see also
Portalocumentation - openSUSE
Category:SDB:HOWTOs - openSUSE

[Nerd_2_the_Nth]

I can log into HARTREE from HOME and run anything commandline. Im not sure how to 'authenticate'. How can I load YAST from HARTREE on HOME? Also I should mention that the GUI from HARTREE loaded on HOME fine until recently. I can load the GUI from other machines on HOME fine as well, so the problem must be with HARTREE, but I don't know what. I should mention HARTREE lives in Connecticut and HOME lives in Virginia (I travel back and forth for work). I'll be back in CT Monday so perhaps the issue will be more apparent from HARTREE's mainframe.

[hans51]

if you can login in shell
then you can type YAST in shell and you get a simplified YAST version without GUI

[Nerd_2_the_Nth]

Cool. YAST wasn't recognized but yast was. Everything appears copacetic hans - should I be looking for something specific within yast? BTW under 'system' I have the following options:

-Boot Loader
-Date and Time
-Kernel Settings
-Language
-Partitioner
-System Backup
-System Restoration
-System Services (Runlevel)

Under the master menu, underneath 'System' I have 'Network Devices' and 'Network Services'. Like I said, I don't see a problem but I can't get xclock running via ssh -X (and I'm 600 miles from the machine so I can't sit down at the mainframe). Thanks so much for all your help. This is an odd problem.

[hans51]

yast>network services>remote administration
may have something

since you said it to work until recently
what did you change (update) before it stopped
by default remote GUI login is disabled
above lets you check or modify

you can run yast in shell also locally to see / surf faster or test locally before doing remotely

[Nerd_2_the_Nth]

yast>network services>remote administration
may have something

Hmm.... nothing in remote admin seemed to have any affect. Turning on remote admin doesn't seem to make sense to me as a solution but I could be wrong. I mean if I can sudo into yast aren't I acting as admin remotely already? I'll have to look at the documentation more on that issue. As far as I know it has always been disabled and I've never had an issue with opening the GUI...... A quick check of the other workstations running in my lab in CT have the same network settings in yast as far as I can tell and I can open the GUI on those machines. This is just one machine, HARTREE, I can not seem to access from my HOME machine.

since you said it to work until recently
what did you change (update) before it stopped
by default remote GUI login is disabled
above lets you check or modify

I have done nothing. My colleages also have access to the work station and may have made a change. Part of system was actually hacked last week (newbie made his password his username, which is actually the system admin's fault but thats another issue...).

Anyway, I return to CT on Monday and will revisit the issue then, when I can sit at the HARTREE mainframe. I'll post the solution when I figure it out. I am eternally grateful hans51. Have a good weekend.

[hans51]

and since "part" of your system got hacked ...
how did you CLEAN up the system again
a full clean reinstall ?
did you completely research all install for any files left, malware, rootkit, or whatever changes made by hacker?

if the firewall settings have been changed, do you still have a port open for remote desktop
remote shell is port 22 but remote desktop different port

have a look at
Remote Access to the openSUSE Linux Desktop - Techotopia
how to connect vino's remote desktop to the current session?

[Nerd_2_the_Nth]

and since "part" of your system got hacked ...

By "part" I meant the hacker obtained access only to the one account, not root access nor access to other accounts. The clean up was handled by another group member but I'm confident it was done correctly. We may just be a lowly group of computational chemists and not full blown computer scientists but we get by okay. Again, many thanks for the information. I will check out those links and see if I can figure this out. It is not my most pressing problem at the moment but something I will need to resolve eventually.