UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone

I'm installing a homeserver running debain without a desktop GUI as its not needed

The box is a low power all in one, which won't have a monitor

If I've not installed the desktop part, can I still ssh to the box and forward GUI applications with Xming when needed to a windows box?

Thanks
Chris

You will still need to install X and I recommend installing VNC server. In fact you can install the "gui version" and disable it from running on the console.

I do not know Xming, but i suppose it is some sort of X-Server software, like the well-known Opentext Exceed (formerly known as Hummingbird Exceed). In this case: yes, you can.

X-Windows is a client-/server-system, where you have locally an "X-server" running, which manages your graphical display. Think of it like a driver for your graphic card along with a - networked - function library so clients can make use of its services. This part is installed locally, at your client (yes, the "server" running on the "client" can be a bit confusing, but with the explanation above it should make perfect sense).

A "X-client" is a software which makes use of these functions a X-server offers. Examples of a X-client would be "xterm" or "Firefox". These X-clients will run on any networked host (your client as well as any server) and will connect (via the "X-protocol", a specialized network protocol) to your local X-server to display (in a window) their frontend on your display. They do so by using the services your X-server offers.

Which X-server an X-client uses is determined by the environment variable "DISPLAY", which should point to a display managed by a X-server. Notice, that X-servers have a sort-of authentication, managed by the "xauth" and the "xhost"-utilities. For a quick test you can use xhost + to allow all hosts to use the X-server. Once you found the setup to be working fine-tune this to allow only the hosts you want.

No, in fact you do not. You just have to install the X-clients.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

True, but in my experience the bulk of the X install is the client tools and libraries anyway, so unless disk space is really tight you might as well install it all anyway and just set the runlevel to run a command-line login.

That would be a lot easier and faster than trying to figure out which packages need to be installed and which ones don't.

Yes and no. You may be right about the amount of disk space needed, but in my line of work every package you install creates additional work: you need to get, test and install updates, you might introduce dependencies - all said and done you introduce additional complexity to your system. This - and not the disk footprint, which, i give you that, is negligeable - is the reason why i would never install an unnecessary package onto a system.

Maybe we are just coming from different environments. My main work is with AIX systems, but in big data centers and every shop below several hundred LPARs is considered small in my business. Making such an amount of systems work with the minimum administrative work possible is different than making a single home server do something.

My colleagues from the Linux department regularly have interns. Usually they come with an untouchable confidence about their Linux skills - i have downloaded and set up my laptop with Ubuntu all on my own, there is nothing i can't do - and leave with the saddening knowledge that whatever they did with their home-PC was not professional Linux-administration at all.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

The X server and client packages are part of the OS distribution, and I'd think you'd already have them installed on some systems.

I'd rather install everything in the base OS distribution on every machine, just so the OS install is the same everywhere.