Ubuntu
vino package

vino-preferences over ssh -X

Bug #499884 reported by Rune Philosof
28
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
vino (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Low
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: vino

Ubuntu karmic on both machines

I log in to a remote machine using ssh -X
Then I run vino-preferences and close it again.
Then I try to connect to that machine using some vnc client.

I expected to see the remote machines desktop,
but I end up seeing my own desktop, which cause some confusion about the mouse behaviour, especially if run fullscreen.

Revision history for this message
Rune Philosof (olberd) wrote :

Actually this is all run through a remote gateway, so I run two ssh -X and I run the vnc client through a ssh tunnel.
But I don't know if that makes a difference.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
 * Where do you see you own desktop? What ip did you use?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

Changed in vino (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Rune Philosof (olberd) wrote :

Sorry for the long wait. I am on leave from work at the moment, so I am not using (or trying to) remote desktop.
Unfortunately, I haven't tested the setup more since my last comment.

* I did it more than once, so yes, reproducible.
* steps:
local.machine> ssh -X gateway.machine
gateway.machine> ssh -X remote.machine
remote.machine> vino-preferences
local.machine> ssh -f -L 5903:remote.machine:5900 gateway.machine
local.machine> vncviewer localhost:3

The vncviewer on the local.machine now shows the desktop of the local.machine. But it should show the desktop of the remote.machine.

I will try to test it some more in february.

Revision history for this message
Nick Andrik (andrikos) wrote :

I have the same problem.

I have X running on server
client> ssh server
server> vino-preferences (the window opens in client, set to accept connections only from localhost)
server> exit
client> vncviewer -via server localhost

I see the X server of client and not of server.

Rune Philosof (olberd)
Changed in vino (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Nick Andrik (andrikos) wrote :

I think I found a solution:
After connecting to the remote machine try this command
DISPLAY=:0 vino-preferences --display $DISPLAY

I guess vino-preferences read the $DISPLAY variable for the desktop to refer to and the --display option for the desktop to send the window. Personally, I would expect it to be the other way round (and always in the local server starting from the lower X-server number), but at least this is a solution that works for now.

Revision history for this message
Nick Andrik (andrikos) wrote :

By the way, I guess vino-preferences gets confused because the DISPLAY command includes localhost but does not point to the local X server, just to the ssh forwarding tunnel.

It can be seen from this example (and also shows why the trick with the DISPLAY variable in my previous post works):

USER@CLIENT: ~ $ ssh SERVER
USER@SERVER's password:
USER@SERVER: ~ $ DISPLAY=:0 echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0

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