Re: [LUG] Commandeering X

Yep, I can manage either of those at will. In fact the ssh session I'm connecting with does have X11 forwarding enabled (for other purposes), which is why I'm careful to set DISPLAY explicitly. What I can't seem to do is replace the greeter on the target machine's own local display with my own new desktop session, short of walking over to the machine and typing on its own keyboard to login. I end up doing that, but I don't like being beaten by a problem, however easily worked around.

Perhaps I should explain why X11 forwarding over ssh is not the solution I want: I want specifically to use the target machine's display and speakers for video playback using VLC, for presentation to others under remote control.

On 21 January 2014 12:56, Tom <madtom1999@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 21/01/14 12:01, Philip Hudson wrote:

Given admin privileges, how can a remote user, connected into a debianoid (actually Mint Debian Edition) host with an ssh shell session, dismiss the locally displayed *dm greeter and start their own desktop session, effectively as if they had logged in locally using the greeter? I know it seems like a weird thing to want to do, but I'm just frustrated that I can neither remember how nor figure it out.

What I've tried is stopping the *dm service via /etc/init.d then killing any remaining *dm and associated greeter sessions, then running either 'env DISPLAY=:0.0 startx' or 'env DISPLAY=:0.0 xinit', both failing thus:

X: user not authorized to run the X server, aborting.
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error

My investigations have taken me searching for xauth-ish stuff deep in the bowels of /var, but not finding anything resembling the documented files.

--
Phil Hudson http://hudson-it.no-ip.biz
@UWascalWabbit PGP/GnuPG ID: 0x887DCA63

I think you have to use a remote client of some form (VNC?) or you can ssh -X into the machine which allows you to run things on the remote machine that come up on your local X screen. You dont even need X running on the remote machine to do this.
Tom te tom te tom

--
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq

--
Phil Hudson http://hudson-it.no-ip.biz
@UWascalWabbit PGP/GnuPG ID: 0x887DCA63