Hi friends,

Can I do something like this,

Linux Server on Machine A (No X)

Linux Workstation on Machine B (with X)

Now can I use the Machine B's XWindows to parse through and work around on the complete file/directory structure of Machine A ?

Thanks
Ashwin

X question
 

I am not sure of what you are asking.

You can display an X-session remotely... for instance, you can launch an application on a server and have it display on your workstation instead of the server.
This is how "X-stations" work.


And.. you can export parts or all of the filesystem on a server and mount them remotely so that you can look around in the directory structure

X-Question
 

Hi KevinJ,

I want to do a thing like this using a linux server and workstation.

eg. If I have a Win NT server and a Win NT workstation and I share all the drives of the Win NT server with full rights, I would be able to parse through the entire directory from the WinNT workstation through network neighbourhood.

So similarly I want my X-Window window manager on my workstation to parse through the entire file structure of the server. This I need as my server does not have GUI and I would like to view the file structure of the server through GUI. Besides this I also want to run applications / commands on the server through the GUI on the workstation.From your reply I have a feeling that you have hinted it can be done. How I do it is now my question since, actually, the concepts of exporting filesystems and mounting filesystems remotely is not yet completely clear to me.

I hope I have made my doubt clear.

Thanks for your time,
Ashwin

Answers
 

If you were only interesting in being able to access the files, you might just want to look at NFS:

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/index.html

But it sound like what you might also want is to be able to export an Xdisplay. Thats easy to do. Lets say you are on a box called "remote" and you want to run an X app on a box called "server". First... you have to give permission to "server" to display on "remote" so you issue:

xhost + server

Then, you telnet or ssh into server. From your remote shell, you issue:

export DISPLAY=remote:0

Then you just run an X application, in this case since you want to look through the file system, you might issue:

gmc &

and the Gnome Midnight COmmander will be running on "server" but displaying on "remote". Now.. than can get very confusing.. be careful.

Check out these for more info:
http://jgo.local.net/LinuxGuide/linux-X-remote.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Remote-X-Apps-1.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LBX.html

One other thing you might want to look into is 'Xnest'. There is info on http://www.xfree86.org
That allows you to create and export entire desktops instead of just apps. I don't know a whole lot about it though.