[K12OSN] More OO.o export goodness (man this is a difficult subject!)

[Les Mikesell]

On Fri, 2004-04-16 at 13:19, Dan Bo wrote:
> Since I am in an X session exported from the
> LTSP server (localhost) to the client (ws001) when I
> open the xterm and type ssh backLTSP ...blah blah
> blah..., I am now exporting the backLTSP OO.o app to
> localhost, and the localhost display to ws001, when
> what I really want is OO.o exported directly from
> backLTSP to ws001 without localhost being in the way
> there.  Is this prudent?  Is it possible (I'm positive
> the answer is yes on that one)?

Ssh does a lot of magic to take the display back through
its own original connection. If you add the -x option to
the ssh command it will skip the setup, and if you
get DISPLAY exported in the remote shell pointing
back to your terminal all subsequent X programs will
open their own window directly on the host/screen
specified.  That is the way X was originally intended
to work with programs running on multiple remote hosts.
The catch is that your terminal must allow/deny the
inbound connection and at the network level this can
only be done based on the source IP.  However, xdm sets
up authorization based on the $HOME/.Xauthority file and
permission to read it.  Thus if you have NFS-mounted
the same home directory between the machine serving the
initial xdm login and the app server, the security issues
are pushed back to those of NFS.

>  Will it wreak havoc
> with the Gnome session I am currently in?
> Details?

No, window managers expect new windows to pop open from
unknown sources.  It might confuse the user to open something
like the volume control from a remote machine on their
desktop but it won't confuse X.  Try running xeyes from a
remote machine as a test and note that it tracks mouse
movement even when the focus in in a window that came from
a different remote machine.

---
  Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com