Sample pen to run applications through X-forwarding on a server on the Internet

Hi, Habr!

Today we would like to share our insights and hypotheses regarding the application of good old ideas to current web trends, in particular, Cloud Computing. You, probably, have noticed the lack of some power or other parameters of your personal computer before, and even more so, each user is faced with the question of the safe use of the Internet for his computer and his own data. For Windows users, the problem with viruses, which constantly strive to leak out to the computer when visiting websites and reading mail, is also haunted. We propose to dive a bit into the future and provide some side-view on the remote launch of applications on a web server via X-forwarding.





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Why we decided to offer it to you

You are given the opportunity to run some applications from a remote server. The goal is simple - we give you “play around” with applications that are running somewhere not on your computer to analyze the health and suitability of use on an ongoing basis.

Necessary software

In order to log into our server and you have Windows, you will need Xming ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming ) and OpenSSH for Windows ( http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/ ). In another case (Linux, MacOSX), nothing needs to be installed. You can also use PuTTY to connect to the server via SSH. To speed up the process, you can download the installers for these programs in the archive from our server: http://datapoliten.ru/files/f7/ab/f7aba2ac04b64ba3b40679175e367054/xming-sshwindows.zip . The order of installation is not important, no special settings are required.

Login Procedure

For the purpose of precaution (we do not want to let anyone get to our server), we do not give anonymous access to launch applications. To get a login with a password to log in to the server, please leave a comment on this topic, or write a personal message, we will try to send you a password within a few minutes. If you are not a Habr user, but you have friends on Habré who can confirm this, we will also give you a login with a password.

Linux or MacOS

If you have Linux or MacOS X, then to log in to our server, simply enter the following command in the console (for MacOS X users, the X11 server will start automatically):



ssh -YC _ @212.158.161.59 firefox



or



ssh -YC _ @212.158.161.59 openoffice.org-3.0.0



to launch remote firefox and OpenOffice.org respectively.





If you need to enter in Russian in a running remote application (or some other), it may be sufficient to simply switch the system layout on your computer. If this does not help, MacOS X users can recommend:



1) go to the X11.app settings and put a tick in the "login" tab "follow the system keyboard layout"

2) if item 1) does not help, install a newer version of X11 from the XQuartz website: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki (unfortunately, the installation requires downloading about 80 MB and leaving the account)



If you are a Linux user, I unfortunately cannot help you with anything. Perhaps you will find the answer in the comments of respected users.

Windows

If you have Windows, then you can use a pre-prepared template in the archive, which is called remote-login.xlaunch, which you need to edit (click "change" in the context menu) and change the desired login in it, as well as, possibly, the path to ssh .exe, if your Windows is not on the C: drive or the path to the Program Files is different from “C: \ Program Files (x86) \” (the source file was created in the 64bit edition of Windows), you need to point to ssh.exe, which is located in the folder __program_files \OpenSSH\ . In addition to the login, you can change the command to run on the server: to start OpenOffice.org, type openoffice.org-3.0.0 in the appropriate input field (instead of default firefox).







If you downloaded everything separately, you can also download the template for XMing from our server: http://datapoliten.ru/files/f7/ab/f7aba2ac04b64ba3b40679175e367054/remote-login.xlaunch .



After the file has been edited (and you just clicked "next-> next-> next ..."), the SSH client should start asking for a password. When you first log in, you will traditionally be asked whether the RSA (DSA) fingerprint matches what is on our server (8a: 0a: be: 7c: 14: 9b: 67: 3e: 7c: cf: 5d: 18: 42: 92: 20: 3d), enter yes. If you see words about .Xauthority, X11 identification, you can safely skip them - it does not play a special role. Also, the X server will most likely ask your firewall for further actions - allow XMing to create a listening socket (it is with it that SSH connects any X-client on the remote server).



To switch the layout, the Caps Lock key is configured, the default layout is English.

Installed Applications

Firefox and openoffice.org-3.0.0 applications are currently available, although you can run GNOME (gnome-session), view downloaded PDF-files and stuff, but it’s interesting to get comments from you about how these applications work using X- forwarding over the Internet.