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Is there any way to remotely (ie, via SSH) launch a graphical program on a Linux machine? When using Putty, if I execute a command requiring X, I get "failed to open display". Note that I want the program to launch on the remote machine - so I do NOT want to forward the output to a local X server or anything like that.

I want this specifically for creating a remote-control app on Android - ie I hit a button on my phone, it opens a picture slideshow on the Linux machine.

I'm starting to feel like I may need to write my own server process to listen for these events...but if I can push them via SSH it might be simpler.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 17 '11 at 18:17

3 Answers

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You have to set DISPLAY environment variable to X server you want your program to connect to.

For example xterm could be started with: DISPLAY=:0 xterm

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Thanks! I had tried DISPLAY=0 with no luck. DISPLAY=:0 did the trick. – Andrew Aug 17 '11 at 15:22
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ssh -n remotehost env DISPLAY=:0 <command> &
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You need to have a X Server to receive windows from a remote Linux Application. So you must port something like X11 to android. I think a simpler solution would be to develop ore use some kind of a screen recording software. Maybe VNC.

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OP doesn't want to display the app on the connecting device, but rather launch an app that will be tied to the display on the remote host. No need for local X servers / VNC. – viraptor Aug 17 '11 at 15:02

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