Can I run and control GUI application on Linux server remotely from Vista desktop?

Question

Can I run and control GUI application on Linux server remotely from Vista desktop?

I rent a server with Ubuntu installed from my provider. I connect to the server remotely from my Vista machine.

Now I need to run a GUI application (Wireshark) on the server and control it from Vista desktop. Is it possible? What is the best way to do it?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You could simply use VNC (over SSH) for this. Run VNC Server and Open SSH on the GNU/Linux side and use a VNC client on the windows side (like TightVNC or RealVNC). Refer to the links for the details.

Answer 2

You can via something called X forwarding. X is the window server for Linux/UNIX machines, which handles drawing windows. The programs themselves are clients of the window server. You can get a few different X servers for Windows, but the easiest to set up is the XMing package. XMing includes XLaunch, which helps you easily set up the connection and then remotely launching Wireshark.

Here's an example of XLaunch:

Here's an example of what apps running on XMing look like (anything with the orange-and-black X icon is a Linux app running on a remote server):

If you poke around, you'll be able to find detailed walk-throughs of how to get everything set up.