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I'm fairly unfamiliar with Linux, so I'm not sure if what I'm describing is possible, or even how to describe it in a way that Google will understand.

Right now, I am using my Windows PC to ssh into a headless Ubuntu Server VM. To edit files on it, I am using Sublime Text on Windows to edit files in a Samba-shared folder, and then running them on the VM. It's a little clumsy.

What I'm wondering now is if there's a way I could install Sublime Text in the VM, and then forward its GUI through SSH somehow, so that I could interact with it from Windows.

Yes, I could just use a VM that wasn't headless... but I'm wondering if something like this is possible, it would feel more natural and convenient and I wouldn't have to render an entire composited desktop.

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  • You can achieve something similar by using TightVNC. It will create virtual screen and you'll be able to interact with it using any VNC client.
    – gronostaj
    Mar 21, 2014 at 12:05
  • Would X-forwarding fulfill your requirements?
    – Ahrotahntee
    Mar 21, 2014 at 12:09

2 Answers 2

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You can use X Forwarding for this, it forwards the application's GUI to a local X server running on your Windows box. For this you'll need Putty, Xming and a properly configured SSHd.

On the server, you'll need to make sure that X11Forwarding has been set to yes in /etc/ssh/sshd.conf.

After this, you need to run Xming to create the local X server, use PuTTY to SSH into the server with X11 Forwarding enabled in the settings, and after this, you can run the desired application, e.g. sublime-text &.

For a more thorough explanation, see this for the server side and this for the client side.

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  • Thanks for this advice, works perfectly and was much simpler than I thought, I really appreciate it.
    – Lovely Boons
    Mar 21, 2014 at 12:56
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Yes, you can accomplish this using one of several Windows-based X-Window servers. (I'm really enjoying MobaXterm currently).

The fact that the VM is "headless" is irrelevant, so long as all the required packages are installed on the VM.

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