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alaeth's avatar
alaeth
Aspirant
Aug 23, 2013

HowTo: Get X11 working (with MobaXterm)

I was frustrated that simply following the instructions on this thread didn't get me what I wanted.

I thought it would install the X Windows manager, and allow me to render graphical applications via MobaXterm. I wanted to get jAlbum running natively on my NAS, rather than running it on my Windows VirtualBox (due to RAM limitations on the NAS - performance was sub-optimal)

Once I finished installing "xvfb", I re-connected and was greeted by the following:
X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0


I tried a simple command:
:~$ xclock
-sh: xclock: command not found

:'(

A bit of reading later...

:~$ sudo apt-get install xorg
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
defoma dpkg-dev fontconfig-config libdrm2 libfontconfig1 libfs6 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa
libnewt0.52 libtimedate-perl libxaw7 libxft2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxmuu1 libxpm4 libxrandr2 libxss1
libxtrap6 libxv1 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86vm1 ttf-dejavu type-handling whiptail xbase-clients xbitmaps
xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-base xfonts-encodings xfonts-scalable xfonts-utils xkb-data xserver-xorg
xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-kbd
xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-all
xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-i810
xserver-xorg-video-imstt xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic xserver-xorg-video-newport
xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
xserver-xorg-video-via xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xterm xutils xutils-dev
Suggested packages:
defoma-doc psfontmgr x-ttcidfont-conf dfontmgr debian-keyring mesa-utils xfs xserver gsynaptics ksynaptics
qsynaptics xfonts-cyrillic pdksh
Recommended packages:
libft-perl build-essential libfribidi0 laptop-detect xresprobe mdetect discover1 discover
The following NEW packages will be installed:
defoma dpkg-dev fontconfig-config libdrm2 libfontconfig1 libfs6 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa
libnewt0.52 libtimedate-perl libxaw7 libxft2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxmuu1 libxpm4 libxrandr2 libxss1
libxtrap6 libxv1 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86vm1 ttf-dejavu type-handling whiptail xbase-clients xbitmaps
xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-base xfonts-encodings xfonts-scalable xfonts-utils xkb-data xorg
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-kbd
xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-all
xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-i810
xserver-xorg-video-imstt xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic xserver-xorg-video-newport
xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
xserver-xorg-video-via xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xterm xutils xutils-dev
0 upgraded, 83 newly installed, 0 to remove and 31 not upgraded.
Need to get 37.4MB/41.4MB of archives.
After this operation, 96.4MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?


Ahh! now we're getting somewhere!

After installing the packages, I quit MobaXterm and verified it's settings:
X11-Forwarding - checked
remote environment - Interactive Shell

Reconnected via SSH... no X11 error!

:~$ xclock
Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion

But the xclock appeared on my Windows desktop! SUCCESS!!

Now the real test...

:~$ java -jar jAlbuminstall.jar
I WIN!!!

TL;DR version:
1. update your /etc/apt/sources.list and uncomment "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian etch main"
2. sudo apt-get install xvfb # might not be required...?
3. sudo apt-get install xorg
4. double-check MobaXterm is forwarding X11 and reconnect.

That's it! No longer will your be limited to applications that are command-line only!

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