I have XWin Server running on my local computer (Windows 7). When I open up a cygwin shell and type emacs, a graphical display for emacs comes up as expected.
Now I try to get a remote application to display on my local machine. In cygwin, I type:
ssh -X root@.....
(I have also tried ssh -Y root@… with the same results.) I log in with the password and then I get this fun message:
/usr/bin/xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
Then I try to open xeyes. This is the point where I expect a window to pop up on my local machine with googly eyes that follow the mouse cursor. Instead I get some cryptic error message:
root@debian:~# xeyes
connect /tmp/.X11-unix/X0: Bad file number
Error: Can't open display: localhost:10.0
This is the extent of my troubleshooting capabilities on Linux:
root@debian:~# echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0
I am very new to Linux. How can I get the remote server to know about my local XWin Server? It seems like it should be simple, since I already have a connection through ssh.
Update
So I guess cygwin has this “feature” where if you set the DISPLAY to :0, it means something different than localhost:0. Setting the DISPLAY to 127.0.0.1:0 or localhost:0 as suggested will fix the problem.
You’re using XWin outside of Cygwin, which might be causing issues. Try setting your DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0, as suggested here:
http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2002-10/msg00065.html
under “Using Cygwin’s OpenSSH with XWin-32”