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Forwarding X11 Displays to VNCs On RHEL8/RHEL9

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On previous versions of RHEL (RHEL5/6/7 at least) it was possible to create run a vncserver (from tigervnc-server) and forward X11 displays from another server by exporting the DISPLAY environment variable on the remote server to the hostname:display of the vncserver. For example I have workstation1, server1, and server2. I could ssh from workstation1 to server1, start a vncserver on :1. Separately ssh to server2 and run export DISPLAY=server1:1. Then run an X11 application on server2, and assuming proper xhost, firewall, and port listening settings it would appear in the vncserver on server1. I've noticed on RHEL8 and RHEL9 that this is no longer the case. On RHEL7, when start a vncserver a listener comes up on two separate ports. One on 5900 + display number and one on 6000 + display number. On RHEL8 and RHEL9 the listener only comes up on 5900 + display. Based on strace output from an attempt to forward xeyes to a vnc it appears that the connection to 6000 + display is still attempting to be made. In an attempt to "trick" the system I ran a vncserver on display 101, which created the listener on port 6001 on server1. Then ran export DISPLAY=:1 on server2 and attempted to run xeyes. It did try to connect to port 6001, but was still denied. Error: Can't open display: server1:1 Is there any way to enable the X11 listener when running vncserver on RHEL8 or RHEL9? I'm aware that using SSH forwarding still works, but I would like to be able to export the display and use native X11 forwarding over the network. Also, in case it's relevant. I'm using plasma 5 as my DE.
Asked by Natolio (1322 rep)
Aug 2, 2023, 09:21 PM
Last activity: Aug 3, 2023, 01:58 PM