Questions on xhost, local display, etc.

Questions on xhost, local display, etc.

[Chris Green]

You may remember a long thread about this around the new year, the
specific issue then (trying to run the external xwinclip program) is
no longer with us but since having to do a complete re-install due to
a disk optimiser destroying the data on my disk I have a few things
that still aren't quite clear for me.

Is it possible to run any of the cygwin/X programs that require to
display something other than in the console window without running a
local X server of some sort?  If it isn't possible with the default
set up is there any workaround?  It would be good for example to be
able to run GUI editor windows (e.g. xvile for cygwin) without having
to run an X desktop.

I have looked back in the mailing list archives at the earlier thread
and reminded myself how I eventually overcame the 'catch 22' problem
of not being able to run xhost because it wanted permission to write
on the display which needed xhost to run to allow it to.  Is the
/etc/X0.hosts file format described or documented anywhere?  I looked
for it in the documentation and couldn't find anything, it would be
good to have this in the FAQ at least because it's a lifesaver!

-- 
Chris Green (chris@areti.co.uk)

Re: Questions on xhost, local display, etc.

[Alexander Gottwald]

On Fri, 12 Mar 2004, Chris Green wrote:

> Is it possible to run any of the cygwin/X programs that require to
> display something other than in the console window without running a
> local X server of some sort?  If it isn't possible with the default
> set up is there any workaround?  It would be good for example to be
> able to run GUI editor windows (e.g. xvile for cygwin) without having
> to run an X desktop.

Not really. gvim does such a thing. It has a fallback to tty if X11 is
failing. But it must be prepared in the program.

> 
> I have looked back in the mailing list archives at the earlier thread
> and reminded myself how I eventually overcame the 'catch 22' problem
> of not being able to run xhost because it wanted permission to write
> on the display which needed xhost to run to allow it to.  Is the
> /etc/X0.hosts file format described or documented anywhere?  

It is referenced in man xhost. But the format is quite simple. One 
allowed host per line.

> it  would be good to have this in the FAQ at least because it's a 
> lifesaver!

I will not put this to the faq since its a big security hole and should
only be used if there is no other way.

bye
	ago
-- 
 Alexander.Gottwald@s1999.tu-chemnitz.de 
 http://www.gotti.org           ICQ: 126018723