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Chapter 2. Remotely accessing a graphical application

You can remotely launch a graphical application on a RHEL server and use it from the remote client. From RHEL 10 clients, you can remotely launch applications that support the Wayland display protocol by using the waypipe proxy, and applications that support the X11 display protocol by using X11 forwarding. You can also configure a RHEL 10 server for remotely launching graphical applications via SSH with X11 forwarding.

2.1. Launching an application remotely by using waypipe

You can access a Wayland-based graphical application on a RHEL server from a remote client by using SSH and the waypipe proxy.

Prerequisites

  • The waypipe package is installed on both the client and the remote system.
  • The application can run natively on Wayland.

Procedure

  1. Launch the application remotely through waypipe and SSH. 

    [local-user]$ waypipe -c lz4=9 ssh <remote-server> <application-binary>

The authenticity of host '<remote-server> (<192.168.122.120>)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:<uYwFlgtP/2YABMHKv5BtN7nHK9SHRL4hdYxAPJVK/kY>.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?
    Copy to Clipboard
  2. Confirm that a server key is valid by checking its fingerprint.

  3. Continue connecting by typing yes. 

    Warning: Permanently added '<remote-server>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
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  4. When prompted, type the server password. 

    remote-user's password:
[remote-user]$
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2.2. Launching an application remotely by using X11 forwarding

You can access a graphical application on a remote RHEL server from a client by using SSH.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the server by using SSH: 

    [<local_user>]$ ssh -X -Y <remote_server>
The authenticity of host '<remote_server> (192.168.122.120)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:uYwFlgtP/2YABMHKv5BtN7nHK9SHRL4hdYxAPJVK/kY.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?
    Copy to Clipboard

  2. Confirm that a server key is valid by checking its fingerprint.

    Note

    If you plan to log in to the server on a regular basis, add the user’s public key to the server by using the ssh-copy-id command.

  3. Confirm by typing yes. 

    Warning: Permanently added '<remote_server>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
    Copy to Clipboard

  4. When prompted, type the password of the user on the remote server: 

    <remote_user>'s password:
[<remote_user> ~]$
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  5. Launch the application from the command line: 

    [<remote_user>]$ <application-binary>
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Tip

To skip the intermediate terminal session, use the following command: 

[<local_user>]$ ssh user@server -X -Y -C <application-binary>
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2.3. Enabling X11 forwarding on the server

Configure a RHEL server so that remote clients can use graphical applications on the server over SSH.

Procedure

  1. Install basic X11 packages: 

    # dnf install xorg-x11-xauth xorg-x11-fonts-\* dbus-x11
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    Note

    Your applications might require additional graphical libraries.

  2. Enable the X11Forwarding option in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config configuration file: 

    X11Forwarding yes
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    The option is disabled by default in RHEL.

  3. Restart the sshd service: 

    # systemctl restart sshd.service
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