Re: X11 forwarding with headless Ubuntu host

On Mon, May 25, 2026 at 15:47:14 +0930, Christian Gelinek wrote:
> 1. My workstation "gar" is running Debian 12 with XFCE.

> 3. I recently added a PC "octopus" running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Server, without
> desktop environment.

> 5. I'd like to `ssh -Y localadmin@octopus` from "gar" and then start a
> podman container with `xeyes` in it and be able to see it on my screen on
> "gar".

> I have checked that xauth is installed on octopus and have run out of ideas
> what to try next, any ideas?

If octopus doesn't have a desktop environment, does it at least have
the basic X11 client programs and libraries?  You verified that xauth
is present.  How about xinit, xeyes, xterm?

I would skip the "podman" (whatever that is) layer initially.  Just
try "ssh -Y myuser@octopus" and then "xterm" or "xeyes" at the
interactive shell.

If that doesn't work, check the ssh server configs (usually in
/etc/ssh/sshd_config) on octopus and make sure X11Forwarding is enabled.

Once you get basic X11Forwarding working, then you can try to add this
podman thing.