X11 Forwarding mobian

[kovacsadam07]

Hi,

How can I use X11 forwarding on mobian? I used it on servers so I have experience. In sshd_config it is enabled, -X is given on the client side, DISPLAY contains localhost:10.0 but evolution opens on the pinephone.
I try to setup evolution but there is a popup window and when I select the input field on it the virtual keyboard pops up and the text field looses focus so I cant fill it. I was thinking I can set it up using X11 forwarding, "running" evolution on my ubuntu machine.

[LinAdmin2]

As far as I understand Mobian uses Wayland and therefore forwarding does not work the same way.

[wibble]

I guess it's phosh not generating the .Xauthority file and/or evolution preferring local wayland over X. The former seems a bit hit and miss - the first time I connected I got this in the login message:
/usr/bin/xauth: file /home/mobian/.Xauthority does not exist

However having just tried again that message wasn't there, the .Xauthority file exists and navit opens on my desktop. Note that navit is an X application. Geary opens on the phone rather than the desktop so I guess it's preferring wayland that's the issue.

[kovacsadam07]

I see, thank you for the info.

[sergio.pantalone]

Hi! I'm not sure how long a post can sit before you should start a new one rather than add to it, but I hope a couple of months is okay. I found a solution to allow X11 forwarding from my Pinephone (running postmarketOS) to my laptop (running Mint), but it should be the same for any Wayland vs X11 malarkey. You need to set the environmental variable GDK_BACKEND=x11. This link does a good job of explaining how to get X11 forwarding running on all the different client/server display protocol configurations- https://www.dbts-analytics.com/notesxfwdgb.html. I hope this helps!

[Zebulon Walton]

Hi! I'm not sure how long a post can sit before you should start a new one rather than add to it, but I hope a couple of months is okay. I found a solution to allow X11 forwarding from my Pinephone (running postmarketOS) to my laptop (running Mint), but it should be the same for any Wayland vs X11 malarkey. You need to set the environmental variable GDK_BACKEND=x11. This link does a good job of explaining how to get X11 forwarding running on all the different client/server display protocol configurations- https://www.dbts-analytics.com/notesxfwdgb.html. I hope this helps!

Cool, I'll have to give that a try. I've also been looking for a way to share the entire screen (like with VNC) but have not found a way to do that with Wayland yet.

[Zebulon Walton]

Gave it a try attempting to run firefox, figuring it would be easier to configure the way I want if I can do it from my PC instead of poking at the phone screen. So I followed configuration #4 on the web page referenced for "SSH Client on Xorg and SSH host on wayland". Here is the command line used from my desktop linux system:

Code:

ssh -X mobian@IP_ADDRESS -p SSH_PORT GDK_BACKEND=x11 /usr/bin/firefox

On my first try I got an error saying that .Xauthority did not exist. So I found directions here on how to create it:

https://superuser.com/questions/806637/x...le/1296679

After doing this firefox runs (I can see it running via "ps" on the Pinephone) but it does not display on my desktop PC, or locally on the Pinephone, the browser seems to be just displaying into the bit bucket. Also tried running evince with the same result. I checked and X11Forwarding is enabled in sshd_config on the Pinephone. Is there something else that needs to be installed or configured?

[Zebulon Walton]

I checked the Mobian wiki and the "What's working with Mobian" section for the Pinephone lists Xwayland as "needs work". So assuming that's up to date this is one of the features awaiting further development.

https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=pinephone

[sergio.pantalone]

I checked the Mobian wiki and the "What's working with Mobian" section for the Pinephone lists Xwayland as "needs work". So assuming that's up to date this is one of the features awaiting further development.

https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=pinephone

I'm admittedly in a little out of my depth here but I think Mobian and postmarketOS both use phoc, which is what uses Wayland. Is there any chance you're running a Linux distro on your desktop that also uses Wayland and you'd have to install Xephyr like in configuration 3 in the link above? I can also put Mobian on an SD card to see if I can replicate the issue with my setup.

[Zebulon Walton]

I checked the Mobian wiki and the "What's working with Mobian" section for the Pinephone lists Xwayland as "needs work". So assuming that's up to date this is one of the features awaiting further development.

https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=pinephone

I'm admittedly in a little out of my depth here but I think Mobian and postmarketOS both use phoc, which is what uses Wayland. Is there any chance you're running a Linux distro on your desktop that also uses Wayland and you'd have to install Xephyr like in configuration 3 in the link above? I can also put Mobian on an SD card to see if I can replicate the issue with my setup.

Aside from the Pinephone all of my Linux systems (desktops and laptops) are running X11. The phone is my first exposure to Wayland.  I've tried ssh forwarding from a couple of different systems with the same result.