How do I establish a remote CDE or JDS session on Solaris 10?

As stated above in the title "How do I establish a remote CDE or JDS session on Solaris 10?"

What I would like to do is be able to login to and use the machine remotely using either the CDE or JDS, preferably with out having to use a VNC, and be able to use the pretty GUI, instead of exclusively therough the CLI. I know that this can be done because I have many books on UNIX and they all say how cool X is and that you can do exactly what I am trying to do with it, except none of them explain HOW it can be done [LOL!]. I understand this could be because of all of the delicious flavors of UNIX.

Here's some info about the setup:
The machine is an AMD64 i86 running the most current version of Solaris 10 i86, pretty much out of the box-No big changes to the X system.
The X system being used is the sunX system.
The machine is NOT headless and dtterm is running since the console has the pretty solaris login window.

X and X tunneling is worrking properly because I can run X applications such as xclock, xman, and xlogo on the remote machine to the remote client. However, when performing a search in xman, as soon as a letter is pressed, it exits and the following is displayed in the window:

X Error of failed request: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied)
Major opcode of failed request: 102 (X_ChangeKeyboardControl)
Serial number of failed request: 502
Current serial number in output stream: 508

Not a major concern to me since I do not intend to use xman, but if the information helps find the problem, then the bytes are not wasted.

I am using the Apple X11 system on MacOS X 10.4.8 on the client machine, and using ssh -X user@host /usr/dt/bin/Xsession

I thought I knew how to do this, and I was excited to see it work-somewhat...
After entering the password for the account, the pretty screen that says "Starting Common Desktop Environment" appears in fullscreen with the little sun micro badge in the top left, except its brown and not blue, and a weird blue-green rectangle hovers above the sun badge. It sits there for a while... the screen doesnt change, and then it exits and dissapears.

I tried restarting the system, as it holds nothing important and belongs to me personally so i can do as iwish with it. Same thing.

I decided to try something different since I know that X is working. Rather than run Xsession in the fassion above, i tried running it with start-gnome.
This sorta worked...it starts, and the toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen, but there is no desktop and a blank error dialog appears. Also pressing the orange Launch button does nothing.

I've checked the Xerrors log, but nothing obvious was in there. Actually, there were no errors generated at the time I was doing all of this at all!

So-if anyone can help me out with this it woulod be greatly appreciated. Im sure its probably something simple such as a configuration script that needs some modification.

Also, if you can play nicely, if you wish to login to the machine and see for yourself whats going on, here is a login account and ip address for the machine:

host address: 72.193.221.139
username: fvallejo
password: 409elm

Normally this would be a huge security hole right here, but the machine is not important and the network it is on holds nothing important. ALSO, the ip address it is sitting on will change soon so if it quits working, let me know and i will repost the address.

I am not afraid to blow away the configuration. I ask that if you login to the system, please do not do anything harmful. Only test out the X stuff.
If the system becomes a zombie, ill unplug it and reinstall solaris immediately, and buy more books.

Thanks!
Halley Clark

Hi.
Well, first of all, I do not know "Apple X11 system on MacOS X 10.4.8" at all, but I supopse that's X-Windows. So, assuming you have an X server running on your client machine, I would start a XDMCP session. To do so, just run on your client machine:

X :1 -query 72.193.221.139 vt9

Which means:
X - The X server executable.
:1 - The new display number, you can change it to whatever except the display you are using (usually :0).
-query 72.193.221.139 - XDMCP session against 72.193.221.139
vt9 - This launches the new X-server in your virtual terminal number 9.
This is the command I use in Linux. In my cygwin (Windows), it would be:

X :1 -query 72.193.221.139

because there are no virtual terminals...

I think Solaris 10 allows XDMCP connections by default, at least, Solaris 9 does.

I hope this helps.

Regards.

Well I tried the command like you said, but had no luck with it. The Apple X11 terminal is a XFree86 terminal that runs within the GUI named "Quartz" of the MacOS. After executing the comand from the X terminal, a executable icon appears in the dock named Xquartz, and the following is displayed on the X terminal:

halley-clarks-ibook-g4:~ halley_clark$ X :1 -query 192.168.1.253

XFree86 Version 4.4.0 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)
_XSERVTransmkdir: Owner of /tmp/.X11-unix should be set to root
[DRI] screen 0 installation complete
Screen 0 added: 1024x768 @ (0,0)
error opening security policy file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!

Fatal server error:
XDMCP fatal error: Session failed Session 6 failed for display 192.168.2.1:1: Cannot open display

OsVendorFatalError
AbortDDX
Quitting XDarwin...

Now looking at this where it ways XDMCP fatal error, I'm assuming whats going on is the session cannot be established, possibly something on the Solaris-maybe a difference from 9 and 10?

Also, 192.168.1.253 is the location of the server behind my NAT server.

I have tried both addresses with the same results.

I seemed to go further with just the Xsession through ssh. It would connect and display the "starting CDE" screen, only in the wrong color and with wrong fonts, and it just stays there. But I dont know enough about how X works and how to use it to figure out why.

Now also I would like to ask what a good book on X would be. I am new to X, but I am not new to Unix and I have many animal books. I first started with Linux, but then moved on to some work with AIX, and then Solaris 7 (!) and irix (uggh!) and FreeBSD and now the freeBSD based MacOS (yay!). But all of my skills I have gained strictly through a CLI. I have had very little experience with window systems on unix because I have always used SSH or RSH to work with a machine.

ps-you are welcome to try and connect to the machine with you solris 9 machine.

the username and password are in the top thread.

thank you very much for your help!

Hi again.
There are a few things to take into account.

• XDMCP, allows you to display remote apps in your local Xserver. So there must be an X server running on your Apple (the one you use when you login) plus another one (the one in which your XDCP session is displayed).
• ssh (tunnel) is not the same case. Xsession is executed on the solaris server, X server included, but everything is displayed on your X server. Tere are only one X server running on each machine.
• NAT is another "problem". You will have to open/NAT some TCP ports if you want to use XDMCP (177/TCP/UDP at least)...
• If your Apple doesn't use virtual terminals, you won't be able to start an XDMCP session this way. You could use "Xnest" in case it's available on your MAC, instead of "X". I've only seen virtual terminals on Linux boxes though this does not mean it's not possible on other systems
  Then, try with Xnest:

Xnest :1 -query <IP>

This will launch an X server on a window, if everything else is OK, with a XDMC session against your Sun server.

Good luck!

Regards.

I tried that on the Mac, and a window with the crossweaving and the X cursor appears, then dissapears. I am trying all of this on the local network and not through any firewalls or routers. My next attempt will be to try on a Linux machine, and on another Solaris. If i can get a system using a real X system to work properly, then I know its something funky with the Apple X system. Now I have used the Apple X system with applications such as OpenOffice on the local machine just fine. I have also been able to execute applications such as xlogo remotely and display on the local machine. To me that means that it is capable of connecting and passing data. However, the X system runs under Apple's Quartz display system, so it is possible that because of this, some minor adjustments were made to accomodate for how displays are utilized on the system, which could be why it is having some trouble.

Again, thankyou very much for your help!

Halley Clark

Well, I don't know what could be the problem...
In my Sun workstation, running Solaris 9, /usr/dt/config/Xaccess contains a line like:

*                       # grant service to all remote displays

Which means that XDMCP sessions are allowed for all hosts. Check your Xaccess, just in case...

Can you post Xnest output?

Make sure also that your MAC allows incoming network connections (no ip filters, etc)...

Regards.

When I had a chance to sit down, i thought about the output from my previous Xnest attempt where it said something about interface 192.168.2.1. My iBook has two network interfaces, one for the wired ethernet, and one for the wireless. I already knew this was odd since the host i was connecting to was on the 192.168.1.0 network, which is the network the primary interface was on, while the 192.168.2.0 network's interface was not even active. I checked all of the network configurations making sure there were no firewalls enabled and no services that could be conflicting. Upon first glance there was not. I then noticed that the connection on one interface was being shared to another, and I have found that this feature when enabled, doesnt just route packets and issue dhcp configurations, but also sets up its own DNS server on the local machine among a few other things. For the sake of minimizing possible interfering services, I disabled this feature since I was not using it anyway. I then tried executing Xnest in the same syntax that i have been in the Apple X system and a window appears this time black instead of the default crossweaved pattern, and then soon after I am greeted to the system and asked for a login! I loged in and started the Java Desktop Session and then cried tears of joy! (ok i didn't cry, but i did log in as if i was at the console)

I am absolutely thrilled that this worked and I must say that I am very impressed with the MacOS, although at times I am a bit frustrated with the extra fatware, but never enough to wish it was not included.

So the lesson learned here is that for some odd reason, the "internet sharing " features in the MacOS interfere with XDMCP connections, and the service must be disabled in order for XDMCP and Xnest to work properly.

Thank you grial for your swift responses and patience to continue helping me. I appreciate it very much and I hope the value of what we have found out here will help other users on this forum as well.

Ok now this one seems a bit weird-after getting all of this to work now, I have found I can only log in using the Java Desktop Session. CDE will not run over the remote Xnest session. Is this deliberate? I wanted to use CDE to use the Solaris Management Console on the host remotely, since I dont have another Sun machine to run it from.

I'm glad about your success!

Regarding to CDE, On the login windows should appear an "options" button, there, in "sessions" should appear the "Common Desktop Environment" option... (Note I'm using Solaris 9)
Regards.

Actually the problem is CDE not starting durring the session. After selecting Common Desktop Environment from the sessions menu and loging in, the screen goes black with the hourglass, then returns to the login screen. I have tried this with different user acounts, and I also tried with an account that does not exist to test and see the behavior of an incorrect login to see if maybe i was entering the login information incorrectly. The login screen does not disappear and it states in the window that it was an incorrect login.

Java Desktop functions just fine. Again if you wish to try out the system, you can use the fvallejo account from above.

Thanks!

I have seen that kind of behaviour before on remote X desktops, but can't remember how to fix it. One thing though, you can run SMC just fine from JDS.

Oh I didnt know the GUIs were compatible. I can jsut execute SMC like a normal application from JDS?

Thanks!