Accessing X11 Display

The X server controls which clients can access the server. Clients with access to the server can display windows or images on your screen, receive keyboard input, monitor mouse movement, and interact with the other clients on the system. The Trusted Extensions feature of Oracle Solaris adds security features to prevent labeled clients from accessing the X11 display beyond their security range. For more information, see the Trusted Extensions Label Administration.

By default, the Oracle Solaris Desktop is configured to grant access to the X server and clients run by the user by storing a randomly generated cookie value in a file. The client applications require this value to open a new connection to the X server. This value is stored in the file referenced by the $XAUTHORITY environment variable, which is set automatically by the GNOME Display Manager when you start your session. If you start applications from other display environments, you might need to copy the $XAUTHORITY variable to that environment before clients can be started to authenticate.

For detailed information about the X11 display access, see the xhost(1), xauth(1), and Xsecurity(5) man pages.

Providing Other User Accounts With Access to Your Display

To allow another user ID on the local system to access your display, use the si:localuser option of the xhost(1) command.

The following example shows how to configure your user account with the correct rights profile and run the SMF Services Visual Panels user interface.

Example 12-2 Allowing the root Account to Display GUIs

user@host:~$ xhost +si:localuser:root
user@host:~$ su 
Password: 

/**Visual Panel GUI**/
# /usr/bin/vp svcs

Note - If you use the su command to reset the environment variables, you will need to set the DISPLAY environment variable in the su session to match the DISPLAY variable set in the original user's environment.

user@host:~$ xhost +si:localuser:root
    user@host:~$ echo $DISPLAY
:11

user@host:~$ su
Password:

# export DISPLAY=:11
# /usr/bin/vp svcs

The :11 value will vary depending on each Sun Ray user session. Workstations, typically, have a :0 value on the main console display, but can have additional displays as well.

For more information, see the Xhost(1) man page.

Displaying a Client From a Remote Machine

By default, Oracle Solaris 11 is configured to be secure and does not accept direct X11 connections from other machines by using the TCP protocol. To display a client from another machine, use the X11 Tunnelling options of the ssh command.

For instructions describing how to change the configuration of the svc:/application/x11/x11-server SMF service to set up direct and non-tunneled X11 connections over TCP, see the Xserver(1) man page.

Note - When you make manual connections, you will need to set up the DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY environment variables appropriately. When you use the SSH X11 tunnelling options, these environment variables are automatically set for you.

The following example shows how to display on your desktop, host1, the Package Manager GUI from host2.

Example 12-3 Displaying a Client From a Remote Machine

user@host1:~$ ssh -X admin@host2
Password:
Last login: Fri Apr  6 19:20:18 2012
Oracle Corporation      SunOS 5.11      11.1    March 2012

admin@host2:~$ /usr/bin/packagemanager

For more information, see the ssh(1), Xsecurity(5), and xauth(1) man pages.

Setting Up Remote Desktop Access Using VNC

Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a remote software application that enables you to view and interact with one computer desktop, the Xvnc server, by using the VNC viewer on another computer desktop. The two computers do not have to be running the same type of operating system. Xvnc provides a guest domain graphical login.

This section describes how you can set up your VNC server to provide a guest graphical login. This section also includes procedures on how you can start VNC manually and at system boot.

Use the vncpasswd command to set the password used to access VNC desktops. The password is stored on the server. For more information, see the vncpasswd(1) man page.

How to Set Up VNC to Provide a Guest Graphical Login

Become superuser or assume the root role.
Enable XDMCP connections by editing the /etc/gdm/custom.conf file.
```
[xdmcp]
    Enable=true
```
Restart the GDM service.
```
# svcadm restart gdm
```
Note - Restarting the GDM service terminates all corresponding GDM sessions.
Enable the Xvnc inetd service.
```
# inetadm -e xvnc-inetd
```
Connect from another machine and verify that you see the login screen and can log in to a desktop session.
```
# vncviewer hostname:port number
```
hostname

Name of the host where you ran the service.

port number

Denotes the port number on the host to connect.

For example:
```
# vncviewer myhost:2
```

How to Start VNC Manually

A user can start VNC manually. A VNC password is required.

Caution - A VNC password should be different from the user's UNIX login password. A VNC password is not securely encoded on disk or across the network.

Become superuser or assume the root role.
Start the VNC server.
```
# /usr/bin/vncserver
```

Enter the VNC server password.

Password:
    Verify:

    New 'myhost:2 ()' desktop is myhost:2

    Creating default startup script /home/user1/.vnc/xstartup
    Starting applications specified in /home/user1/.vnc/xstartup
    Log file is /home/user1/.vnc/myhost:2.log

From another machine, run the vncviewer command with the address reported by the vncserver command.
```
# vncviewer hostname:portnumber
```
For example:
```
# vncviewer myhost:2
```
Type the password you provided to the vncserver script.
Verify that you see the login screen and can log in to a desktop session.

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