[olug] remote X for all apps

[Tim & Alethea Larson]

Carl Lundstedt wrote:

>You can install a bare minimum linux install, with x-windows, log in and
>use ssh -X user at server to get x-apps to run.  This should be 'super
>easy' (tm).  In this case, I'm not sure what 'desktop icons' refer to
>since everything is launched from the terminal.
>
>If you wish to 'boot' the old pc from the server and not have a linux
>installation on the old pc,(i.e. use the pc as a thin client), this is a
>little more involved, and I admit I've never done it, but at the minimum
>you'll need a net card that can act as a boot device and a bios that
>supports such activity.  This is nice since the pc would act as the most
>transparent terminal possible.
>
>I used to have a machine that had its own *NIX install (DEC UNIX), but
>the desktop was 'served' from a linux server (although it resided in its
>own window).  I don't recall how I did that, but it must not have been
>hard if I figured it out.  This is compromise between the the two
>situations above.  The desktop (and associated icons) are all associated
>with stuff on the server, but it doesn't require any special hardware.
>
>I'm not sure which functionality you're going for, which would it be? 
>  
>

I think that, ideally (if it is possible), I'd like to run an X server 
on the local box, but have everything else on the remote box.  So the 
login screen itself would be logging the user into the remote box.  The 
local box is not much more than a thin client dumb X terminal.  I'm 
hoping there's a way the local box can simply boot, launch an X server, 
and establish a secure connection to the remote box which then listens 
for sessions to be activated.  Not sure my terminology is even 100% 
correct, so I hope that makes sense.

If not, it could log in to the local box, but all the menu items and 
application icons would have to be modified to tell the remote box to 
run those apps but display locally, rather than just running a local 
app.  This sounds much more complex.

Or maybe there's some other method to get essentially the same effect. 
 I want it all to be very transparent to a user.  He shouldn't have to 
do anything special, type commands or click widgets to get to this mode. 
 It would just work that way, and he'd be none the wiser that the apps 
were all running on a beefier box elsewhere.


Tim

-- 
Tim & Alethea
www.ChristTrek.org