{"id":3254,"date":"2024-01-19T08:30:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/?page_id=3254"},"modified":"2025-03-06T11:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:45:57","slug":"x11-forwarding-windows","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/x11-forwarding-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting Up X11 Forwarding (Windows)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- shortcode-right-column -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-right-column\" >\n    <div class=\"shortcode-right-column__container\"><\/p>\n<p><!-- shortcode-contact -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-contact\">\n    <div class=\"contact-header\">\n        <h3>Contact Advanced Research Computing<\/h3>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"contact-body\">\n                <a href=\"mailto:ask-arc@nau.edu\" aria-label=\"Contact Advanced Research Computing: Email Address\" title=\"Email Address\">\n            <div class=\"contact-icon-container\">\n                <i class=\"fas fa-envelope\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n                <span class=\"sr-only\">Email:<\/span>\n            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"contact-email\">ask-arc&#8203;@nau.edu<\/div>\n        <\/a>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Quick Links<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/x11-forwarding\/\">Setting Up X11 Forwarding<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.straightrunning.com\/XmingNotes\/\">Xming Website<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<h1>Setting Up X11 Forwarding (Windows)<\/h1>\n<p>Setting up X11-Forwarding on a Windows machine requires three steps: installing and running an X server, setting a Windows environment variable, and connecting to Monsoon. The first two steps mentioned only need to be performed once as they set up your machine.<\/p>\n<h2>Installing an X Server<\/h2>\n<p>SSH alone cannot convert a Linux windowing system over to Windows, so we will need a program to do that for us.<\/p>\n<p>An X server that has been tested to work with Monsoon is <em>Xming<\/em>. You can download the program <a href=\"http:\/\/www.straightrunning.com\/XmingNotes\/\">from their website<\/a> or by using the following <em>winget<\/em> command:<\/p>\n<p><code>winget install Xming<\/code><\/p>\n<p>Once you have Xming installed, search for <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">Xming<\/span> in the Start Menu and run it. The process will run in the background and will show a system tray icon.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Xming does not start with your system automatically. You will need to start Xming each time you start your computer to use X11 forwarding.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Setting Necessary Environment Variables<\/h2>\n<p>Next, we need to tell SSH where to stream the window contents. In Windows, all you have to do is set an environment variable. In a terminal, enter the following command to set the <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">DISPLAY<\/span> environment variable:<\/p>\n<p><code>setx DISPLAY localhost:0<\/code><\/p>\n<p>This variable is set within Windows for only your user, but won&#8217;t be loaded until your terminal is reopened.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: You need to restart your terminal before continuing to load the environment variable you set previously.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Connecting to Monsoon with X11 Forwarding<\/h2>\n<p>Once the previous steps above are complete, there&#8217;s only one step left: connecting to Monsoon! This is as simple as running the following command in a terminal:<\/p>\n<p><code>ssh -Y [UID]@monsoon.hpc.nau.edu<\/code><\/p>\n<p><em>Note: If you are a classroom Monsoon user, you <strong>MUST<\/strong> replace <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">monsoon<\/span> with <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">rain<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From here, it will appear to be a regular SSH session because we haven&#8217;t started any graphical applications yet. The simplest way to test if the connection worked is by running the <em>xeyes<\/em> application:<\/p>\n<p><code>$ xeyes<\/code><\/p>\n<p>If a window with two googley eyes opens, then you are done setting up X11 forwarding on Windows.<\/p>\n<h2>Troubleshooting<\/h2>\n<h3>X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication<\/h3>\n<p>This error occurs when the file <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">~\/.Xauthority<\/span> cannot be created. Check to see if you have reached your quota limit with the <span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: monospace; border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0px 4px 0px; border-color: #BBBBBB;\" data-darkreader-inline-border-top=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-right=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom=\"\" data-darkreader-inline-border-left=\"\">getquotas<\/span> command.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Setting Up X11 Forwarding (Windows) Setting up X11-Forwarding on a Windows machine requires three steps: installing and running an X server, setting a Windows environment variable, and connecting to Monsoon. The first two steps mentioned only need to be performed once as they set up your machine. Installing an X Server SSH alone cannot convert [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2758,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ring_central_script_selection":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3254","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3774,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3254\/revisions\/3774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}