Run a GUI app on remote computer from SSH

Question

I want to run a GUI application on my Ubuntu computer, but it should started by a shell script on my Debian server trought SSH.

Is this possible?

Solution 1

Something like this should work:

#on your desktop 
xhost + #not secure, make sure your X isn't listening on any tcp ports.
echo 'export DISPLAY=:0; x-command-you-want &' > ~/run-command
chmod +x ~/run-command
#on your server
ssh user@desktop '~/run-command'

Solution 2

This works for me once I'm ssh'd in:

export DISPLAY=:0; nohup iceweasel &>/dev/null &

Comments

[pkaeding]

It seems there is a little confusion over what you are trying to do. Are you trying to run a GUI program on a remote host, but have the GUI window appear on your local host? Or are you trying to run an application locally (and have the window appear locally), but have it triggered remotely?

[barlop]

@pkaeding well if there are two interpretations, both useful, then you can answer for both. Do you know? Already somebody has commented asking re one of those interpretations " Alexander wrote " It's been a while, but maybe you still remember if you were able to start TeamViewer from ssh. I would appreciate if you could share more detail on how you did that. Thanks." <--- So, if you knew and answered for both, it might've helped him and others.

[Tyler Hoppe]

He wanted the server to run a GUI program on the desktop, aka the server connect to the desktop and execute the program.

[Alexander Chertov]

Hi. It's been a while, but maybe you still remember if you were able to start TeamViewer from ssh. I would appreciate if you could share more detail on how you did that. Thanks.