# Opening windows through SSH

## Ryuzaki

I just can't seem to find the right thread out there that has what I've been looking for.

What I would like to be able to do, is through SSH (or if there's another program that does this better) be able to (lets say a laptop and a desktop) go from my laptop and open a firefox, nautilus etc. window. Open that window from my laptop, onto the desktop of my desktop computer.

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## Etal

You just have to set the DISPLAY variable.

So if you ssh into your desktop from your laptop and run:

```
$ DISPLAY=:0 firefox
```

It should open up on your desktop.

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## manaka

Just use ssh -X when logging on to the remote system. This way the DISPLAY var is automatically set and the X traffic transmitted over the SSH secure channel. You may need to enable the X11Forwarding option on /etc/ssh/sshd_config so that the SSH server allows X11 forwarding.

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## Jaglover

 *Ryuzaki wrote:*   

> I just can't seem to find the right thread out there that has what I've been looking for.
> 
> What I would like to be able to do, is through SSH (or if there's another program that does this better) be able to (lets say a laptop and a desktop) go from my laptop and open a firefox, nautilus etc. window. Open that window from my laptop, onto the desktop of my desktop computer.

 

Yes, there is another program, it's Xorg itself.  :Smile:  That's the way X is designed, programs can be run in remote computer. On your home LAN this is the best way, IMO. This way it runs without overhead of SSH encryption.

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