This post has been created as it may assist others who want to do the same thing. It is not complicated or world shaking.
Often you will run Fedora (or CentOS/RHEL) servers and do not want a GUI desktop installed. However occasionally you may want to run a X-windows GUI application on that server.
This is normally done simply with a normal SSH connection with the remote server allowing X11Forwarding; if the remote server has all the desktop packages installed and boots into GUI mode there is no problem with that approach. However if you SSH into a remote server with “ssh -X user@remotehost” and get a message saying X11 forwarding failed or the command “echo $DISPLAY” returns nothing then congratulations, you have a perfectly normal server install… however you are not able to run GUI applications, which is fortunately easily fixed.
Before you do anything check your /etc/ssh/sshd_config and make sure you have uncommented ‘X11Forwarding yes’ and restarted sshd since doing so. If you had to make that change retry the ssh and echo command above again as while unlikely on a server install you may have had the needed packages all along. Only if you still get the errors do you need to continue reading this post.
It should also be noted that the “X11Forwarding yes” can be set on a per client basis rather than globally if you preffer, an example of that is commented out at the end of the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on Fedora.
If you have been trying to get this working already you will have already noticed that all fedora server only installs already have a xorg-x11-server-Xorg package installed, for example F32 at the time of writing this post has “xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.20.8-1.fc32.x86_64” installed by default on a server only install. Obviously this in insuffient to run X-applications across SSH or I would not be writing this post.
To get the required functionality working simply, on the server you wish to remotely connect to using ssh to run GUI apps simply
dnf -y install gdm systemctl start gdm.service # note:is enabled by default so will start after reboots
You can then session ssh into the server again, and ‘echo $DISPLAY’ will now have a value.
To test it works, while sshed onto that remote server, simply
sudo dnf -y install xterm xterm
If you get an xterm window on your client machine with a prompt of the remote server you have it all working.
Important note: on the client machine you must have the X11 forwarding ports open in your firewall, at a minimum have port 6010 open on your client to accept the forwarded X11 session data.
Obviously installing the GDM package installs a few extra required files. Below is a list of all files installed on my server whan I needed to install the GDM package. As the server still boots up in non-GUI mode (unless for some reason you make the changes necessary to change the default runlevel) installed packages used by a desktop session such as pulseaudio and evolution do not start so there is no impact on the server other than the gdm service being started.
[root@xxxx X11]# dnf install gdm Last metadata expiration check: 1:52:25 ago on Mon 13 Jul 2020 13:44:13. Dependencies resolved. ================================================================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================================================= Installing: gdm x86_64 1:3.36.2-2.fc32 updates 561 k Installing dependencies: accountsservice x86_64 0.6.55-2.fc32 fedora 118 k accountsservice-libs x86_64 0.6.55-2.fc32 fedora 93 k bluez-obexd x86_64 5.54-1.fc32 fedora 196 k bolt x86_64 0.9-1.fc32 updates 203 k bubblewrap x86_64 0.4.1-1.fc32 fedora 51 k cheese-libs x86_64 2:3.34.0-3.fc32 fedora 814 k clutter x86_64 1.26.4-1.fc32 fedora 1.1 M clutter-gst3 x86_64 3.0.27-3.fc32 fedora 87 k clutter-gtk x86_64 1.8.4-7.fc32 fedora 48 k cogl x86_64 1.22.8-1.fc32 updates 495 k colord-gtk x86_64 0.2.0-3.fc32 fedora 32 k cups-pk-helper x86_64 0.2.6-9.fc32 fedora 91 k enchant2 x86_64 2.2.8-1.fc32 fedora 63 k evolution-data-server x86_64 3.36.3-1.fc32 updates 2.2 M evolution-data-server-langpacks noarch 3.36.3-1.fc32 updates 1.4 M fdk-aac-free x86_64 2.0.0-3.fc32 fedora 401 k flatpak-selinux noarch 1.6.4-1.fc32 updates 23 k flatpak-session-helper x86_64 1.6.4-1.fc32 updates 77 k geoclue2 x86_64 2.5.6-1.fc32 fedora 137 k geoclue2-libs x86_64 2.5.6-1.fc32 fedora 51 k geocode-glib x86_64 3.26.2-1.fc32 fedora 72 k gjs x86_64 1.64.3-3.fc32 updates 380 k gnome-autoar x86_64 0.2.4-2.fc32 fedora 56 k gnome-bluetooth x86_64 1:3.34.1-1.fc32 fedora 44 k gnome-bluetooth-libs x86_64 1:3.34.1-1.fc32 fedora 318 k gnome-control-center x86_64 3.36.3-1.fc32 updates 5.7 M gnome-control-center-filesystem noarch 3.36.3-1.fc32 updates 12 k gnome-desktop3 x86_64 3.36.3.1-1.fc32 updates 576 k gnome-keyring-pam x86_64 3.36.0-1.fc32 fedora 29 k gnome-online-accounts x86_64 3.36.0-1.fc32 fedora 484 k gnome-session x86_64 3.36.0-2.fc32 fedora 383 k gnome-session-wayland-session x86_64 3.36.0-2.fc32 fedora 13 k gnome-session-xsession x86_64 3.36.0-2.fc32 fedora 13 k gnome-settings-daemon x86_64 3.36.1-1.fc32 updates 1.0 M gnome-shell x86_64 3.36.4-1.fc32 updates 1.5 M gsound x86_64 1.0.2-11.fc32 fedora 34 k gssdp x86_64 1.0.4-1.fc32 updates 51 k gupnp x86_64 1.0.5-1.fc32 updates 96 k gupnp-av x86_64 0.12.11-3.fc32 fedora 92 k gupnp-dlna x86_64 0.10.5-12.fc32 fedora 89 k harfbuzz-icu x86_64 2.6.4-3.fc32 fedora 16 k hyphen x86_64 2.8.8-13.fc32 fedora 29 k ibus x86_64 1.5.22-7.fc32 updates 7.4 M ibus-gtk2 x86_64 1.5.22-7.fc32 updates 28 k ibus-gtk3 x86_64 1.5.22-7.fc32 updates 29 k ibus-libs x86_64 1.5.22-7.fc32 updates 262 k ibus-setup noarch 1.5.22-7.fc32 updates 61 k iio-sensor-proxy x86_64 3.0-1.fc32 fedora 57 k libappindicator-gtk3 x86_64 12.10.0-28.fc32 updates 42 k libcanberra x86_64 0.30-22.fc32 fedora 87 k libcanberra-gtk3 x86_64 0.30-22.fc32 fedora 32 k libdbusmenu x86_64 16.04.0-15.fc32 fedora 136 k libdbusmenu-gtk3 x86_64 16.04.0-15.fc32 fedora 41 k libgdata x86_64 0.17.12-1.fc32 fedora 472 k libgee x86_64 0.20.3-1.fc32 fedora 289 k libgnomekbd x86_64 3.26.1-3.fc32 fedora 163 k libgtop2 x86_64 2.40.0-3.fc32 fedora 150 k libgweather x86_64 3.36.1-1.fc32 updates 2.9 M libhandy x86_64 0.0.13-4.fc32 updates 162 k libical-glib x86_64 3.0.8-1.fc32 fedora 187 k libimobiledevice x86_64 1.2.1-0.3.fc32 fedora 79 k libindicator-gtk3 x86_64 12.10.1-17.fc32 fedora 67 k libmediaart x86_64 1.9.4-9.fc32 fedora 44 k libnma x86_64 1.8.28-1.fc32 updates 302 k libnotify x86_64 0.7.9-1.fc32 fedora 43 k libplist x86_64 2.1.0-3.fc32 fedora 78 k libsbc x86_64 1.4-5.fc32 fedora 44 k libusbmuxd x86_64 2.0.0-2.fc32 fedora 38 k libvncserver x86_64 0.9.11-11.fc32 fedora 272 k libwpe x86_64 1.6.0-1.fc32 fedora 26 k libxklavier x86_64 5.4-15.fc32 fedora 67 k low-memory-monitor x86_64 2.0-4.fc32 fedora 34 k mesa-vulkan-drivers x86_64 20.1.2-1.fc32 updates 3.3 M mobile-broadband-provider-info noarch 20190618-3.fc32 fedora 67 k mozjs68 x86_64 68.10.0-1.fc32 updates 6.8 M mutter x86_64 3.36.4-1.fc32 updates 2.4 M network-manager-applet x86_64 1.16.0-2.fc32 updates 208 k nm-connection-editor x86_64 1.16.0-2.fc32 updates 864 k ostree-libs x86_64 2020.3-5.fc32 updates 398 k pipewire x86_64 0.3.6-1.fc32 updates 110 k pipewire-libs x86_64 0.3.6-1.fc32 updates 708 k pipewire0.2-libs x86_64 0.2.7-2.fc32 fedora 354 k pulseaudio x86_64 13.99.1-4.fc32 updates 1.0 M pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-freeworld x86_64 1.4-1.fc32 rpmfusion-free-updates 100 k python3-cairo x86_64 1.18.2-4.fc32 fedora 94 k python3-gobject x86_64 3.36.1-1.fc32 updates 17 k rtkit x86_64 0.11-23.fc32 fedora 58 k sound-theme-freedesktop noarch 0.8-13.fc32 fedora 378 k speexdsp x86_64 1.2.0-1.fc32 updates 453 k startup-notification x86_64 0.12-19.fc32 fedora 42 k switcheroo-control x86_64 2.2-1.fc32 updates 38 k upower x86_64 0.99.11-3.fc32 fedora 176 k vulkan-loader x86_64 1.2.135.0-1.fc32 updates 126 k webkit2gtk3 x86_64 2.28.3-1.fc32 updates 15 M webkit2gtk3-jsc x86_64 2.28.3-1.fc32 updates 6.0 M webrtc-audio-processing x86_64 0.3.1-4.fc32 fedora 313 k woff2 x86_64 1.0.2-8.fc32 fedora 61 k wpebackend-fdo x86_64 1.6.0-1.fc32 fedora 36 k xdg-dbus-proxy x86_64 0.1.2-2.fc32 fedora 43 k xdg-desktop-portal x86_64 1.7.2-2.fc32 updates 434 k xdg-desktop-portal-gtk x86_64 1.7.1-1.fc32 fedora 239 k xorg-x11-server-Xwayland x86_64 1.20.8-1.fc32 fedora 988 k xorg-x11-xauth x86_64 1:1.1-3.fc32 fedora 36 k xorg-x11-xinit x86_64 1.4.0-6.fc32 fedora 56 k zenity x86_64 3.32.0-3.fc32 fedora 4.3 M Installing weak dependencies: flatpak x86_64 1.6.4-1.fc32 updates 1.5 M gnome-remote-desktop x86_64 0.1.8-2.fc32 updates 69 k libldac x86_64 2.0.2.3-5.fc32 fedora 41 k p11-kit-server x86_64 0.23.20-1.fc32 fedora 189 k pinentry-gtk x86_64 1.1.0-7.fc32 fedora 48 k rygel x86_64 0.36.2-5.fc32 fedora 1.0 M vino x86_64 3.22.0-17.fc32 fedora 453 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================================================= Install 113 Packages Total download size: 81 M Installed size: 344 M Is this ok [y/N]: y
