How can I launch a GUI session on a remote Ubuntu Desktop via SSH from a non-GUI Linux shell?

Posted by Vihung on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Vihung
Published on 2012-07-09T14:04:18Z Indexed on 2012/07/09 15:17 UTC
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Filed under:

ubuntu

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ssh

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gnome

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display

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x-windows

I am setting up a test environment, made up of various Linux boxes, and I have the need to launch an instance of Firefox on a remote machine via ssh.

The remote machine has Ubuntu Desktop (11) and Firefox installed.

The source machine is a Continuous Integration server and it creates an ssh session to the remote machine from a non-GUI environment. It then runs a script, which tries to launch Firefox on the remote machine.

However, since the ssh session is a from a non-GUI environment, there is no display.

Is it possible to have a headless X-windows display? i.e. a virtual display in the remote environment for Firefox to run in? What options do I have?

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