I have an Ubuntu server (12.04 LTS) running remotely on a cloud hosting service. I have installed ubuntu-desktop via apt-get: $ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop It appears to have installed no problem. I have confirmed that /etc/ssh/ssh_config on the server contains the lines ForwardAgent yes ForwardX11 yes ForwardX11Trusted yes and that /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the server contains the line: X11Forwarding yes I then rebooted the server. It came back up no problem. Now, starting X11.app on my Mac I am presented with an Xterm. I connect to my server from this terminal using: $ ssh -X <myhost> and I connect to the server, no problem. At this point I don't know what to do. I have tried $ sudo startx but I get a "no screens found" error. I don't have screens because its a headless cloud server, but I just want to acces it from my Mac through X. What now?