There comes a point where it is useful to run Linux GUI apps elsewhere every once in a while and in my case virt-manager. Thus I set about figuring out how to use X11 forwarding from Arch Linux to Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks. This is how it’s done.
Bitvise (or Bitvise SSH Client) by Bitvise Limited is a freeware application that will let you connect to FTP servers using the SSH or SFTP protocols to safely transfer your data. Even though Bitvise for Mac is not yet available, there are other tools that can successfully perform its tasks. Fork is a free advanced GUI git client for Mac and Windows with an emphasis on speed, user.
Linux side configuration
As usual, most of this information comes from the fantastic Arch wiki post here.
First you’ll need to install SSH if you havn’t already and set a root password.
Next edit a couple of config files under /etc/ssh first sshd_config
- Enable the AllowTcpForwarding
- Enable the X11Forwarding
- Set the X11DisplayOffset
- Enable the X11UseLocalhost
Next ssh_confignote the subtle file name differences.
- Enable the ForwardX11 option in
ssh_config
Then restart SSH for these changes to take effect.
We are done on the Linux side now, time to move over to your Mac.
Mac configuration
I use a program called XQuartz to do this which is available here.
Download and install it then log out and in again.
Next load up your terminal client and connect to your Linux box with an ssh command with the -X option as follows:
Once you’re in you should be able to load X based applications, in my instance I simply installed virt-manager via pacman and ran it from the command line with:
This was the outcome.
CADES → User Documentation → User-Contributed Tutorial Index → Graphical Interface for SSH in MacOS
Suhas Somnath
Advanced Data and Workflows Group
National Center for Computational Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Advanced Data and Workflows Group
National Center for Computational Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
10/9/2017
This is applicable for MacOS ONLY
The Mac
Terminal
application comes with utilities that simplify the ssh process with a graphical interface. If you are comfortable with the command line and do not mind typing ssh / sftp commands you do not need to follow the following steps.Simply accessing the VM
- Open the
Terminal
app - Go to
Shell
→New Remote Connection
- Click on the
+
icon under the right-hand column (Server
). - Type the address of your instance like
[email protected]
into the pop up window as shown in the image below - Click
OK
. - You should see a new entry in the
Server
column. - You can now click on the
Connect
button to connect to your VM - You can use the same entries for other services such as
Secure File Transfer
(sftp).
Tunneling to Remote Server
Ssh Gui For Mac Osx
The former application does not make a particularly compelling case for setting up the GUI shortcut. However, it is very handy for setting up the necessary SSH tunnels to your VM (already) running a Jupyter server. See this page for instructions.