Linux – Remote X Display with Fedora 10 running KDM and XFCE

linuxremote-accessx11xdmcp

I am developing a JSF web application on a Windows box using Emacs as my editor but I far prefer to use Emacs in a Linux environment. In the (somewhat distant) past it was a no-brainer to use a remote X display to accomplish this very useful programming aid. Cygwin helps out somewhat but true remote X is the preferred solution. However, in recent Fedora (and Ubuntu) distros, remote X is a royal pain in the butt (Google remote X or XDMCP) and you will see there are now many configuration settings for GDM, XDM and KDM not to mention xhost and the firewall configurations that make remote X more difficult than convincing Barry Kelley that this type of question is TRULY programming related.

Now, I am running Fedora 10 with an XFCE environment and KDM as my display manager. I have turned the firewall off, selinux off, enabled XDMCP (in /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc), but I still get "Can't open display" when testing using (Cywin) "$ export DISPLAY= myfedora10box:0.0; xclock". The test works fine when I remote display to another windows box running Cygwin/X. So the problem is clearly a configuration setting in Fedora 10.

Best Answer

Portable Ubuntu would allow you to run a Linux environment directly from within Windows without any messy X Windows setups or having to set up a virtual machine. Might be the quickest solution if all you really want to do is run Emacs.

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