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Seamless Ubuntu on Windows

Prepare Ubuntu
All we really need is SSH so:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

And if you plan to give user full desktop environment then (XFCE is much better than Gnome or KDE for this purpose):

sudo apt-get install xfce4

Prepare Windows
Install Xming X Window Server. Go to Releases section, Public Domain Releases, and download Xming-mesa (if you have donated then you can download from Website Releases). Installation is straight forward. I wanted to give my clients silent install so I did from command line:

Xming-mesa-6-9-0-31-setup.exe /SP /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NOCANCEL /NORESTART

Together with Xming you will get Plink.exe which is Putty command line connection tool, which you will use to open SSH connection.

Run your application
Although there is nice GUI to create connection I like to do it by hand. Create myapp.xlaunch file and open it with text editor (i prefer notepad++). Write down this code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<XLaunch xmlns="http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes XLaunch.xsd" WindowMode="SingleWindow" ClientMode="StartProgram" Program="gedit" ClientStart="PuTTY" PW="PASSWORD" RemoteHost="HOST" RemoteUser="USER" Display="0" Clipboard="true"/>

Now, all you have to do is populate USER, PASSWORD and HOST fields. You don’t have to put password in plain text, you will be promped later.

Some people like to start desktop manager (I don’t). I found that XFCE is best for that purpose so create launch file like this:

<XLaunch xmlns="http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes XLaunch.xsd" WindowMode="MultiWindow" ClientMode="StartProgram" Program="xfce4-session" ClientStart="PuTTY" PW="PASSWORD" RemoteHost="HOST" RemoteUser="USER" Display="0" Clipboard="true"/>

Remember, the first time you start XFCE you have to do couple of things. First you should click on top panel and through properties turn it off, next you should make bottom panel movable and drag it to where you like. Now you can minimize big desktop window and launch applications through your XFCE panel – you can of course add icons to the panel.
You can reset XFCE panels anytime you want by deleting xfce4 and xfce4-session from ~/.config folder.

Command line
Although Xlaunch is good enough in most cases I like to do it from command line.
First you have to start Xming:

"C:\Program Files\Xming\xming.exe" -ac -multiwindow -clipboard

Next you should start your remote application:

"C:\Program Files\Xming\plink.exe" -ssh -X -pw PASSWORD USER@HOST gedit

Or with a private key (I prefer this type):

"C:\Program Files\Xming\plink.exe" -ssh -X -i "PRIVATE\KEY\LOCATION" USER@HOST gedit

Audio transfer
If you would like to hear ESD through your connection read this article. You will need PulseAudio binaries for Windows found here.
But if you really need to transfer audio/video why not use VLC VideoLAN Player server…

Other types of seamless remote access:
1. Seamless Ubuntu on Ubuntu
2. Seamless Windows on Ubuntu
3. Seamless Windows on Windows

Category: Administration, Updated October 18, 2011 from admin | Log in