Connect to Ubuntu Server with Putty+Xming

Question

I’m connecting my server through Putty trying to use Xming to show GUI elements but unfortunately I’m not getting it. Whenever I try to run a command line program it returns the errors.

NOTE: X11 option in Putty is active

Firefox:

Error: GDK_BACKEND does not match available displays

Gedit:

Error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the Environment.

So I was thinking, it’s necessary that the system has a graphical interface for Xming to work?

Answer 1

Following this reference xming+Putty, looks like you have to score Enable X11 Forwarding and set X11 display location with localhost:0.0, as shown. This way, your terminal will have the correct environment variables.

If you still have problems loading the graphics programs, you can try this reply stackexchange. Which would set the environment variable DISPLAY=localhost:0.

Answer 2

So I was thinking, it’s necessary for the system to have an interface graphics for Xming to work?

Yes, it is necessary to install the relevant packages. By default, VPS images are not instantiated with them.

Guide to Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ServerGUI

Question in Ask Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/213678/how-to-install-x11-xorg