Start a GUI Application on a Remote Computer using SSH

this article is old; simple method is ssh -X.

Start a GUI Application on a Remote Computer using SSH
Posted on December 27, 2016by admin
This article describes how to log into the remote computer (server) using SSH and run a GUI (graphical) application that requires screen. The GUI program will be displayed on the physical monitor, connected to that remote machine.

Run a GUI Program on a Remote Computer’s Screen
The Basic Procedure
Log into a remote machine using SSH:

$ ssh 192.168.1.100
Tell GUI applications to be launched on the local screen (so, any graphical program that you run, will be displayed on the remote computer’s screen):

$ export DISPLAY=:0
Execute GUI Program. For, example lets start Firefox browser that will be launched and displayed on the remote machine’s screen in which we logged in:

$ firefox "www.shellhacks.com"
Use nohup to prevent a process from being stopped after closing SSH session:

$ nohup firefox "www.shellhacks.com"
More Examples
Send a pop-up notification (notify-send) that will be shown on the remote computer’s screen:

$ ssh 192.168.0.100 'DISPLAY=:0 nohup notify-send "Hello" "World"'
Start a music player (rhythmbox) on the remote computer:

$ ssh 192.168.0.100 'DISPLAY=:0 nohup rhythmbox ./Smoke-on-the-Water.mp3'