SSH X11 Forwarding Display using MobaXterm on Windows

Overview

SSH X11 Forwarding Display is a tricky thing to establish on different Windows operating systems.
MobaXterm is a free Xserver and tabbed SSH client for Windows Operating Systems which allows you to run native Linux Applications like they are running on your Windows.

Download MobaXterm

MobaXterm is a free Xserver and tabbed SSH client for Windows Operating Systems

How To

Open MobaXterm and Connect to your Linux Desktop/Server:

  1. Enable the X Server Button on the top toolbar
  2. Go to Sessions tab on the left sidebar
  3. Right-Click Saved sessions and create a new session
  4. Click the SSH tab and fill in: Host and username
  5. Make sure X11-Forwarding is Checked and click OK

SSH X11 Forwarding Display using MobaXterm on Windows

The next steps are for Linux operating systems without X:

Linux Packages

CentOS/Fedora/RHEL X11 installation

yum install xorg-x11-xauth xorg-x11-fonts-* xorg-x11-font-utils xorg-x11-fonts-Type1

Debian/Ubuntu X11 installation

apt-get install xauth xfonts-base

You can find other fonts by searching for packages containing ‘xfonts’ in their name.

SSH X11 Forwarding Display Configuration

Edit ‘/etc/ssh/sshd_config’ and make sure you have

X11Forwarding yes

D-Bus Error

If you are getting this error:
“D-Bus library appears to be incorrectly set up; failed to read machine uuid: Failed to open “/var/lib/dbus/machine-id”
Run:

dbus-uuidgen > /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

Screenshot

Running xclock on Windows 🙂
SSH X11 Forwarding Display using MobaXterm on Windows xclock

Enjoy!

9 thoughts on “SSH X11 Forwarding Display using MobaXterm on Windows

  1. Tobias PĂĽtz

    Works like a charm for Mindstorms EV3 on EV3DEV and MobaXterm 10.2. Finally I can use Matplotlib.

    Reply
  2. Oscar Eduardo Salgado Sanchez

    How can I get the value of DISPLAY (or EXPORTED_DISPLAY) when X11-forwarding in not supported?

    Reply
  3. Mad Hatter

    Worked like a charm in CentOS (directly with ssh -X).
    All X11 settings were correct at server and client, but x11-fonts were missing. Thanks for the tip.

    Reply

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