Opening GUI Apps in Windows via X11 Forwarding from Linux to WSL

I’ll introduce how to open GUI apps via Linux->WSL->Windows X11 forwarding through Linux PC/server and WSL Linux Bash environment on Windows.

I’ll try SSH from Windows to ConoHa VPS via WSL and edit gedit launched on ConoHa in Windows.

Procedure

Your client must be set up to forward X11. Your server must be set up to allow X11 forwarding. Your server must be able to set up X11 authentication.

xauth is normally installed, but if not, it needs to be installed. (Server side) type xauth

On the client side, write the following in ~/.ssh/config.

sublime_text ~/.ssh/config

Host *
  ForwardAgent yes
  ForwardX11 yes
  XAuthLocation /usr/bin/xauth
  ForwardX11Trusted yes

Check whether the server-side sshd_config file has X11Forwarding yes. If not, add it. It’s usually there.

cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | fzf

Connect via SSH from the client. Add -X. The -v (verbose) option is also recommended for debugging purposes.

Example of connecting from WSL to ConoHa VPS: ssh -v -X -L 4000:localhost:4000 -R 52698:localhost:52698 [email protected]

To further pass from WSL to Windows, use X SERVER software.

Download and install the software called xming. By default, it’s launched on port 0:0, so add the following to .bashrc.

export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

If you changed the port to 1, 2, etc. due to multiple launches or errors*1, change the above code as well.

1: As introduced in a separate article, there are many bugs. It doesn’t seem to be updated, but there’s no choice. Recommend tail -f “xming.0.log”.

It’s good to try gedit in WSL without SSH and see if it renders on Windows. Then try gedit over SSH, and if gedit displays via WSL, it’s OK.

(I’m pushing for via WSL, but VPS -> windows(powershell) should also work.)

Following the steps below should be fine. This occurs when XAuthLocation /usr/bin/xauth is not in the client's config

sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config