Is there an X Windows GNU screen equivalent?

December 31, 2007 2:29 PM

Linux filter: Is there an equivalent to GNU screen for X Windows?

I want to be able to leave a program running on a server at home, "attach" to it from a remote computer with X (probably Xming) to use that program, then "detach" while leaving it running.

I can do this with linux console applications using GNU screen, but Google has not turned up a way to do this with X applications. It's possible that this is because I don't know the correct terminology to search for -- "screen" is not a useful keyword when searching with other GUI words.

VNC would work, but would not be ideal -- I like using an X server so the remote applications can coexist easily with my local applications.

posted by Kemayo to computers & internet (8 comments total)

This isn't quite what you're looking for, I don't believe, but it may get you started in the right direction.

If it's X-to-X, you can do something like "export DISPLAY=hostname" an have windows from a remote X session started on yours. I'm not sure if you can attach to an existing one, though. I also don't recall the exact syntax, as it's been years since I've done it.
posted by fogster at 2:31 PM on December 31, 2007

A link with more information on what I just mentioned.
posted by fogster at 2:33 PM on December 31, 2007

Yipe. You could do that, but it's all in the clear and a bad, bad idea. Luckily, SSH does X forwarding.

This should work:

ssh -X hostname
screen
*start X app*
control-Z
bg (close the ssh session and the app will die, so leave it open)
detach screen when done
posted by onedarkride at 2:34 PM on December 31, 2007

You make want to look into xmove.

Combine this with ratpoison as your WM if you are a total screen purist!
posted by brettcar at 3:06 PM on December 31, 2007

I believe NX, in either its free or commercial implementations, can do this. I think it'll even do application-level as well as framebuffer-level attach/detach. I haven't used it myself, although I've been meaning to check it out.
posted by hades at 3:41 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

NX is what you want.
posted by arimathea at 3:52 PM on December 31, 2007

Thirding NX. It's exactly what you want.
posted by knave at 8:14 PM on December 31, 2007

You may also want to look into XVNC. To applications, it's an X display, but to remote users, it's a VNC server. It's also available with many standard Linux distributions.
posted by bemis at 6:09 PM on January 1