running apps remotely off linux box using X

Is it possible to run apps off of a linux box on a nextstation color using X.  I was thinking of trying to surf on my color station using firefox, assuming I can get it working.  Does one have to compile and install a version of X, or do es NS3.3 have this capability?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chef

XNeXT or CubX are implementations of X11 for NeXT.

There is also a port of Afterstep window manager, and possibly even TkStep for some UI consistency.

Be forwarned the xpm "NeXT" icons in Afterstep are 8-bit colour and will look totally ugly compared to NeXT's very beautiful tiffs.

I can't remember if there is use of XaW in XNeXT or CubX, but if there is, there is a library called NeXtaw that is a replacement for it, and this makes any X11 applications using XaW also look a lot more like NeXT.

As with TkStep, some manual tweaking of XResource and other configuration files will improve consistency even more, for example, getting scrollbar widths and colours exact.

Tenzin

So if I install XneXT or cubX on my slab, I will be able to display an instance of firefox exported off my kubuntu box?  How responsive will it be.  Will it be usable to surf on?

Any experience is welcome, as I have limited experience running X apps remotely

Chef

In that case it is a good idea you get used to Xremote between Irix and Solaris on your Octane and Suns. Linux quite often surrounds the user in configuration wizards that isolate them from Unix skills.

You'll need to read up in manpages or HOWTOs on enabling the ports and protocols for X11, and setting up Xhost, Xauth, XDMCP and so on.

This Remote X Apps (http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Remote-X-Apps.html) HOWTO is a good place to start.

Tenzin

Quote from: "tenzin"In that case it is a good idea you get used to Xremote between Irix and Solaris on your Octane and Suns. Linux quite often surrounds the user in configuration wizards that isolate them from Unix skills.

You'll need to read up in manpages or HOWTOs on enabling the ports and protocols for X11, and setting up Xhost, Xauth, XDMCP and so on.

This Remote X Apps (http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Remote-X-Apps.html) HOWTO is a good place to start.

Tenzin

Thanks for the link, it should help out a lot.

My only previous experience was years ago setting up hummingbird exceed to display some config programs running off of a sun box.  The sun was previously setup to export the app, I just had to figure out how to get the NT4 box to display the app through exceed.

Chef

I gave my soul to the great Gravelord Nito¹ and he allowed me to necro one single post on a forum somewhere on the Internet.




Remote system is Debian GNU/Linux 11 with CDE 2.5.1.

Login manager is CDE's `dtlogin`, with XDMCP enabled in /etc/dt/config/Xaccess.

Client is Cub'X-Windows 5.0 on NeXTSTEP 3.3, access mode is XDMCP Broadcast (so it picks up the first server willing to manage XDMCP connections).

This would also be possible with LightDM et al, if you disable connection security and enable XDMCP.

This is actually the first time I've used XDMCP in any shape or form on Cub'X-Window, and I must say I'm kinda impressed.  The only other system I've seen that allows integration with the host system is SCO's old X/Vision product from back when SCO was actually good.


1: Dark Souls reference in case you're wondering :)

Yes, have done this,displaying X11 clients onto my TurboColorStation running cubX. Just added the other host to the allowed 'xhost' list, then passed -display <remote_host> :0.0 to the X11 program. All versions of X11 are network-aware...

That's a complete X session, running a full desktop environment remotely on NEXTSTEP via XDMCP.

You can also use "export DISPLAY=<host>:0.0" rather than specifying the display via args :)

Yep, lots of ways to skin the cat with X11. I like running the OpenLook/OpenWindows wm that happens to come with cubX (I use that environment still on a SPARCstation IPC under SunOS 4.1.4 and a SPARCstation 20 under Solaris 2.8). And I found the sources for some programs that use the XView toolkit recently and will try compiling some of those programs for cubX/NextStep (filemanager, xvgopher, etc).

There used to be a site that tried to replicate the whole of OPENLOOK, including old Deskset apps, on GNU/Linux.  Had olwm/olvwm, olit, XView sources *and* a decent number of XView applications.  Shame I've lost the bookmark.

If either of us runs into it, ought to document it here.  OPENLOOK should not be allowed to die :)

Talking of Sun... Is the compiler suite for OpenStep for Solaris available anywhere?  I forget what it was called back then, 'Sun FORTE'?  I know it's 'Sun Workshop' now, but the earliest version of that I can find is for Solaris 8 and is full of Java.

-- edit --

Ok, so the dev tools for OpenStep for Solaris were packaged in a product called 'Workshop OpenStep'.  I wonder if that's floating around out there somewhere.

Wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/19961220042542/http://www.sun.com/developer-products/literature/ProductGuide/SWP.SW/WS_OpenStep.html (https://web.archive.org/web/19961220042542/http://www.sun.com/developer-products/literature/ProductGuide/SWP.SW/WS_OpenStep.html)

Answerbook: https://web.archive.org/web/20041115074605/http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/116.1 (https://web.archive.org/web/20041115074605/http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/116.1)

-- Edit VI: The Final Edit --
Looks like it's simply not available.  Multiple people (both on nextcomputers.org and elsewhere) have looked, and found nothing.  Shame.  A crying shame.

That is too bad! When I was doing some actual programming on my home SPARCs, I just used the gnu tools - I certainly couldn't afford buying the Sun compilers back at that time. But certainly would love to play with the Forte/WorkShop IDE now, if I can find copies of any sort around (and have the time!)...

For OpenLook, I have the following bookmarks - take a look!
http://www.darwinsys.com/olcd/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openlook/files/

Oh, that OPENLOOK CD archive looks sweet... I'll be putting on my pirate hat and plundering that methinks.

There are three tape images here (https://bitsavers.org/bits/Sun/sunDistributionTapes/) containing OpenWindows 2 source code. I haven't looked at them as it's a little out of my league.

700-2824-10 Rev A    VER2 OpenWindows Source X11/NeWS 1/4" Tape (tar format, QIC24)
700-2825-10 Rev A    VER2 OpenWindows Source XView 1/4" Tape (tar format, QIC24)
700-2826-10 Rev A    VER2 OpenWindows Source OLIT 1/4" Tape (tar format, QIC24)