How do I run the X11 applications through Xshell?

Owned by Support
Feb 27, 2018
1 min read

X11 forwarding is a bit different from other TCP/IP port forwarding.
Please, go through the following steps.



Step 1. To enable X11 forwarding service in Xshell: 

On the Tunneling tab of Advanced SSH Options dialog box, check Forward X11 Connections To. and select Xmanager if Xmanager is installed in your PC. If you use another PC X server, select X Display Location and enter the proper display name.


Step 2. To enable X11 forwarding service in the SSH server: 

Setup the configuration file in the following table.

SSH serverConfig fileSetup
OpenSSH/etc/ssh/sshd_configX11Forwarding yes
SSH.COM/etc/ssh2/sshd2_configAllowX11Forwarding yes

Step 3. To run X11 applications from the Xshell terminal:

  1. If Xmanager is installed on your PC, just go to the next step. Otherwise, run the PC X server installed on your PC first.
  2. Start the SSH connection with the session enabling X11 Forwarding.

  3. At the shell prompt of Xshell, execute the X11 applications like the following examples:

    [nathaniel@intranet ~]$ xterm &
[nathaniel@intranet ~]$ startkde &
[nathaniel@intranet ~]$ gnome-session &