[arch-general] startx on arch vm running on ESXI (when accessed via ssh - do I need a DM?)
All, When I ended up with a hand-me-down supermicro server from a local ISP, I decided to try virtualizing all my hosts. The company I got this from recommended vmware ESXI as the hypervisor. It was a pleasant surprise to find that ESXI is a basic Linux system. (albeit a very limited and quirky setup). I've installed Arch as the first vm, assigning 8-cores and 16G of RAM. It is up and running fine. (it is installed on a raid1 array volume from a LSI controller which exists as a single datastore in esxi -- if that makes any difference) I am trying to setup fluxbox on arch so I can access the vm via rdesktop (or something similar) via a GUI on a as needed basis. I would rather not have a display manager running all the time, so I'm attempting to use the startx route. I've used the following to try and get this going: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fluxbox https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xorg https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Display_manager The configuration is good, but I'm stuck attempting to start X. X is refusing to start due to the fact I'm accessing Arch by ssh. When I try to start x, I receive the following error telling me that "Only console users are allowed": $ startx /usr/lib/xorg-server/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console I understand that it wants X only to be started from the actual physical console, but when I access the vm over ssh, I don't have one. (I am starting the vm, ssh'ed into esxi with 'vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 1', so there is no console anywhere else) What would be the best solution? Have arch boot to the graphical target loading a display manager? ... or is there some way I can simply startx as needed so I don't leave the dm running all the time on the vm? Thanks for any help you can provide. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 2016-03-18 20:21, David C. Rankin wrote:
All,
When I ended up with a hand-me-down supermicro server from a local ISP, I decided to try virtualizing all my hosts. The company I got this from recommended vmware ESXI as the hypervisor. It was a pleasant surprise to find that ESXI is a basic Linux system. (albeit a very limited and quirky setup).
I've installed Arch as the first vm, assigning 8-cores and 16G of RAM. It is up and running fine. (it is installed on a raid1 array volume from a LSI controller which exists as a single datastore in esxi -- if that makes any difference)
I am trying to setup fluxbox on arch so I can access the vm via rdesktop (or something similar) via a GUI on a as needed basis. I would rather not have a display manager running all the time, so I'm attempting to use the startx route.
I've used the following to try and get this going:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fluxbox https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xorg https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Display_manager
The configuration is good, but I'm stuck attempting to start X. X is refusing to start due to the fact I'm accessing Arch by ssh. When I try to start x, I receive the following error telling me that "Only console users are allowed":
$ startx
/usr/lib/xorg-server/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server
xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console
I understand that it wants X only to be started from the actual physical console, but when I access the vm over ssh, I don't have one. (I am starting the vm, ssh'ed into esxi with 'vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 1', so there is no console anywhere else)
What would be the best solution? Have arch boot to the graphical target loading a display manager? ... or is there some way I can simply startx as needed so I don't leave the dm running all the time on the vm? Thanks for any help you can provide.
If you only want to run individual applications, you can use the -X switch of ssh and then simply execute the respective applications as you would normally. Note that this requires the ssh-session being opened in a local graphical terminal. If you however want to have a full graphical environment, you will have to use VNC or something comparable, or so I think.
I would personally set up VNC and tunnel it over ssh. Tried your approach once and never had much joy.
On 03/18/2016 03:09 PM, Ben Oliver wrote:
I would personally set up VNC and tunnel it over ssh. Tried your approach once and never had much joy.
Thanks Ben, all, Now the synapses are starting to fire again. The frustrating thing is I used to do this without much of an issue when I would setup arch in virtualbox for building Trinity (before I found the archroot magic). I used 'rdesktop', e.g.: rdesktop myhost.mydomain.com -u david -g 1280x800 -E -x l & (or '-x b' for broadband) This allowed connection to either kdm or windows (with remote desktop connections enabled, and e.g. port 3389 forwarded to myhost). Where I'm getting senile is I do not recall doing anything special to the display manager to allow connections with rdesktop. I do recall using tightvnc-server. So it looks like today for Arch that means TigerVNC: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TigerVNC This looks like what I needed. I'll let you know how it pans out. If there are any EXSI specific quirks, I'll note them in the wiki. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 19/03/16 01:50, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 03/18/2016 03:09 PM, Ben Oliver wrote:
I would personally set up VNC and tunnel it over ssh. Tried your approach once and never had much joy.
Thanks Ben, all,
Now the synapses are starting to fire again. The frustrating thing is I used to do this without much of an issue when I would setup arch in virtualbox for building Trinity (before I found the archroot magic). I used 'rdesktop', e.g.:
rdesktop myhost.mydomain.com -u david -g 1280x800 -E -x l &
(or '-x b' for broadband)
This allowed connection to either kdm or windows (with remote desktop connections enabled, and e.g. port 3389 forwarded to myhost).
Where I'm getting senile is I do not recall doing anything special to the display manager to allow connections with rdesktop. I do recall using tightvnc-server. So it looks like today for Arch that means TigerVNC:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TigerVNC
This looks like what I needed. I'll let you know how it pans out. If there are any EXSI specific quirks, I'll note them in the wiki.
Having had a similar issue in the past, I just wanted to suggest an alternative that I have working very well with our ESXi server here. VMWare itself supports making the virtual machine console available over VNC natively, albeit in a very non obvious way. http://www.unixarena.com/2014/02/configuring-vmware-esxi-virtual-machine-con... Thought perhaps that might be a helpful tip! Cheers, --dan
I've used x2go for this sort of thing and have generally been impressed. Setup instructions are on the wiki, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X2Go --Ista On Mar 18, 2016 3:21 PM, "David C. Rankin" <drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:
All,
When I ended up with a hand-me-down supermicro server from a local ISP, I decided to try virtualizing all my hosts. The company I got this from recommended vmware ESXI as the hypervisor. It was a pleasant surprise to find that ESXI is a basic Linux system. (albeit a very limited and quirky setup).
I've installed Arch as the first vm, assigning 8-cores and 16G of RAM. It is up and running fine. (it is installed on a raid1 array volume from a LSI controller which exists as a single datastore in esxi -- if that makes any difference)
I am trying to setup fluxbox on arch so I can access the vm via rdesktop (or something similar) via a GUI on a as needed basis. I would rather not have a display manager running all the time, so I'm attempting to use the startx route.
I've used the following to try and get this going:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fluxbox https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xorg https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Display_manager
The configuration is good, but I'm stuck attempting to start X. X is refusing to start due to the fact I'm accessing Arch by ssh. When I try to start x, I receive the following error telling me that "Only console users are allowed":
$ startx
/usr/lib/xorg-server/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server
xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console
I understand that it wants X only to be started from the actual physical console, but when I access the vm over ssh, I don't have one. (I am starting the vm, ssh'ed into esxi with 'vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 1', so there is no console anywhere else)
What would be the best solution? Have arch boot to the graphical target loading a display manager? ... or is there some way I can simply startx as needed so I don't leave the dm running all the time on the vm? Thanks for any help you can provide.
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 18-03-16 20:21, David C. Rankin wrote:
/usr/lib/xorg-server/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server You can get allow other users to run an xserver by creating /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config .
from man xorg.wrap : allowed_users = rootonly|console|anybody Specify which users may start the X server through the wrapper. Use rootonly to only allow root, use console to only allow users logged into a physical console, and use anybody to allow anybody. The default is console. Keep in mind that while that will allow you to run X through ssh, I have no idea if you'll be able to see the X screen. LW
participants (6)
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Ben Oliver
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Dan Haworth
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David C. Rankin
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Ista Zahn
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LoneVVolf
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respiranto