How do I access my remote Ubuntu server via X-windows from my Mac?

Solution 1:

There are several methods to accomplished that, depending of what you really need to do.

In order to forward remote apps to local X environment, you need to install X11 on your Mac (you can find it at apple support site): http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1605?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

From the X11 app, open the terminal, and then access the remote host with:

    ssh -XC user@host

Then, when logged, simply run the command for the desired app, ex: firefox, nautilus, thunderbird, whatever...

You can even launch only the system (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint, etc..) Main Menu, and interact with the remote system from there, without the need of a full graphical front-end. On a remote Linux Mint env, i simply run:

    mintmenu&

If you really need it, you can even start the remote graphical environment locally at your Mac's X11, simply running:

    ubuntu-session
    xubuntu-session
    etc... (depends of your remote environment)

Better than any VNC, even better than an X11VNC connection! Secured and compressed connection FTW.

Solution 2:

On your Mac, you'll need to install XQuartz, if you haven't done so already (see http://xquartz.macosforge.org). Once that's installed, reboot and open an XQuartz terminal window and SSH to your Ubuntu Server system:

ssh -X yourubuntuserver

If lightdm is running (see https://askubuntu.com/a/153423/66799 to read how turn it on and off as needed), run this command to get Ubuntu Unity tunnelled to your Mac over X11:

gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d

This works for me with Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS and Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, but I do get occasional Composiz errors. That said, I always got Composiz errors when running Ubuntu Desktop locally, too. (-:

You can log out of Unity to close the Ubuntu Desktop windows.