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Using X11

Using X11​

In order to start remote X applications you need and X-Server running in your local machine. Here are two of the most common X-servers for Windows:

The only Open Source X-server listed here is Cygwin/X, you need to pay for the other.

Once the X-Server is running run putty with X11 forwarding enabled:

Putty X11 configuration

On the other hand, XQuartz is the most common application for this purpose in macOS. You can download it from its website:

https://www.xquartz.org

For older versions of macOS or XQuartz you may need to add these commands to your .zshrc file and open a new terminal:

export DISPLAY=:0
/opt/X11/bin/xhost +

This will allow you to use the local terminal as well as xterm to launch graphical applications remotely.

If you installed another version of XQuartz in the past, you may need to launch the following commands to get a clean installation:

    $ launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
    $ sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
    $ sudo rm -rf /opt/X11* /Library/Launch*/org.macosforge.xquartz.* /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app /etc/*paths.d/*XQuartz
    $ sudo pkgutil --forget org.macosforge.xquartz.pkg

I tried running a X11 graphical application and got a GLX error, what can I do?​

If you are running on a macOS/Linux system and, when you try to use some kind of graphical interface through remote SSH X11 remote forwarding, you get an error similar to this:

X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
    Major opcode of failed request: 154 (GLX)
    Minor opcode of failed request: 3 (X_GLXCreateContext)
    Value in failed request: 0x0
    Serial number of failed request: 61
    Current serial number in output stream: 62

Try to do this fix:

macOS:

  • Open a command shell, type, and execute:
    $ defaults find xquartz | grep domain

You should get something like 'org.macosforge.xquartz.X11' or 'org.xquartz.x11', use this text in the following command (we will use org.xquartz.x11 for this example):

    $ defaults write org.xquartz.x11 enable_iglx -bool true
  • Reboot your computer.

Linux:

  • Edit (as root) your Xorg config file and add this:
    Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "AllowIndirectGLX" "on"
        Option "IndirectGLX" "on"
    EndSection
  • Reboot your computer.

This solves the error most of the time. The error is related to the fact that some OS versions have disabled indirect GLX by default, or disabled it at some point during an OS update.