Using Xming for X11 applications on an EC2 machine

Installing Xming

Installing Xming

Xming is a Windows application. You can download the “Xming Microsoft Windows program installer” using the below link http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/ it’s a normal Windows executable setup.exe. So, run it and follow the on-screen instructions.

Installing PUTTY

Most likely you will want to use ssh to connect to the remote host. So install PuTTY as a ssh client for Windows: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Starting Xming
When you look in the Windows Start Menu you’ll find icons for Xming and XLaunch. XLaunch lets you select from the available configuration options and start the Xming server. I don’t plan to describe it, since it is really just a launcher for the Xming server and I like the free floating native windows on my Windows desktop.

Double click on the Xming icon to start the X window system.

1. Choose any of the saved Putty sessions to connect to a computer and click on Load

If you are using a low bandwidth link then you can enable compression in the Connection->SSH category.

1. Go To Connection->SSH->X11 settings on putty window, enable X11 forwarding and set X display location to localhost:0

Click Open to connect to server

Set display option to localhost:0 on SSH console

Test any commands which requires X windows, as below.

Originally published at full360.com on September 29, 2008.