Unexpected ssh, firefox and thunderbird behavior
This just started happening with new versions of firefox and thunderbird. With firefox: 1. ssh to remote machine. Same user name as on both boxes 2. Start firefox on remote machine 3. firefox runs, with setup from the "local" machine. Remote machine has no bookmarks. Bookmarks and all other setup data, only available on local machine are displayed. 4. No matter what user runs firefox on the remote machine, the local machine's user's data are used. 5. Downloads are saved to the user's directory on the local machine. Biggest annoyance: Don't want local anything when running webmin and similar web apps. I often have multiple instances of firefox running on different machines, displayed on one box. With thunderbird 1. Won't run an instance of thunderbird on remote machine if username is the same as a user running thunderbird on the local machine. 2. Will run an instance of thunderbird, with proper configuration, if the same username is NOT running on the local machine. Biggest annoyance: It isn't really. I don't care about this one really, but tried it after the firebird problem. I don't understand how this can happen, as I thought ssh would run the program on the remote box and only display it on the local box. Is there some sort of option I'm missing? I ssh to the remote box with "ssh -X name@machine" Am I seeing something strange, or misunderstanding ssh, or is this a software problem with the Mozilla stuff? Thanks, Jim
On Thursday 02 December 2004 12:20 am, Jim Sabatke wrote:
With firefox: 1. ssh to remote machine. Same user name as on both boxes 2. Start firefox on remote machine 3. firefox runs, with setup from the "local" machine. Remote machine has no bookmarks. Bookmarks and all other setup data, only available on local machine are displayed. 4. No matter what user runs firefox on the remote machine, the local machine's user's data are used. 5. Downloads are saved to the user's directory on the local machine.
Hi, I'm sorry but there's no way this could be possible. There is SOMETHING you are missing in the whole picture as this really doesn't make sense. It seems like you were doing "ssh -X localhost" !! Did you check your hosts file? Perhaps the hostname you are giving to ssh command is attached to your local ip and you may not be aware of it. How do you "run" firefox in the remote machine? How are you sure you're not running your local copy of Firefox? Jorge
Jorge Fábregas wrote:
Hi,
I'm sorry but there's no way this could be possible. There is SOMETHING you are missing in the whole picture as this really doesn't make sense. It seems like you were doing "ssh -X localhost" !!
Did you check your hosts file? Perhaps the hostname you are giving to ssh command is attached to your local ip and you may not be aware of it.
How do you "run" firefox in the remote machine? How are you sure you're not running your local copy of Firefox?
Jorge
I agree, this can't be happening. I still can't explain it though. - I ssh to the remote machine, look at dates, files, etc. I'm on the right box. - I check ~/.mozilla. It's basically empty, definately no bookmarks - Run "which firefox" it shows the correct location, and it's on a local drive - Run firefox, it shows up with the wrong configuration (from the local machine). - I try another program, ksysguard. It shows correct data from the remote box, including 4 cpu's, and that is the only multi-cpu box on my network. This appears to only be happening with the Mozilla stuff, but I haven't run enough X programs to be sure. - I have the correct prompt on the remote machine terminal - I have no NFS mounts in /etc/fstab, and I've checked the program link and paths. Everything looks fine. - I tried this with another remote box. That box is my DNS server and default gateway. The addressing has to be right for me to get to the net. The same thing happens running firefox on that box. - I ran firefox locally from the former remote host. It runs fine. - Also, I have been running yast from the same session as firefox. Yast runs fine, expects the disk in the remote machine's drive, and updates the remote machine. I will admit it is probably something I am doing wrong, but I have no clue right now, and believe me, I looked at everything I could think of before posting something this stupid sounding to this list. As to the last question, everything else I run seems to work fine and work as expected. I'm at the correct prompt, the directory and program layouts are correct for that box, everything seems right. I know very little about networking. Is it possible that the Mozilla programs are somehow communicating over the network to the original shell? Jim
On Wed, Dec 01, 2004 at 11:28:13PM -0600, Jim Sabatke wrote:
I agree, this can't be happening. I still can't explain it though.
I can explain. You have a local copy of firefox running when starting remote one. Just close your local copy and then remote one opens fine. Regards, -Kastus
Kastus wrote:
On Wed, Dec 01, 2004 at 11:28:13PM -0600, Jim Sabatke wrote:
I agree, this can't be happening. I still can't explain it though.
I can explain.
You have a local copy of firefox running when starting remote one.
Just close your local copy and then remote one opens fine.
Regards, -Kastus
That does work in that contex. It is still a new behavior for the program. I am used to working with and I like having multiple copies running to manage different systems, with different themes to help keep from getting confused. Thanks, Jim
One more piece of evidence. I ran "firefox --help" and noticed the --display command, so from the SAME terminal session as before, I ran: firefox --display=ripley:0.0 and it ran correctly. It even downloaded a file to the correct box. I also checked to see which box it was running on (can't believe I didn't before, but I never suspected this would happen). Running: firefox - run the program on the local box firefox --display=ripley:0.0 - runs the program on the remote box From the SAME terminal session and same login. Somehow it runs its program on the same box it displays to. I guess I now have a workaround, but I would like to know what's happening here. I'm also wondering if there are any security concerns here. Thanks, Jim
Jim Sabatke wrote:
This just started happening with new versions of firefox and thunderbird.
<snip> Am I seeing something strange, or misunderstanding ssh, or is this a software problem with the Mozilla stuff?
For the record, telnet shows the same behavior as ssh. Jim
On Thursday 02 December 2004 12:38 am, Jim Sabatke wrote:
For the record, telnet shows the same behavior as ssh.
Telnet won't set the DISPLAY variable on the remote machine. Please provide an example (command by command) on how your perform these steps in order to run the x-clients on your local X-server.
Jorge Fábregas wrote:
On Thursday 02 December 2004 12:38 am, Jim Sabatke wrote:
For the record, telnet shows the same behavior as ssh.
Telnet won't set the DISPLAY variable on the remote machine. Please provide an example (command by command) on how your perform these steps in order to run the x-clients on your local X-server.
Yes, I know. For telnet I had to (displaying a X app on bandit on ripley's display): xhosts + telnet bandit passwd export DISPLAY=ripley:0.0 firefox For ssh, simply ssh -X user@bandit passwd firefox BTW, I've been doing this forever and never had this problem before, though this is a new box. and again, I can run other programs from the same shell that DO run properly. Thanks, Jim
On Dec 2 at 12:40am, Jorge Fábregas wrote:
On Thursday 02 December 2004 12:38 am, Jim Sabatke wrote:
For the record, telnet shows the same behavior as ssh.
Telnet won't set the DISPLAY variable on the remote machine. Please provide an example (command by command) on how your perform these steps in order to run the x-clients on your local X-server.
Actually, telnet WILL set the DISPLAY variable on the remote machine to the value it had on the local machine (where you ran telnet in the first place). Sometimes the value isn't complete or reachable, but it will set the variable. Jim
On 2004-12-01 at 22:20:30 -0600, Jim Sabatke wrote (shortened):
I don't understand how this can happen, as I thought ssh would run the program on the remote box and only display it on the local box. Is there some sort of option I'm missing? I ssh to the remote box with "ssh -X name@machine"
This effect can happen if you run firefox at the local machine while sshing to the remote machine. The start-scripts (at least some of them) for firefox check via X capabilities if another instance of the same user is running on the desktop. This is the case here. It recognizes the running process and open another window of it locally. In fact you only used the remote start-script to run firefox. Try to export a modified username on the remote machine: export USER=$USER-remote and start firefox within this environment. This could fix the problem. Wolfgang Rosenauer -- SUSE LINUX GmbH -o) Tel: +49-(0)911-740 53 0 Maxfeldstr. 5 /\\ Fax: +49-(0)911-740 53 489 90409 Nuernberg, Germany _\_v simply change to www.suse.com
participants (5)
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Jim Cunning -
Jim Sabatke -
Jorge Fábregas -
Kastus -
Wolfgang Rosenauer