[rescue] SunOS 4.1.3 X-Windows client to modern Linux System, How?

[Dave McGuire]

On 4/20/21 10:26 AM, john ferguson wrote:
> I'm sitting at a desk which has a modern Ubuntu System underneath in a
> big tower and a SPARCstation10 on top with the monitors atop the Sparc.B
> I have the big monitor hooked up via a vga converter to the Sun and to
> the Linux system via HDMI. I can switch from one to the other but then I
> also have tokeep two keyboards and mice handy.
> 
> Years ago we could run the Suns as X-Windows clients to X-windows
> servers on PC's running Windows (3 - think it was).BB  It took proprietary
> software, but it worked and we sold a a number of sites with this setup.
> 
> One of them included a SparcStation 2 which replaced a computer-room
> full of IBM leased equipment with a disk farm of removable hard disks
> which I think maxed out at a few megs each - cannot remember. At this
> particular site, a family owned shoe manufacturing business, the owner
> was astounded that the pizza-box could run the systems which heretofore
> had required a room full of big boxes and a serious Liebert air
> conditioning system.
> 
> So the question is, assuming I'm running OpenLook on the SPARCstation,
> does anyone have any idea how I might do what was so easy 30 years ago?

  Well, X11 works exactly the same way today as it did back then.
That's the beauty of standardized protocols.  First, make sure your X
server is listening for external connections on port 6000.  That's often
very difficult these days, as it changes from release to release in most
Linux distributions.  (the kids value "new" and "fresh" over "works just
like it always has")  Then, on the remote system, set your DISPLAY
environment variable to point to the machine running the X server:

export DISPLAY=linuxbox:0.0

  Start the program in the background, and away you go.

> john Ferguson St Petersburg, FL

  Wow, a technical person in St. Pete?  Too bad we didn't cross paths
when I lived there.  The closest thing to a technical friend that I had
there was a guy who had very nearly figured out the remote control for
his DVD player.

                -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA