VNC Server and Putty

Question

I am using PUTTY and VNCSERVER/VNC Viewer to use XWINDOWS to use UNIX software remotely on a Windows Machine.

1. I use PUTTY to SSH into my server.
2. I started VNCSERVER in UNIX
3. I not port it tells me
4. I start VNC Viewer with hostname:thatport.

I start the software in UNIX and I get a "Display environment variable not defined error"

How do I fix this ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

First of all you should check the vncsever is running with

$ps fax

Then you must check the listening 5900 port with

$netstat -ntpl

If the Unix server on the same LAN, just use vncviewer to the port. Openssh let you tunnel ports in case is not in the same LAN (The same command should be done with putty)

$ ssh -L5900:localhost:5900 remotehost

The just vncviewer to localhost

Answer 2

GUI software requires the $DISPLAY env variable configured. I think you need to start that software in your vncviewer session, instead of the SSH/putty session, or at least set the $DISPLAY variable properly in your ssh/putty session.