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Fix ssh -Y with other Macs OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion

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You may have realised that when you try use ssh -Y on another Mac from Mountain Lion you get the following error :

Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding.X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0




Fixing this error only takes some simple configuration. All you have to do is add these lines to the following files on both machines:

/etc/sshd_config

X11Forwarding yes
XauthLocation /opt/X11/bin/xauth
XauthLocation /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth

/etc/ssh_config

XauthLocation /opt/X11/bin/xauth
XauthLocation /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth

That should be all you need to get rid of the authentication error. Hope this was helpful.
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Comments

  1. Unknown3 September 2012 at 04:25

    Thanks! This worked like a charm. It's been driving me crazy. Grateful for your post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wallace31 January 2013 at 01:19

    Do these instructions assume that I've already installed XQuartz? If 10.8 doesn't ship with X11 any more, what's all that in the /usrX11 and /usr/X11R6 directories? And why do you refer to the directory /opt/X11 - are you assuming the machine I'm ssh-ing into is running Linux (my Mac doesn't have an /opt directory). Needless to say, just following these instructions didn't allow me to ssh -X ... into my work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Divan31 January 2013 at 05:50

      You do need XQuartz installed at which point /opt/X11 will exist, this was done Mac to Mac.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous12 February 2013 at 12:46

    Hello,
    The error message did actually disappear, but I still can't forward my app trough the ssh tunnel.
    For example, I log via ssh to my distant Mac and I would like to use Calculator. How do I do to actually see the Calculator window on my local Mac ? Would you have an example to give me ?
    I would be very pleased. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Divan12 February 2013 at 21:31

      First off you need to make sure that the calculator is an x11 app. If so , simply ssh -Y into the machine and launch the calculator from the terminal. Unfortunately only x11 apps can be used in this way.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13 February 2013 at 11:03

      Oh, thank you very much for your answer. The applications I tried must not have been x11 apps then.

      Delete

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