Launch GUI program at host through SSH

Question

I've got a Raspberry Pi connected to my TV, with no mouse or keyboard.

I'm sshing into it, starting X and then I want to launch VLC (or any other GUI program, for that matter). If I ssh -X, that will open the program in the computer I'm sshing from, not on the TV.

How can I launch a program and make it appear on the TV?

@JoachimIsaksson Can you please post your comment as an answer so that I can accept it? That's exactly what I wanted. — iomartin
– iomartin, Commented May 1, 2013 at 22:23
How to start a GUI software on a remote Linux PC via SSH and friends. — jww
– jww, Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 14:12

Sz. · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-02 09:32:31Z

14

Slightly less typing than Joachim's (and actually slightly different behavior):

DISPLAY=:0 vlc

This doesn't actually set the DISPLAY variable to :0 for the whole shell session, only passes it to vlc.

So:

If you want to start other X programs in that session after VLC, Joachim's is better.
If you just want to run VLC ASAP, this is faster by 9 keypresses. :)

(I wanted to add this only as a comment, but I didn't have enough points for that, sorry.)

edited May 2, 2013 at 9:32

answered May 2, 2013 at 8:35

Sz.

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Joachim Isaksson · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-02 04:35:31Z

6

The DISPLAY environment variable needs to have a value set to which display the program should be opened. If you set it to :0, it means the first local screen.

This should in other words open vlc on the first local screen;

export DISPLAY=:0 ; vlc

answered May 2, 2013 at 4:35

Joachim Isaksson

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