firefox&thunderbird remote launch troubles

[Thomas Cameron]

Mike Wright wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I routinely connect to remote machines using this command: "ssh -Y 
> remoteHost".  This allows a graphical program to run remotely but 
> display locally.  I've been using this on my laptop fc4 to connect to my 
> workstation fc4.  Everything stays on the workstation.  No problem.
> 
> I recently installed fc6 on two different machines with similar hardware 
> capabilities.   One is running the stock 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6xen kernel, 
> and the other vanilla 2.6.18.2.  They seem to behave similarly except 
> for the "ssh -Y remoteHost", where they behave _very_ differently.
> 
> Remote programs still run there and display here _except_ firefox and 
> thunderbird.  This is where it becomes very strange.
> 
> If firefox is running locally and I try to run firefox remotely I get 
> two different results.  Vanilla kernel causes 70 seconds of network 
> traffic and finally stops with firefox running nowhere.  Remote "ps" 
> shows it doing a remote ping and trying to launch but eventually dies a 
> quiet death.  On stock kernel it very quickly launches another copy of 
> the local firefox.
> 
> If firefox is not running locally the vanilla kernel still tries for 70 
> seconds and aborts without logging or complaining, but the stock kernel 
> will run firefox remotely and display here as expected.  If firefox is 
> running remotely but displaying locally and I try to launch a local copy 
> of firefox it runs another copy remotely and displays that one here, too.
> 
> On to thunderbird.  Vanilla kernel will eventuall launch remotely and 
> display locally, but so slowly as to be unuseable (think 110 baud 
> modems), displaying, disappearing, reappearing, requesting 
> configuration, then blowing it away.  After about a half hour of it 
> still not coming up all the way I gave up.  On the stock kernel it works 
> beautifully.
> 
> I haven't got a clue how to troubleshoot this.  Since everything else 
> seems to work properly it points to firefox and thunderbird.  I don't 
> know if it is kernel related.  The fact that nothing is logged on either 
> end at any time doesn't help, nor does the diversity of results.
> 
> Note that I'm using both fc6 boxes successfully, one as a workstation 
> and one as a server.  It is only using firefox or thunderbird *remotely* 
> that things go crazy.
> 
> Any insights from anybody?  Should this be bugzilla'd (or should I be)?
> 
> Thanks,
> Mike Wright
> 

Mike -

Sorry for the delay in answering, but are you logged in to both systems 
with the same username?

What happens if you log in to one system as, say, "mike," but the other 
system as "mwright?"

Also, what happens when you do ssh -X instead of -Y?

Thanks,
Thomas