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I have a host which I want to access through reverse ssh and I also want to forward X11. So I did this on the remote host: ssh -X -R 43022:localhost:22 usr@myhost -p 2222 and I can connect fine with ssh -X -p 43022 usr@localhost from myhost but the X11 forwarding doesn't seem to work:

$ xeyes
Error: Can't open display:

why is that?

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    Is X11Forwarding enabled in myhost's sshd_config? Commented May 18, 2021 at 17:37
  • @EduardoTrápani Good point! Just double-checked and yes, it is. It also is enabled on the remote host Commented May 18, 2021 at 17:44
  • The error message shows that your DISPLAY environment variable is empty. That means that the -X flag was denied (in the second ssh -X; you don't need it in the first one). X11Forwarding is probably disabled on your other host, the one that runs xeyes. Don't you have a "X11 forwarding request failed" error message? Commented May 18, 2021 at 18:00

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You need to have a working DISPLAY before X can be forwarded to you. Before your:

ssh -X -p 43022 usr@localhost

check with echo $DISPLAY and run xeyes. If the $DISPLAY is empty or if xeyes does not run ... X forwarding will not work, there's nothing to forward it to.

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