How to startup Cygwin/X

Local usage

single clients

Startup XWin

XWin :0 -clipboard -multiwindow

Start xterm

DISPLAY=:0.0 xterm

Complete desktop

Install KDE or Gnome on cygwin

Startup XWin

XWin :0 -clipboard

Start KDE

DISPLAY=:0.0 startkde

Start Gnome

DISPLAY=:0.0 gnome-session

Note: This has not been tested. Check the pages mentioned above what they advise.

use startx

startx /opt/gnome/bin/gnome-session -- :0 -clipboard

Remote usage

single clients

The examples assumes you want to start xterm from the remote host linuxserver

Startup XWin

XWin :0 -clipboard -multiwindow

Use OpenSSH to connect to the remote host and start xterm

DISPLAY=:0.0 ssh -f -Y linuxserver xterm

Commands explained

command description
XWin Cygwin/X binary
:0 Display number
-clipboard Start with clipboard support
-multiwindow Show every X11 window in its own window
DISPLAY=:0.0 Tell which xserver to use. This matches with the display number from server startup
ssh Start OpenSSH
-f Do not show a remote shell. Just start the program
-Y Tunnel the X11 protocol in the ssh connection
linuxserver Name of the remote host
xterm Program to start. Just as you would start it locally

Complete desktop

Startup XWin

XWin :0 -clipboard

Connect via OpenSSH and start KDE

DISPLAY=:0.0 ssh -f -Y linuxserver startkde

Connect via OpenSSH and start Gnome

DISPLAY=:0.0 ssh -f -Y linuxserver gnome-session

Commands explained

command description
XWin Cygwin/X binary
:0 Display number
-clipboard Start with clipboard support
Here we omit the -multiwindow switch since we want the whole desktop to be displayed in one window
DISPLAY=:0.0 Tell which xserver to use. This matches with the display number from server startup
ssh Start OpenSSH
-f Do not show a remote shell. Just start the program
-Y Tunnel the X11 protocol in the ssh connection
linuxserver Name of the remote host
startkde Startup program for the desktop environment. You can use .xinitrc too. This will behave as if you had run startx locally

Use startx

startx /usr/bin/ssh -f -Y linuxserver startkde -- :0 -clipboard

Commands explained

command description
startx program which starts the xserver and the xclients
/usr/bin/ssh -f -Y linuxserver startkde The client to start. Basicly the same as above
-- Tell startx that server options follow
:0 -clipboard Options for XWin

Problems

If you get a message like Could not open display then check the FAQ about X11Forwarding