Setting up Cygwin X Server on client

Once you have installed Cygwin, you should be able to set up X Server for display purposes. Follow the steps below for setting it up.

1) Edit the batch file 'cygwin.bat' (Will be in the installed folder)

You will see the below line in it
bash --login -i

Add the following statement next to it (Note that the startxwin.sh should be there in C:\Cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin )

bash --login -i /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh

2) Once you are done editing, run the batch file as administrator:
You should be able to see the X windows popping up:

3) Once you see X window, issue xhost + command so that clients can access from any host. See the below image.

Issue xcalc or xclock command to test if you were able to see the GUI.


NOTE: If you get Reason: spawn:fork() failed. Then close the window, and run the batch file again. I often get this reason, and I simply run it twice or thrice to run successfully, doono why.

3) If you are using putty on the client, export DISPLAY environment variable in that session:
export DISPLAY = 192.168.2.1:0.0 (marked in red is IP address of client)

Problem: If you don't set up DISPLAY.
If you don't set up your DISPLAY variable, you will see the following error:
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking installer requirements...

Checking operating system version: must be redhat-3, SuSE-9, redhat-4, UnitedLinux-1.0, asianux-1 or asianux-2
Passed


All installer requirements met.

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2009-02-28_12-04-45AM. Please wait ...[oracle@vinay 10201]$ X connection to localhost:11.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

Solution: Set the DISPLAY variable
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ echo $DISPLAY
localhost:11.0
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ export DISPLAY=192.168.216.1:0.0
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ echo $DISPLAY
192.168.216.1:0.0
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ ls
doc install response runInstaller stage welcome.html
[oracle@vinay 10201]$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking installer requirements...

Checking operating system version: must be redhat-3, SuSE-9, redhat-4, UnitedLinux-1.0, asianux-1 or asianux-2
Passed


All installer requirements met.

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2009-02-28_12-05-19AM. Please wait ...[oracle@vinay 10201]$