X11 Forwarding in VS code and Termius

Follow the steps given below to enable the X11 forwarding in VS Code /Termius terminals for SSH connections.

STEP 1: Make sure you have the following tools installed beforehand

• Xming

• SSH client

  • To ceck the version of the SSH, type ssh -V in windows powershell.

      PS C:\Users\$USER> ssh -V
      OpenSSH_for_Windows_8.1p1, LibreSSL 3.0.2

  • Upgrade the SSH client if necessary from here.

STEP 2: To set the DISPLAY environment variable in windows

• In powershell, use command $env:DISPLAY="127.0.0.1:0.0"
• To check the DISPLAY environment variable typw echo $env:DISPLAY

      PS C:\Users\$USER> echo $env:DISPLAY
      127.0.0.1:0.0

• To add DISPLAY environment variable permanently, use setx DISPLAY "127.0.0.1:0.0", which should technically give you this output

      PS C:\Users\$USER> setx DISPLAY "127.0.0.1:0.0"
  
      SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

STEP 3: Login to you remote SSH server

• In VS code - Edit your config file in the .ssh folder similar to the example given below

      Host <nick_name>
      HostName <server_address>
      User <your_user_id>
      ForwardAgent yes
      ForwardX11 yes
      ForwardX11Trusted yes
  

Edit the nick_name, server_address and your_user_id accordingly

• In termius, login to your remote SSH like any other terminal from the powersehll terminal.

STEP 4: Now, just open any GUI or type any one of these xeyes, xclock and xcalc. You must see the display window (make sure Xming is running).

NOTE: If you login from declared hosts in termius the X11 forwarding will not work. So, the reason to use termius over other terminals is the interface and the options termius offers over other terminal (it's just the choice)