I have heard for years of people not able to get remote X servers running on OS/2 such as Exceed or Hoblink. This is a quick and sloppy run-through of what it took for me to use Hoblink X11 on eComStation 1.03.

The very first thing to do is get on your Linux machine as "root" and load "setup" and go into the "System Services" sub-menu. Verify that the services REXEC us enabled to start automatically at boot time.

You will need to login to the linux machine as the user you will be using with Hoblink and type "xhost +<your client machine IP or hostname>". Since my server is called greed and my workstation is pride I had to login to greed as Chris and type "xhost +pride" (no quotes).

(If you're wondering about the odd machine names, my lan domain is called "deadlysins". Also, yes, there are 7 machines.... + a laptop.) If the services are running then you are done on the Linux machine. Move over to the eCS machine and open the Hoblink X11 folder in Programs->Installed Software (Click any image to view full size version)

Here is the program folder. As always I've changed the icons but the names are obvious. Open the XSettings notebook. I didn't capture all pages, only the ones that required changes.

It seems that the "single window" method is only really useful if your planning on running a whole window manger in a session. Which is cool, but it seems neater to me to have X apps running seamless like any other program on your desktop (with multiple windows selected).

Add the IP address or hostnames (if you have a local DNS server) of the remote machines that will be piping their X apps to your eCS machine. You must give the remote machine permission to access the display on your local machine.

All I did here was select dive and un-selected "Enable Animation". The animation ends up really annoying. Any program, menu or dialog opens like an animated OS/2 folder. It will drive you nuts fast. Close the setup notebook and save settings. In the Hoblink X11 folder you now want to open "XStartUp".

It's rather clear from the image what needs done in this window. REXEC has worked more smoothly for me. The command listed is available in the pulldown menu "mystart.su" is a default script that exports the display from the remote machine to your local machine and loads the application "XTerm". You may click edit to change whatever program you want the script to start.

 Change "xterm" to whatever you want and save. (but not yet, we want to try to get xterm running to test Hoblink out) At this point you're ready to load xterm to see if this thing's going to work. Click the execute button and if all is well you now have xterm on your desktop.

You can play with that and spawn all kinds of other windows from that xterm session.

Just make sure to use the "&" after the program name you load so you keep control of the console and can load more things. You will want to make copies of the MYSTART.SU file edited with a different application to load specified. Best to name the file <whatever_application_name>.SU for clarity. Those new files will appear in the command pull down menu after you restart the XStartUp app. If you wish to full restart the X server you will need to bring up your Window List and close it.

When you reopen XStartUp, select "Save Job", enter a name for the object (deselect "prompt password") and an icon for that application will be created in the X Startup Tasks folder in the Hoblink X11 folder.

This is the most convenient way to start X apps since you will no longer need to go though the XStartUp app.

I had created a script and icon for "up2date" which now makes it very convenient to keep my RedHat 8.0 machine up to date with the latest fixes.

Just for grins here's a remote copy of Mozilla for Linux and a local copy of Mozilla for OS/2 running. Yeah, the Linux machines Mozilla is old. :)

I have noticed that when you end your last X session that your local X server must be closed through your Window List to insure that you will be able to restart all your linux apps again. If not, you may have 1 that refuses to start up again.

One last tip, for simplicity, don't use Exceed. I still haven't gotten it to work correctly. Hoblink is as simple as it can be and does the job well. No need to add to your grief.

This is all I can think of to get Hoblink X11 running on you eCS workstation. If you hit any glitches or I forgot to mention something please email me at piggy@ecomstation.org

If you come up with any really cool things to do with Hoblink then send me a capture. I'm still trying to think of more ways to abuse it.

Good luck.

^Piggy^