Oracle Database

How to configure X11 for Vagrant Box

4 min read

Apr 10, 2019 12:00:00 AM

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" - Pablo Picasso

I am currently using Vagrant boxes from Mikael Sandström (oravirt) and unfortunately, it did not have X11 configured. Typically, using CLI is better for automation; however, there may come a time where it's better to have visual. This led to a journey to configure X11 for Vagrant box.

Environment Status: Two-Node RAC

Configuration is two nodes RAC:

dinh@CMWPHV1 MINGW64 /d/Vagrant/vagrant-vbox-rac (master) $ vagrant status Current machine states:  racnode-dc1-2             running (virtualbox) racnode-dc1-1             running (virtualbox)  This environment represents multiple VMs. The VMs are all listed above with their current state. For more information about a specific VM, run `vagrant status NAME`.

Step 1: Installing Required X11 Packages

Install xorg-x11-apps, xauth, and xorg-x11-fonts* for all servers.

[vagrant@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$ sudo su - Last login: Fri Mar 29 14:38:39 CET 2019 on pts/0 [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]# yum install xorg-x11-apps xauth xorg-x11-fonts*  ====================================================================================================================================  Package                                     Arch                 Version                        Repository                    Size ==================================================================================================================================== Installing:  xorg-x11-apps                               x86_64               7.7-7.el7                      ol7_latest                   307 k  xorg-x11-fonts-100dpi                       noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   3.1 M  xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi                        noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   2.8 M  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-100dpi             noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   1.1 M  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-75dpi              noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   932 k  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-14-100dpi            noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   1.0 M  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-14-75dpi             noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   905 k  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-15-75dpi             noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   932 k  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-2-100dpi             noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   1.0 M  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-2-75dpi              noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   901 k  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-9-100dpi             noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   1.1 M  xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-9-75dpi              noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   930 k  xorg-x11-fonts-Type1                        noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   521 k  xorg-x11-fonts-cyrillic                     noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   396 k  xorg-x11-fonts-ethiopic                     noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   150 k  xorg-x11-fonts-misc                         noarch               7.5-9.el7                      ol7_latest                   5.8 M Installing for dependencies:  libfontenc                                  x86_64               1.1.3-3.el7                    ol7_latest                    30 k  libpng                                      x86_64               2:1.5.13-7.el7_2               ol7_latest                   212 k  libxkbfile                                  x86_64               1.0.9-3.el7                    ol7_latest                    82 k  ttmkfdir                                    x86_64               3.0.9-42.el7                   ol7_latest                    47 k  xorg-x11-font-utils                         x86_64               1:7.5-21.el7                   ol7_latest                   104 k  Transaction Summary ==================================================================================================================================== Install  16 Packages (+5 Dependent packages)  Total download size: 22 M Installed size: 25 M Is this ok [y/d/N]: Y  Complete! [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]#

Step 2: Configuring SSH and Oracle User Profile

Configure X11 for all servers.

[root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]# grep -i x11 /etc/ssh/sshd_config X11Forwarding yes #X11DisplayOffset 10 #X11UseLocalhost yes # X11Forwarding no  [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]# vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]# grep -i x11 /etc/ssh/sshd_config X11Forwarding yes X11DisplayOffset 10 X11UseLocalhost yes # X11Forwarding no  [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]# systemctl restart sshd.service [root@racnode-dc1-2 ~]#  [oracle@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$ vi .bash_profile [oracle@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$ cat .bash_profile # .bash_profile  # Get the aliases and functions if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then         . ~/.bashrc fi  # User specific environment and startup programs  export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin export DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:10.0 [oracle@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$

Step 3: Updating the Vagrantfile

Update Vagrantfile to add:

config.ssh.forward_agent = true config.ssh.forward_x11 = true  Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Create VM's Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|   config.ssh.insert_key = false   config.ssh.forward_agent = true   config.ssh.forward_x11 = true --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 4: Reloading and Verifying the Configuration

Reload vagrant and verify X11 configuration:

dinh@CMWPHV1 MINGW64 /d/Vagrant/vagrant-vbox-rac (master) $ vagrant reload  dinh@CMWPHV1 MINGW64 /d/Vagrant/vagrant-vbox-rac (master) $ vagrant ssh-config Host racnode-dc1-2   HostName 127.0.0.1   User vagrant   Port 2222   ***   UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null   StrictHostKeyChecking no   PasswordAuthentication no   IdentityFile C:/Users/dinh/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key   IdentitiesOnly yes   LogLevel FATAL   ForwardAgent yes   ***   ForwardX11 yes   ***  Host racnode-dc1-1   HostName 127.0.0.1   User vagrant   Port 2200   ***   UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null   StrictHostKeyChecking no   PasswordAuthentication no   IdentityFile C:/Users/dinh/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key   IdentitiesOnly yes   LogLevel FATAL   ForwardAgent yes   ***   ForwardX11 yes   ***

Final Test: Connecting and Launching X11 Apps

Connect as Oracle to test X11 using the correct port for the host (racnode-dc1-2):

dinh@CMWPHV1 MINGW64 /d/Vagrant/vagrant-vbox-rac (master) $ ssh -XY -v oracle@127.0.0.1 -p 2222 -i C:/Users/dinh/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key OpenSSH_7.9p1, OpenSSL 1.1.1a  20 Nov 2018 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug1: Connecting to 127.0.0.1 [127.0.0.1] port 2222. debug1: Connection established. ... debug1: Requesting X11 forwarding with authentication spoofing. Last login: Fri Mar 29 14:54:53 2019 ---------------------------------------- Welcome to racnode-dc1-2 OracleLinux 7.3 x86_64 FQDN: racnode-dc1-2.internal.lab IP: 10.0.2.15 Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz #CPU's: 2 Memory: 5709 MB Kernel: 4.1.12-61.1.18.el7uek.x86_64 ---------------------------------------- /usr/bin/xauth:  file /home/oracle/.Xauthority does not exist [oracle@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$ env|grep DISPLAY DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:10.0 [oracle@racnode-dc1-2 ~]$ xclock debug1: client_input_channel_open: ctype x11 rchan 3 win 65536 max 16384 debug1: client_request_x11: request from 127.0.0.1 36236 debug1: channel 1: new [x11] debug1: confirm x11 Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion

Here is a screen capture for running gridSetup.sh: