We run [Ubuntu][] on a lot of the department computers, and some things are easier to configure via their appropriate GUI than they are from the command line (sigh, :p). I don't have to do this often, so often I don't remember the interface, or even the name, of the app required for the particular configuration I'm try adjust. Ah, I think, if I was only sitting in front of the computer in question rather than logging in via [[SSH]], I could click on the *Preferences* dialog and it would be right there. Wait, why should it matter what computer I'm sitting in front of? Enter nested X servers such as [Xnest][] and its successor [Xephyr][]. The problem with running a remote desktop or windows manager is that when you fire up your local X server, you usually also fire up a windows manager to manage it. If you try to run a remote windows manager, there will be two managers trying to manage one server, which can be problematic. Xephyr lets you start another X server nested inside a window of your main X server, and you can then start the remote windows manager in the Xephyr window. Basic usage looks like this: home$ Xephyr :1 -ac -screen 800x600 2>/dev/null & home$ export DISPLAY=:1 home$ ssh -YC hop1 hop1$ ssh -YC hop2 ... hopN$ ssh -YC target target$ gnome-session Don't forget to kill the Xephyr process once you're done with it. Of course, with all the X forwarding, it doesn't actually matter which host Xephyr is running on. However, it may be easier for you if you only have to install it on your main computer. See Igor Ljubuncic's [Xephyr tutorial][post] for a more detailed explanation of the whole process. In order to install Xephyr on [Gentoo][], you'll need to (re-)emerge `x11-base/xorg-server` with the `kdrive` `USE` flag enabled. [[!tag tags/linux]] [[!tag tags/tools]] [Ubuntu]: http://www.ubuntu.com/ [Xnest]: http://packages.debian.org/lenny/xnest [Xephyr]: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Xephyr [post]: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/xephyr.html [Gentoo]: http://www.gentoo.org/