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I am trying to use xdotool over ssh on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. It works perfectly from within a terminal window when logged in locally, but over ssh it displays the following error from using any command:

$ xdotool click 1
Error: Can't open display: (null)
Failed creating new xdo instance

Looking up this error the fix people suggest is exporting the DISPLAY variable before running it, but for me this only leads to a new line added to the error message:

$ export DISPLAY=:0.0 && xdotool click 1
No protocol specified
Error: Can't open display: (null)
Failed creating new xdo instance

Looking for "No protocol specified" errors for xdotool the only other suggestion I've been able to find is also adding export XAUTHORITY=/home/[username]/.Xauthority to the command as well but that makes no difference for me. It's probably worth noting that I don't have an .Xauthority file in my home directory either (and creating an empty one just to see if it made a difference did not help). I'm not really familiar with X server stuff so I don't know if these things have changed since the results I'm finding where written.

I would appreciate any advice in trying to get this to work.

Solved: As pointed out by N0rbert I was missing the -X option when connecting over SSH. That's all I needed to include.

2 Answers2

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You have to run ssh with -X option like below:

ssh -X user@hostname

and then execute "graphical" commands as usual.

N0rbert
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The thing is this will control the system that is connected via SSH and not the Host you want to Control. For a example I login with the ssh -X server@192.192.192.192 and then tell xdotool to move the mouse instead of moving the mouse on the Server it moves the mouse on the client that is connected.

Leland Clayton
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