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Sorry this is a little long. It's one of those issues that's a little tricky to describe.

I have two computers connected on a LAN. One is running Mythbuntu 11.10, and one is running Ubuntu 11.10 with (the awesome) Gnome Classic.

Before I upgraded to 11.10, I would often sit at Ubuntu machine and use SSH to access programs, such as Firefox, on the Mythbuntu machine. I could do this even if I already had a local instance of Firefox running.

So, just to be clear, before I upgraded I could run two separate instances of Firefox on one machine, each originating from a different machine. One local, and one over SSH from the other machine. One machine's Firefox has different bookmarks and settings than the other.

Now, after upgrading, if I have the local instance of Firefox running, and I try to run another over SSH, I don't get the instance from the other machine. I get a new window of the already running instance.

If I want to run a program from the second machine, I have to first close any instances from the first machine that might be already running.

This is true regardless of which machine's copy I opened first.

I don't know why this changed, but I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm just interested in results. How can I make it so that I can simultaneously run the two different machines' version of any one application at the same time? For example, two different Firefoxes originating from each machine?

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  • How exactly do you run it "from another machine"?
    – Sergey
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:41
  • I was thinking about X forwarding disabled on the ssh daemon. But then you should get an error and not a local copy of the application. It might be worth checking /etc/ssh/sshd_config for X11Forwarding yes|no, though. Oct 27, 2011 at 11:50
  • @Sergey: As I said, via SSH. Specifically, this command. ssh -X [email protected] firefox So, if I have Firefox running on computer A, and then try to start Firefox using that command, I don't get Firefox from computer the computer at 192.168.0.12, I get another window of Firefox that is already running.
    – Questioner
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:51
  • @MrShunz: In that file I have X11Forwarding set to "yes". I tried setting it to "no", but that did not change anything.
    – Questioner
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:53
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    @DaveMG seems a firefox specific thing. I posted an answer. And X11Forwarding should definitively be set to yes. Oct 27, 2011 at 11:55

1 Answer 1

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Found this on ubuntu forums. Seems to be a firefox specific thing... BTW, proposed solution is executing firefox with the -no-remote option to force it not looking for an already running instance. Can't test it now but seems reasonable.

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  • You are right. For some reason I had mistakenly thought it was more widely applicable, but actually it is just a Firefox issue. Adding this parameter has solved the problem. Thanks!
    – Questioner
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:58

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