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[GH-ISSUE #966] [Feature Request] Bundle/Embed an X11 server #563

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opened 2026-02-26 23:59:58 +03:00 by kerem · 12 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:58 +03:00

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Originally created by @krishnakumarg1984 on GitHub (Nov 30, 2018).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/electerm/electerm/issues/966

Electerm version: 0.25.39

Operating system: Windows 10

Background

I am a PhD student working on computational modelling. I have a very powerful linux workstation at my desk. However, I sometimes work from the university library in a different campus wherein only windows 10 machines without any admin rights are only provided. On a network mounted drive (labelled 'home drive' by our ICT department), I currently have a portable copy of mobaxterm, a single executable which bundles in all the standard unix coreutils in addition to bundling an SSH client and an X11 server that is set to run automatically on starting the application (along with a few other nifty utilities that are easily available to install from the cygwin repos).

This is useful in the following situation. In meetings with my PhD advisor in their office, they prefer to have discussions with slides/software displayed on a large screen permanently hooked to their computer. To show them something from my computer that involves a graphical application, I simply need to download a single binary executable and SSH into my workstation to fire up the graphical application. This works quite neatly!

I am satisfied with this workflow, except for a couple of issues:

mobaxterm is not open source and there is no public interface to see the roadmap or features planned.
They ship really old vulnerable software, eg. the default bash shell is around 4.1 which is prior to the shellshock bug. Most other coreutils are also old.

Feature Request - Bundling of a simple X11 server

I love electerm. Although it is not a single binary, at least it is portable enough with a couple of clicks to extract the archive and we are good to go. Can you bundle/embed a simple X11 interface to this? Perhaps something like vcxsrv which is open source and quite actively developed.

Originally created by @krishnakumarg1984 on GitHub (Nov 30, 2018). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/electerm/electerm/issues/966  ## Electerm version: 0.25.39 ## Operating system: Windows 10 ## Background I am a PhD student working on computational modelling. I have a very powerful `linux` workstation at my desk. However, I sometimes work from the university library in a different campus wherein only windows 10 machines without any admin rights are only provided. On a network mounted drive (labelled 'home drive' by our ICT department), I currently have a portable copy of `mobaxterm`, a single executable which bundles in all the standard unix `coreutils` in addition to bundling an SSH client and an `X11 server` that is set to run automatically on starting the application (along with a few other nifty utilities that are easily available to install from the `cygwin` repos). This is useful in the following situation. In meetings with my PhD advisor in their office, they prefer to have discussions with slides/software displayed on a large screen permanently hooked to their computer. To show them something from my computer that involves a graphical application, I simply need to download a __single__ binary executable and SSH into my workstation to fire up the graphical application. This works quite neatly! I am satisfied with this workflow, except for a couple of issues: * `mobaxterm` is not open source and there is no public interface to see the roadmap or features planned. * They ship really old vulnerable software, eg. the default `bash` shell is around 4.1 which is prior to the `shellshock` bug. Most other `coreutils` are also old. ## Feature Request - Bundling of a simple X11 server I love `electerm`. Although it is not a __single__ binary, at least it is portable enough with a couple of clicks to extract the archive and we are good to go. Can you bundle/embed a simple `X11` interface to this? Perhaps something like [`vcxsrv` ](https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/files/) which is open source and quite actively developed.

kerem

2026-02-26 23:59:58 +03:00

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kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 1, 2018):

Hi, @krishnakumarg1984 ,
Thanks for the feedback, I will dig into this.

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 1, 2018): Hi, @krishnakumarg1984 , Thanks for the feedback, I will dig into this.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@krishnakumarg1984 commented on GitHub (Dec 1, 2018):

Thank you for considering this.

Mobaxterm is indeed an amazing software brimming with features. In a single portable binary, they have packaged

local terminal
bash shell
coreutils
gazillion remote connection protocols (SSH, RDP, VNC, ICA, Mosh and a couple of others)
seamless X-server that auto-starts with the right DISPLAY value set
graphical SFTP browser that follows the terminals cd commands on a remote server, and
package manager with access to the entire cygwin repo ecosystem

However, the only drawbacks are

the shipped busybox utils are quite outdated
it is a 32-bit binary executable (also 32-bit for cygwin packages)
terminal doesn't support 24-bit truecolor and vim cursor modes
not open-source

Although I am not looking for feature parity, I think it is the presence of the bundled X-11 server that makes it unique. Xming is proprietary (although free of charge for standalone use), but vcxsrv should be embeddable. There is a project with exactly these aims , wherein vcxsrv was bundled with putty, but the shipped zip is a mess of a thousand files, and it doesn't work without significant efforts in configuring it. Clearly, I cannot do that on my professor's computer while he they are waiting for me (they are always short of time).

Your project is very nice, we just need a bundled X server to facilitate running of remote graphical apps.

@krishnakumarg1984 commented on GitHub (Dec 1, 2018): Thank you for considering this. Mobaxterm is indeed an amazing software brimming with features. In a __single portable__ binary, they have packaged 1. local terminal 2. bash shell 3. coreutils 4. gazillion remote connection protocols (SSH, RDP, VNC, ICA, Mosh and a couple of others) 5. seamless X-server that auto-starts with the right `DISPLAY` value set 6. graphical SFTP browser that follows the terminals `cd` commands on a remote server, and 7. package manager with access to the entire cygwin repo ecosystem However, the only drawbacks are 1. the shipped busybox utils are quite outdated 2. it is a 32-bit binary executable (also 32-bit for `cygwin` packages) 3. terminal doesn't support 24-bit truecolor and vim cursor modes 3. not open-source Although I am not looking for feature parity, I think it is the presence of the bundled `X-11` server that makes it unique. `Xming` is proprietary (although free of charge for standalone use), but `vcxsrv` should be embeddable. There is a [project with exactly these aims ](http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/doc/tutorial/T19_3a_xsrvputty.htm), wherein `vcxsrv` was bundled with `putty`, but the shipped `zip` is a mess of a thousand files, and it doesn't work without significant efforts in configuring it. Clearly, I cannot do that on my professor's computer while he they are waiting for me (they are always short of time). Your project is very nice, we just need a bundled `X` server to facilitate running of remote graphical apps.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@krishnakumar-gopalakrishnan commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@zxdong262 Thanks a lot. So, this is done?

@krishnakumar-gopalakrishnan commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @zxdong262 Thanks a lot. So, this is done?

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@krishnakumarg1984 Yes, I believe so, will release in half an hour maybe.

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @krishnakumarg1984 Yes, I believe so, will release in half an hour maybe.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@krishnakumar-gopalakrishnan commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@zxdong262 Great. thanks a lot for this amazing level of support.

@krishnakumar-gopalakrishnan commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @zxdong262 Great. thanks a lot for this amazing level of support.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@krishnakumarg1984 https://github.com/electerm/electerm/releases/download/untagged-c1455015ceb991b66314/electerm-0.25.60-win-x64.tar.gz

Windows build done, you may try this, releases for other platform are still building.

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @krishnakumarg1984 https://github.com/electerm/electerm/releases/download/untagged-c1455015ceb991b66314/electerm-0.25.60-win-x64.tar.gz Windows build done, you may try this, releases for other platform are still building.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

May requires Xming or MobaXterm or other xserver running first.

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): May requires Xming or MobaXterm or other xserver running first.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@krishnakumarg1984 Your feedback pushed me to get this done, thank you.

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @krishnakumarg1984 Your feedback pushed me to get this done, thank you.

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018):

@krishnakumarg1984 Released

@zxdong262 commented on GitHub (Dec 16, 2018): @krishnakumarg1984 Released

kerem commented

2026-02-26 23:59:59 +03:00

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@saulperez2905 commented on GitHub (Dec 17, 2018):