vim-gtk unable to run correctly over ssh tunnel

[Paul Forgey]

When tunneling X11 over ssh from Mac-OS 10.4.3 using Apple's X11 server 1.1 (which is based on XFree86 4.4.0),
vim-gtk starts up mostly OK in the newly created X11 window with all the widgets, but displays the error
"Unable to register a command server name/Hit ENTER or type command to continue" in the status area of the
editor window.

Apple's ssh version is OpenSSH_3.8.1p1, OpenSSL 0.9.7i 14 Oct 2005 (the ssh client on the machine running the
X11 server)

Either continuing to use the editor for a while or just letting it sit there displaying the error causes gvim
to crash with the message printed to stderr:

The program 'gvim' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 1985 error_code 3 request_code 38 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

Version of installed packages:
paulf@subversive:~$ dpkg -l | grep vim
ii vim 6.3-078+1ubuntu3 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor
ii vim-common 6.3-078+1ubuntu3 Vi IMproved - Common files
ii vim-gtk 6.3-078+1ubuntu3 Vi IMproved - GTK2 Version
paulf@subversive:~$ dpkg -l | grep ssh
ii openssh-client 4.1p1-7ubuntu4 Secure shell client, an rlogin/rsh/
rcp repla
ii openssh-server 4.1p1-7ubuntu4 Secure shell server, an rshd
replacement
ii ssh 4.1p1-7ubuntu4 Secure shell client and server
(transitional
ii xbase-clients 6.8.2-77 X Window System client utility
transitional

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Does it work better using two Ubuntu systems rather than an Ubuntu system and a MacOS system?

[Paul Forgey (paulf-aphrodite)]

Couldn't tell you because the only other Ubuntu installation I have is the 5.10 LiveCD which has a defective ssh client.

I can run other X11 applications without incident.

From the MacOS side we are now up to MacOS 10.4.5 the error is different and immediate. No window comes up, and the new error is:
The program 'gvim' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadAtom (invalid Atom parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 184 error_code 5 request_code 20 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[Patrick Barabe (pbarabe)]

I think this is not so much an Ubuntu issue as a gvim/ssh/X11 issue. I experience the same problem opening gvim from a Redhat server in X11 running on cygwin. Also the same trouble if X is on an Ubuntu workstation.

This seems to happen when I call ssh with -X, however, this doesn't happen if ssh is called with -Y. I have yet to really understand why that is. Within a trusted domain, it seems to be an acceptible workaround, however I'm not sure that it's very secure outside of a LAN.

[Micah Cowan (micahcowan)]

To answer mdz's question, I do not have a problem with two Ubuntu machines. The local machine serving X11 is Feisty; the remote machine serving sshd is Dapper.

Local desktop relevant packages:
  xorg-7.2-0ubuntu11
  openssh-client-4.3p2-8ubuntu1

Remote desktop relevant packages:
  libx11-6-1.0.0-0ubuntu9
  xauth-1.0.1-0ubuntu1
  openssh-server-4.2p1-7ubuntu3.1
  vim-gtk-6.4-006+2ubuntu6