strange (Solaris ?) entries in the PATH with ssh/x11vnc

[dmpogo]

I have the following setup for VNC connection to remote AMD64 server:

locally I use ssvnc in terminal mode that establishes ssh connection to remote server, which launches x11vnc that in turn launch Xvfb and some window manager.

My problems is with the PATH that I get after that, which I can't understand. It reads

/opt/intel/Compiler/11.1/038/bin/intel64:/opt/intel/Compiler/11.1/038/bin/intel64:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/opt/kde4/bin:/opt/kde3/bin:/opt/gnome/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sfw/bin

First of all, it does not include /usr/local/bin which means that /etc/profile was not sourced (that EDITOR is not set is another indication)
Secondly, it has entries /usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/opt/kde4/bin:/opt/kde3/bin:/opt/gnome/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sfw/bin
that do not exists on amd64, but look like Solaris. The first 'Intel' is set in my .bashrc which was sourced, it seems, twice.

What can be setting my PATH like that ? Straightforward login via ssh sets the PATH as expected.

Comment 1: aha, if ssh is set to run the command, it does not source /etc/profile it seems

[krunge]

The methods x11vnc uses to try to find your existing Xsession, and if not found try to figure out what your preferred desktop is and launch Xvfb with it are very heuristic. There is no API to do this, so it runs many utility commands to try to figure things out. It appends directories to PATH to have a good chance of finding these utility programs.

If you don't want this, and don't want to repair things in your .bashrc, you can have x11vnc point Xvfb to GDM (or KDM, etc) and then get your system's normal Xsession startup procedure.

[dmpogo]

Thanks, I also did find that the PATH is added to by x11vnc.

I am contemplating whether to put some magic into .bashrc or do something else. I already had (and have) a 'remote terminal' setup running through
xinetd -> Xvnc -> xdm, which gives non-persistent sessions with xdm authenticalion for several users that use the server.
I used x11vnc to have private persistent ones. Should think how to make it all more elegant.

[krunge]

BTW, what is the full command you are using to run x11vnc and have it create your X session?

When I use x11vnc to create X sessions with Xvfb, my PATH doesn't have those entries you mentioned in them; I think this is due to 'startx' or 'xinit' running a session launch script (e.g. /usr/bin/gnome-session) that sets things up normally.

[dmpogo]

I use ssvnc on the client side, which assembles the following command to launch x11vnc on the server

Running ssh:
env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/ssvnc/./lim_accept.so ssh -x -x -f -t -C -D 5931 pogosyan@myserver "PORT= x11vnc -display WAIT:cmd=FINDCREATEDISPLAY-Xvfb -localhost -nopw -timeout 120 -o $HOME/.tsvnc.log.pogosyan -env FD_SESS=xfce -env FD_GEOM=1850x1150x16 -env AUTO_PORT=5950"

myserver -> is my server address


I grepped x11vnc binary for those (Solaris-like) directories in the PATH, and got a hit on all of them.

I have another VNC setup on the same machine - classical xinetd -> Xvnc -> xdm (which again launches xfce session as specified in system-wide /etc/env.d/90xsession ), and the PATH is all normal then.