I create an EC2 instance with Amazon Linux 2 (MATE DE) and run a script (via the user data option) that perfroms a number of operations (including executing xhost + (why?)). What I'm looking to then do, is connect to that instance via ssh and run a GUI program on it (note: I'm looking to just give the command via ssh and for the actual program GUI to appear on the instance itself, not ssh).
So I do the following:
ssh -i "key.pem" ec2-user@address
export DISPLAY=:10
obs-studio
And in response to that last command I get:
Can't find source path /tmp/.X11-unix/X10: No such file or directory
That is because in order to do what I'm trying to do I need both the DISPLAY environment variable to be set and for the .Xauthority file to exist. But as is, the .Xauthority file does not exist which is evident when running ls -a on /home/ec2-user where we get:
. .. .bash_logout .bash_profile .bashrc .cache .config .icons .local recAutomation .ssh .var
What I found is that when I connect to my instance via RDP, the .Xauthority file gets created and then I can run obs-studio from my ssh connection without issue.
So if I do (from my ssh connection):
sudo passwd ec2-user [*and set a password*]
sudo openssl req -x509 -sha384 -newkey rsa:3072 -nodes -keyout /etc/xrdp/key.pem -out /etc/xrdp/cert.pem -days 365 [*and set the different options*]
And then open up Remote Desktop Connection and connect to my instance as ec2-user with the password I set, now voila the .Xauthority file gets created. So back to my ssh session if I run ls -a once more we get:
. .. .bash_logout .bash_profile .bashrc .cache .config .dbus Desktop .ICEauthority .icons .local .pcsc10 recAutomation .ssh thinclient_drives .var .vnc .Xauthority .xsession-errors
Trying to now run obs-studio from my ssh session works as expected (the GUI opens up on the isntance itself) because the .Xauthority file now exists, and it works regardless of if I close down my RDP session or not.
What I'm looking to do is somehow create that .Xauthority file without manually connecting to my instance via RDP.