Thanks to all for the comments. Just having the real layout of the X's
client/server architecture did wonders for clearing the scales from my eyes.
It seems that the short answer to my specific situation is, sure, I should be
able to run the dotfile generator on my non-X-bearing firewall with little
trouble.
For the person or two who asked what a dotfile generator is (and to set
straight those who flinch when they hear 'X' and 'firewall' mentioned on the
same line), there is a module (written by John Hardin, John pipe in here if
you're listening) which plugs into the dotfile generator (written by several
other people and covering lots of other areas as well) and supplies a
graphical interface for building ipfwadm config tables. It runs on the
firewall, checks out some system info, and then allows you to make choices
about how you want ipfwadm to behave. The output is a file (hence the name)
which is just a collection of calls to ipfwadm, written as specified by the
options you clicked in the dialog boxes. The firewall's boot-time
configuration is then just a matter of running that file from rc.local (or
someplace). Needless to say I endorse this tool for saving you LOTS of time
debugging hand-written scripts.
So: fire up my workstation, startx, and allow foreign connections, then telnet
to the firewall, set $DISPLAY to point to my workstation, run the dotfile
generator (no other X bits and pieces need be present on the firewall), and
wham, onto my workstation's desktop pops the dotfile dialog box.
Right?
I already do the same thing with machines which have full X setups, but I've
never been sure how much really needed to be present on the 'other' end. The
impression I now have is that the answer to that is 'very little'; just the
app in question and a $DISPLAY variable.
If I've still managed to confuse myself here, somebody tell me how, but in the
meantime I'm off to go try some stuff.
Thanks again for the class, all.
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