Enabling X11 on a console-only installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3

So I wanted to use X11 on my RHEL63 VM in order to install/use the WebSphere MQ Toolkit ( see earlier post ), but got this: -

X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0

when I attempted to connect and tunnel X11 from my Mac ( I'm using XQuartz as per this 2013 post ): -

ssh -X mqm@bam8012.uk.ibm.com

I did a quick smoke-test: -

xeyes

-bash: xeyes: command not found

echo $DISPLAY

<nowt returned>

I fixed the first problem: -

yum install xeyes

Loaded plugins: product-id, security, subscription-manager
Updating certificate-based repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package xorg-x11-apps.x86_64 0:7.4-10.el6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libxkbfile.so.1()(64bit) for package: xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libXmuu.so.1()(64bit) for package: xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libXmu.so.6()(64bit) for package: xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libXaw.so.7()(64bit) for package: xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libXaw.x86_64 0:1.0.6-4.1.el6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libXpm.so.4()(64bit) for package: libXaw-1.0.6-4.1.el6.x86_64
---> Package libXmu.x86_64 0:1.0.5-1.el6 will be installed
---> Package libxkbfile.x86_64 0:1.0.6-1.1.el6 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libXpm.x86_64 0:3.5.8-2.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package              Arch          Version                 Repository     Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 xorg-x11-apps        x86_64        7.4-10.el6              server        296 k
Installing for dependencies:
 libXaw               x86_64        1.0.6-4.1.el6           server        167 k
 libXmu               x86_64        1.0.5-1.el6             server         59 k
 libXpm               x86_64        3.5.8-2.el6             server         59 k
 libxkbfile           x86_64        1.0.6-1.1.el6           server         74 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install       5 Package(s)

Total download size: 655 k
Installed size: 1.6 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                            23 MB/s | 655 kB     00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Warning: RPMDB altered outside of yum.
  Installing : libXmu-1.0.5-1.el6.x86_64                                    1/5 
  Installing : libxkbfile-1.0.6-1.1.el6.x86_64                              2/5 
  Installing : libXpm-3.5.8-2.el6.x86_64                                    3/5 
  Installing : libXaw-1.0.6-4.1.el6.x86_64                                  4/5 
  Installing : xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64                              5/5 
Installed products updated.
  Verifying  : libXaw-1.0.6-4.1.el6.x86_64                                  1/5 
  Verifying  : libXpm-3.5.8-2.el6.x86_64                                    2/5 
  Verifying  : libXmu-1.0.5-1.el6.x86_64                                    3/5 
  Verifying  : xorg-x11-apps-7.4-10.el6.x86_64                              4/5 
  Verifying  : libxkbfile-1.0.6-1.1.el6.x86_64                              5/5 

Installed:
  xorg-x11-apps.x86_64 0:7.4-10.el6                                             

Dependency Installed:
  libXaw.x86_64 0:1.0.6-4.1.el6        libXmu.x86_64 0:1.0.5-1.el6             
  libXpm.x86_64 0:3.5.8-2.el6          libxkbfile.x86_64 0:1.0.6-1.1.el6       

Complete!

but I still couldn't tunnel X11: -

X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0

A quick Google brought me this: -

X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0 Error and Solution

from which I pulled this solution: -

yum install xauth

Loaded plugins: product-id, security, subscription-manager
Updating certificate-based repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package xorg-x11-xauth.x86_64 1:1.0.2-7.1.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package               Arch          Version                Repository     Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 xorg-x11-xauth        x86_64        1:1.0.2-7.1.el6        server         35 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install       1 Package(s)

Total download size: 35 k
Installed size: 62 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing : 1:xorg-x11-xauth-1.0.2-7.1.el6.x86_64                        1/1 
Installed products updated.
  Verifying  : 1:xorg-x11-xauth-1.0.2-7.1.el6.x86_64                        1/1 

Installed:
  xorg-x11-xauth.x86_64 1:1.0.2-7.1.el6                                         

Complete!

Now I see: -

ssh -X mqm@bam8012.uk.ibm.com

Last login: Fri Sep  5 20:20:26 2014 from 192.168.8.1

/usr/bin/xauth:  creating new authority file /home/mqm/.Xauthority

xeyes

Shiny :-)