How to access GUI on Linux (CentOS) remotely?

Support
1

Hey,

I searched for an answer but could not find the right one for me. I am a beginner when it comes to Linux, so I dont know basic things.

So, I installed Syncthing on my PC (Windows 10).

Then I have a rented VPS machine running on CentOS 7. I followed this tutorial to install Syncthing: https://computingforgeeks.com/install-and-configure-syncthing-on-centos-linux/

Now how do I access the GUI on CentOS?

The tutorial does not explain it and I could not find an answer on the official docs. Everyone assumes the machine running Syncthing will have a Operating System UI, such as Ubuntu, Windows or Debian, but CentOS doesnt have it. So how can I access the GUI of Syncthing on that? I am sure there is a way to access it remotely, but trying to do “IP-of-my-server”:8384 on my browser didnt work.

Can someone help me, please?

Thank you.

2

Hi and welcome to the Syncthing community!

By default the GUI is only accessible from the local machine itself. You need to adjust the configuration as described in The GUI Listen Address — Syncthing v1 documentation

Don’t forget to check the firewall if the default port 8384 is even open to the outside.

Hope that helps.

1 Like
3

Oh and regarding the tutorial you quoted: The Syncthing release files include templates of the systemd service files in the etc/linux-systemd subdirectory. I’d prefer those instead of copying code from some random website. See also Starting Syncthing Automatically — Syncthing v1 documentation

1 Like
4

So, does this mean all I have to do is to change the port number in the config file to 0.0.0.0:8384 and I will be able to access the GUI from outside using the IP address of the server?

5

That would work, but would be a rather insecure solution.

I prefer SSH port forwarding for such cases, i.e. I connect from my computer to the server via SSH using a command like

ssh -L 9090:localhost:8384 myserver.com

What this command does is establish a SSH connection between my computer and myserver.com and makes sure that the server’s localhost:8384 (that is, the Syncthing web interface) is mirrored to my local computer’s port 9090. I can then open localhost:9090 in my browser, and it works the same as if I opened localhost:8384 on the server, as long as the SSH session is active.

2 Likes
6

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.