winIDEA on Linux: Start winIDEA over SSH is rejected because of wrong authentication

Starting winIDEA over SSH can fail when running from a remote machine. This is a generic issue when running and forwarding any GUI application to a local machine.

1. Make sure that -X option is used at logging

ssh -X user@remote-machine

2. After starting winIDEA GUI, it terminates with the error message:

X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication

This message confirms that tunneling is not set up properly.

3. Ensure that the file $HOME/.Xauthority with cookies is created and updated after SSH login. To get its content, execute the command:

xauth list

It must show at least one line with a used cookie. Then check the environment variable XAUTHORITY value.

echo $XAUTHORITY

If it is empty, then set it to:

export XAUTHORITY=${HOME}/.Xauthority

4. To keep this setting permanently, then add it to the user’s profile.

echo 'export XAUTHORITY=${HOME}/.Xauthority' >> ${HOME}/.profile 

5. Now it is ready to forward the remote winIDEA windows to the local machine. Restart the winIDEA.