Michael says: I prefer to use tightvnc

someone else posted the following, so it something I can't vouch for:

The approach mentioned by kjprice just displays the applications you started on the remote host. If you want to see a complete dektop you could either create a new Xserver or use Xephyr to nest a Xserver in the one currently you use.

Well first create a new nested Xserver:

user@host $ Xephyr :1 -screen 800x600 &

A window called "Xephyr on :1" should spawn. Ssh into the remote host an forward the display to the created display:

user@host $ DISPLAY=:1 ssh -Y username@remotehost

Now start a session on the remotehost, in my case LXDE:

user@remotehost $ lxsession

You should now see the desktop in Xephyr. hf