I've been using rhel for a few years and when I want to bring up the desktop over x11, I use gnome-session. I'm new to Ubuntu and I was wondering what the equivalent of gnome-session was for Ubuntu?I thought it was called Unity but when I try that it brings up the desktop with the same wallpaper but I can't see the sidebar or the menubar.Right click menu seems to work though. I'm using ubuntu 12.10, with everything default. The one thing I'm not sure about is...That machine is hooked up to a hi res monitor, so when I am remoting in over x11 I wonder if I'm just seeing a part of the desktop. 
bring up ubuntu desktop x11 forwarding
ubuntu;x11;unity
You'll have to run it as a 2d session over x11 forwarding:gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d