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On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:37:50 +0100 Rob Beard wrote: > On 17/07/2010 12:11, Grant Sewell wrote: > > <snip> > >>> What I would like to do something is investigate multi-seat X, > >>> that is having two monitors, two keyboards and two mice (and > >>> maybe two soundcards) attached to one machine and creating two > >>> 'independent' desktops which can be used (kind of in a way like > >>> LTSP but with only one machine and no server). > >>> > >>> I've been looking into it but I've had so much on my plate and a > >>> lack of space and hardware that I haven't really done much about > >>> it. I did try and get it working a couple of years back but had > >>> no joy. However maybe if a few of us got together one day with > >>> some hardware we could possibly get something up and running. > >>> Something like this could possibly be a great way of using > >>> resources, such as when a reasonable spec (say Athlon XP, Athlon > >>> 64, Pentium 4) PC is donated to somewhere we could turn the one > >>> machine into two machines. > >> It ought to be possible. > > It is. Last time I looked into it it worked but wasn't especially > > stable... ie if user B logged out, then user A's X session was also > > killed while the login manager restarted. Not clever. > > > I've read that on Ubuntu at least they're working on getting X to run > as a user rather than root, maybe that might resolve the issues. > Saying that I don't know when it's going to be integrated into a > distro. That sounds interesting. What's their reasoning behind this? > >> You'll need a seconds keyboard and mouse (USB or old serial?) and a > >> system with 2 graphics cards. > > 2 x USB mice, 2 x USB keyboards, 2 x PCI(e) GFX cards. > > USB because they can each be identified individually, likewise for > > the GFX cards. Once the devices can be uniquely identified, you > > can set up X to have specific keyboard, mouse and GFX card as a > > single X session, and the other keyboard/mouse/GFX card as a > > different X session. > > > Last time I tried it I was using a single dual head graphics card, I > think that didn't help. I guess a PCIe and PCI card in a box might > do the job. Haven't tried with a single card... I don't think it'd be particularly easy as you'd have to try and specify head-1 as session 1 and head-2 as session 2, and I'm not sure how you'd do that. The 'guide' I was looking at (about 3 years ago, IIRC) indicated that using separate PCI or PCIe cards would be better as they'll all have different PCI-IDs which can be specified in the X conf file. It also suggested that mixing cards with different chips was easier but tended to be slower than using cards with the same chips. > >> You might make it work by using some sort of virtualisation and > >> giving each host access to it's own graphics/keboard/mouse. If that > >> works, you could probably have as many desktops as you've got slots > >> to plug graphics cards into... (Assuming you can share the USB bus > >> somehow). > > Sounds like overkill. :D > >> Can't say it's a project that enthuses me though :) > > I tried it a few years back with my BTEC students. It was fun, but > > a bit over their heads I think. Might try it again soon. :) > > I'd be interested to know how you get on, as I say it's something > I've wanted to try. It is possible at the moment with a proprietary > package which I believe is called Userful, it's available for > personal use giving 2 machines although the paid for version can > support up to 10 machines (presumably using a load of dual head > graphics cards). Cool! I'll have a look at that. Thanks. Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq