Multiseat Support in HAL

[Fabian Steiner]

Oliver Grawert wrote:
> hi,
> Am Montag, den 18.09.2006, 21:46 +0200 schrieb Fabian Steiner:
>> Since Xorg 7.0 it is possible to set up a real multiseat box ([1], [2])
>> (several independent workplaces on one machine) without having to apply
>> additional patches (Ruby [3], etc.).
>>
>> We are running such setups (OS: Ubuntu Dapper 6.06) at school and so far
>> almost everything works quite well. We are really content with that work
>> since it saves us a lot of money and time. Unfortunately, there is still
>> one feature missing, though. So far it is not possible to assign proper
>> permissions to hotpluggable devices such as memory sticks and cameras.
> 
> 
> thats no hal problem at all, please see
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-vfs/+bug/50554
> we fixed it in edgy (ubuntu 6.10) when we added local device support for
> ltsp, the patch is supposed to be sent upstream as well so gnome-vfs2
> will behave properly in the future even on other distros and only show
> the user devices he/she has access to.

I do think it's a HAL "problem" because this would be the best place to
solve such an issue.

Can you explain more detailed how you managed to associate a display
(i.e. the user who is in front of it) with a USB hub for example? How do
you know which user is the owner of which usb stick?

Moreover, your solution seems to be limited to the linux terminal server
project and to gnome. Does this patch also work with a simple multiseat
setup and other desktop environments that don't depend on gnome-vfs but
use something more generel (HAL, pmount, etc.)?

Cheers,
Fabian