Multiuser device support

[Jon Smirl]

There are on going discussions on multiple lists (xorg, dri, usb,
hotplug, etc) talking about how to support devices for multiple local
users under Linux. Would this be a good place to consolidate these
discussions?

I work on the Xegl server (X on OpenGL). Xegl is designed to work with
multiple local video cards and to support multiple users on them.
Unlike the current Xserver Xegl does not run as root.

To support Xegl all of your devices (video, mouse, keyboard, audio,
udb) need to be assigned to the user when the user logs on. Xegl runs
as the logged in user so it can only use these devices if it has
permission to do so.  Xegl is not currently integrated with hal so we
could use some guidance on how to do it correctly. For example Xegl
needs a list of devices that it has permission to access.

Another problem with multiseat is what to do when a user brings their
own devices. The best idea to have a USB hub per seat. Ownership of
this hub would be assigned to the user at login. Any device plugged
into the hub during the session would be assigned to the logged in
user.

Our video drivers can detect the hotplug connect/disconnect of
monitors. These events should pass through hal and into the apps.

Looking at the above issues you need some way to organize things. I
have been calling this a console group. A console group consists of
the video, mouse, keyboard, usb hub, audio set. This group gets
assigned to the user at login. Where should the elements of the
console group be defined? At the very minimum we need some way to
associate a screen with the correct set of input devices. There are
problems identifying the right mouse/keyboard since they do not have
serial numbers.

Is hal the right place to discuss all of this?

-- 
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl at gmail.com
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