Multiseat Support in HAL

[Holger Macht]

On Tue 19. Sep - 07:19:42, Fabian Steiner wrote:
> 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.)?

Just a note: Such a "locking feature" is also needed in other cases and it
should be available in a general way IMO. The same problems with multiseat
arise with the display brightness or the cpufreq methods. Multiple users
may use the same methods to the same time fighting about a setting they
want to set.

Regards,
	Holger