Multiseat Support in HAL

[Holger Macht]

On Tue 19. Sep - 14:37:07, Oliver Grawert wrote:
> hi,
> Am Dienstag, den 19.09.2006, 10:26 +0200 schrieb 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.
> right, in general i agree, but wrt block devices gnome-vfs had that bug
> we solved, indeed it might be better to solve it for hal as well but i
> think you agree that its silly behavior of gnome-vfs to put devices on
> the users desktop he hasnt access to :)

Yes, I fully agree, I just wanted to point out that such a feature is
needed also for other purposes. And for the amount of addons growing, I
think we need it fast.

Regards,
	Holger