[systemd-devel] What exactly is multi-seat? -- questions about logind

[Lennart Poettering]

On Di, 26.01.21 01:43, Kian Kasad (kian at kasad.com) wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> After reading the documentation on logind and multi-seat (specifically
> sd-login(3) and "Multi-Seat on Linux"), I still have some questions.
>
> First of all, what exactly is multi-seat? Does it just mean allowing
> multiple sessions to be running at once, like for multiple users to be
> logged into the same desktop, even though only one will be in use at a
> time?

No, it means you can have multiple physical seats on the same
computer. i.e. one computer with two displays, two keyboards, two
mice, and that two people can work on it, independently of each other.

> Second, why is logind needed for this? Is it not possible to do without
> logind? I've run Xorg perfectly fine on systems without logind/systemd,
> so is logind only needed for multiple sessions at once? Is it just to
> handle the graphical device(s)?
>
> Third, is multi-seat possible at all without logind?
>
> Most of these questions arose because my main OS, Artix Linux, requires
> logind (in the form of elogind) for Xorg, but I know that Xorg runs just
> fine on Alpine Linux, which does not use logind at all.

I have no idea of those distro. I could not possible answer what they
support and what not.

Like any software problem, you can always hack up your alternative
solution. Software is generally reimplementable. If they reimplemented
it, good for them. They can also fork our stuff, or just use our
stuff, it's Free Software after all.

Either way, please contact the maintainers of your distro and
"elogind" for help in general, this is the wrong forum for such
questions.

Lennart

--
Lennart Poettering, Berlin