multiseat

[Jesse Barnes]

On Saturday, July 30, 2005 9:32 am, Daniel Stone wrote:
> It's entirely possible -- the main stumbling points are thus:
> 	* Working out (initially) which is which.
> 	* Dealing with hotplugging.
>
> The former is relatively easy.  Parse /proc/bus/input/devices (or
> whatever it is) for a list of all the event devices you're interested
> in, and poll them all until you get input.
>
> So, pop up a dialog box saying 'press some keys on the third
> keyboard' now, and poll across all the keyboard devices you come up
> with to see which one is the third keyboard.  Ditto mice.

I was imagining an even more manual system, where the administrator 
would follow the cables (i.e. hm this hub is plugged into port #2, I'll 
assign that to head #4, and everything plugged into that hub belongs to 
head #4).

> The second is not so easy.  Basically all you can do is keep track of
> what disappeared and assume that will be the next thing to get
> plugged in.

Unless you use the topology like I describe above, then you just assume 
that things are physically setup correctly and somewhat securely (i.e. 
Dick can see his hub and will know if Jane tries to steal his USB key).

> It's all entirely possible, it just requires a lot of fiddling around
> and gap-filling, usually on behalf of the distributor.  Oh, and
> careful selection of video card.

Definitely.  Those damn video cards keep crashing the party...

Jesse