Mutliple users using same desktop?

Daniel Stone daniel at fooishbar.org
Tue Dec 12 02:47:04 PST 2006


On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 10:02:39AM +0000, Colin Guthrie wrote:
> Alex Deucher wrote:
> > On 12/11/06, Deron Johnson <Deron.Johnson at sun.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I seem to recall hearing that someone in Xorg is working on upgrading
> >> the server to handle multiple sets of input devices, so multiple users
> >> can use the same desktop simultaneously.  But I forgot who is working
> >> on this? Can anyone refresh my memory? Thanks.
> 
> > Multi-Pointer X Server
> > http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx
> 
> This is multi *pointer* X, not multi *user* X. It *will* allow multiple
> input devices (pointers at least) but it's meant of one user - two mice
> == two pointers on screen - kinda funky!
> 
> You probably want to look at "multi seat X" or similar configurations
> which would allow this setup.
> 
> I don't really know much about it but here is a starting point ;)
> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22multi%20seat%20X%22
> 
> With evdev, it should be quite easy to create mutliple X
> instances/screens with multiple usb keyboards/mice and use multi head
> (or multiple) graphics cards to create a multi seat machine. I've
> certainly read several reports about this kind of setup.

It depends on what the question actually was, since it was unclear.

My input-hotplug fixes multiple input devices for one session properly.
Peter's MPX allows you to have multiple pointers in one session, so an
MPX-aware window manager lets you do cool things (like stretch windows).
Zepheniah's evdev driver allows you to have multiple X sessions on the
one machine, but in reality, the effort required to make this happen --
getting the right hardware combination is a nightmare -- probably
outweighs the benefits.

Cheers,
Daniel
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