multihead / dual input howto (two local users, keyboards etc.)?

[Tiago Vignatti]

Tomasz Chmielewski escreveu:
> Tiago Vignatti schrieb:
>> Tomasz Chmielewski escreveu:
>>> BTW, I tried the multiseat live CD from 
>>> http://wiki.c3sl.ufpr.br/multiseat/index.php/Live-CD
>>>
>>> I like its hardware detection (press F1, left mouse to activate this 
>>> screen).
>>
>> Indeed, it's nice.
>>
>> Now a question: is there a reason to keep your howto alive in the Web 
>> given that it doesn't show anything in special or different compared 
>> with the others? It will just confuse the poor users.
> 
> Let's see what the other options are:
> 
> According to http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/Multiseat 
> we have the following pages with "Users" in mind:
> 
> 1) http://wiki.c3sl.ufpr.br/multiseat/index.php/Mdm
> 
> mdm is a nice "feature preview", even with a live CD, but just no major 
> distro ships it. And if a major distro doesn't ship some software, it 
> just doesn't exist in a Linux world.
> Livecd had some flaws as I tested it:
> - resolutions were not detected properly and I couldn't change them 
> (even xrandr was showing that 1024x768 is the only possible one)
> - the system didn't reboot as I told it to; it was hanging somewhere at 
> the end waiting for something.
> 
> These are minor flaws, and perhaps not even mdm related.
> What I didn't like about mdm is that it doesn't ask if it should really 
> shut down or reboot the machine if there are other users logged in (for 
> example, KDM does that, it is nice IMO).
> 
> 
> 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiseat - wikipedia article.
> It's a good explanation, but it won't configure your Linux desktop to be 
> a multiseat station.
> 
> 
> 3) http://www.ltn.lv/~aivils/?proj_id=multiseat&menu_id=1 - as big fat 
> words say, "DONT TRY THIS!", so let's just not go there.
> 
> 
> 4) http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree-Local-multi-user-HOWTO/ - "very old 
> documentation. DONT TRY THIS! It is here just for historical purposes". 
> OK, so another antiquated documentation. I actually tried to read this, 
> well, but yes, I agree with "DONT TRY THIS" words now.
> 
> 
> 
> So what did we have there - nothing usable for a mere mortal, rather 
> scary words that multiseat should not be used.
> 
> 
> Let's look here now:
> 
> http://wpkg.org/Configuring_multiseat_X_workstation
> 
> It's far from being perfect, but at least:
> - does not tell you you have to patch and compile your brand new 2.4 
> kernel, because otherwise, multiseat is not possible
> - doesn't tell you to install a modified XFree86 server
> - is easy to follow and will work for majority of users who ever edited 
> their xorg.conf in the past
> 
> 
> So sorry, but if anything's confusing the poor users, it's that 
> wiki.x.org page that lists old documentation which is even not 
> applicable today.
> Or did you mean, there is some other documentation listed elsewhere? I'd 
> be glad to hear about it.
> 
> Of course, the whole discussion would be unnecessary if the distros 
> shipped a tool - other than a text editor - for configuring multiseat; 
> but so far, I don't know any distro that does (despite numerous user 
> requests; perhaps not enough though).

okay, Tomasz. I updated our wiki [0]. Please take a look there and see 
if it's reasonable and fits with your ideas.

BTW, you didn't give credits and/or referenced anyone in your page.


[0] http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/Multiseat


Cheers,

-- 
Tiago Vignatti
C3SL - Centro de Computação Científica e Software Livre
www.c3sl.ufpr.br