12:23 a.m.
Hello Chris,
I am following your work and blog on multiseat and in last couple of
days I have finally gotten my own multiseat configuration (with Ubuntu
8.04) working. In the process I have tested 3 ways I am currently aware
of how to create multiseat configuration, Userful commercial product,
MDM package and HOWTO available at
http://wpkg.org/Configuring_multiseat_X_workstation created also with
your help. My configuration is 2 x Nvidia Geforce2 MX (AGP + PCI,
proprietary driver), 2 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop (USB wireless mouse
and keyboard and my experience was as follow
1. Userful - easy to install, tries to create multiseat config
dynamically upon reboot. On the first terminal I was able to select
resolution only up to I believe 1024x768. I am not sure if I would be
able to configure higher resolution, I have never tried because the
monitor on the second terminal always remained in the sleep mode and I
couldn't configure it. It uses separate config files for configuring X.
I spent playing with Userful only for about 10 minutes, since it didn't
work out of the box and is limited to free license only for two users, I
didn't feel like it warrants spending any effort on it and to get it
working I would probably have to manually tweak config files.
2. MDM - easy to install. At this time still requires manual
modification of configuration files upon install. It tries to create
multiseat config dynamically upon reboot. I was able to configure and
start using both terminals. It uses separate config files for
configuring X. I have discovered few bugs (incorrect initialization
order of HAL, MDM, GDM, couldn't user user list greeter, users-admin
didn't work, scrollwheel on the mouse didn't work) which I have reported
to the team. It uses Xephyr which doesn't seems to be that well
documented. Overall it was a working solution, but it still required
lots of tweaking and some things still didn't work.
3. HOWTO. The HOWTO was very easy to follow. It didn't require
installation of any additional software, The default version of X and
GDM provided by my distro worked out of the box. I had no troubles to
configure my monitors, keyboards and mice and everything worked like a
charm. After few days playing with it the only problem I have
encountered is that fast-user-switch applet doesn't seems to be
compatible with multiterminal (the same is true for MDM). I appreciated
how once I configured it (only changes in two default config files)
everything stays configured and no action is required upon reboot so my
users do not have to worry about it.
I do not use Compiz and our usage is limited to browsing, email, music,
video, kids games etc. and all of this works without a hickup. This
leads me to your effort. I was longterm Fedora user before I lately
tried Ubuntu so I am not sure how all of this applies to Fedora.
Based on experiences of my audience (age 2.5 - 35) they prefer the
administrator (me :-) to configure the setup for them and let them just
use it without presenting any options, events or extras related to
multiseat. They do not care it is multiseat, the younger ones do not
even know what is the CPU box or why it is needed and why would you need
more than one. All they care is displays, keyboards, mice and that they
work as expected when they lay next to each other.
Due to this i strongly prefer the HOWTO and static configuration to
dynamic configuration upon reboot or restart requiring additional
software. This decreases the complexity and dependencies, decreases
additional actions user have to take, decreases things going bad. Based
on my experimentation it seems that the default installation of my
distro contains everything one needs to create working multiterminal
setup (granted, it is assumed one has compatible hardware). The only
thing which is missing (and which I had to do manually) is a GUI tool
which would allow me to configure the multiseat configuration.
If I had to design such tool, the usage pattern I would envision is to
go to System -> Administration and expect there to see applet to
configure Displays (since from my experience users thing about multiseat
in terms displays).
1. I would prefer this to be the same applet that is used to configure
displays for other configs, since truly multiseat is just a variation on
xinerama, twinview, etc. Ubuntu doesn't provide any such applet, the
only related item is System -> Preferences -> Screen resolution. I am
not sure how it is in Fedora.
2. The System -> Administration -> Display applet would show how many
monitors/cards are detected and allow me to configure resolutions,
depth, etc. and select display mode, such us Xinerama, Twinview or
Multiseat (side note, I wonder what is the usability of current
display/resolution applets if user has 4+ displays :-). This applet
seems like a natural fit since it already needs to know about available
displays and their graphic cards and is already manipulating xorg.conf.
3. If Multiseat display mode is selected a wizard would be launched,
which would walk me through associating keyboards and mice with each
display, since truly this is the only difference between multiseat and
other display modes, having multiple input accessories of the same kind.
This would be done in such a way, that a single display is shown and
user is asked to type something on the keyboard that belongs to the
display and click mouse buttons for that display. The wizard would
identify which devices are these and allow user to go to next step and
continue until all displays have keyboard and mouse.
4. Once the wizard is finished and user closes the Display applet, the
xorg.conf, gdm.conf, kdm.conf would be modified as needed and in similar
fashion as it is now and if needex X and/or computer would be restarted.
I believe that by providing such configuration tool assuming that what
is true about my distro and configuration can be generalized (multiseat
works out of the box with defautl X, GDM and reasonable hardware) this
would satisfy requirements and introduce to multiseat large audience
which could provide additional feedback and testing.
What are your thoughts?
Miro Halas