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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Grant Sewell wrote: > Rob Beard wrote: >> HI folks, >> >> When I was playing around with Kubuntu at work on one of our new Dell >> PCs (Pentium D 820) I got wondering something. Would it be possible to >> run two desktops at the same time on one PC? >> >> Now I know there have been products in the past that provide an extra >> video output, keyboard, mouse and sound for Windows, but I wondered if >> it could be done cheaply on Linux? >> >> What I was thinking of was... >> >> Standard PC (say a average sort of spec Pentium D or Athlon 64) with an >> ample amount of memory (say 1GB). >> An extra video card (say PCI 128MB Radeon card or similar). >> An extra sound card (PCI cheapo sound card) >> A USB keyboard and mouse and extra monitor. >> >> I wondered if it would be possible to run two copies of X and Gnome/KDE >> etc on the one PC so one user is on the main monitor using the main >> keyboard/mouse/sound card and a second user is on a second monitor with >> a completely different desktop using the second video card, USB keyboard >> and mouse and extra sound card? >> >> I'm thinking something a bit like LTSP but one one machine? >> >> Is it possible to have more than one USB keyboard and mouse on a PC and >> then specify which one is used for input? >> >> If it is possible then I dare say it is another opportunity to put some >> of these high powered desktop PCs to a more cost effective use. >> >> Rob > > I have regularly thought about this, but never actually got around to > testing it out. > > You can certainly add the appropriate entries in your X config, you'd > need 2 of everything mind... two mouse entries, two keyboard entries, > two GFX card entries, two monitor entries, two "Screen" entries and two > ServerLayout entries. > > You can definitely start a second X session easy enough... from the CLI. > I regularly do. At a CLI, if you type "startx -- :1" (without the "" > marks) then it'll load up another X session locally. If you wanted to > start it on the second set of devices, then you could use "startx -- > -layout OtherDevices :1" *should* work (if I've read the docs correctly). > > Making it do all this automagically on a "normal" distro is, however, > going to be a touch more complex. Presuming, of course, that you want a > login manager such as GDM to start on both screens. > > Grant. > Yes thats about it in a nutshell.. I have used somthing like this before... wasn't with USB which i can see as the only potential hurdle, but still, doable. - -- Neil Stone Systems Administrator FlashTek UK - -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GIT d+(++) s: a-(?) C++++(--) UL++++$ P+ L+++ E- W+++ N+ o+ w--- O M PS+ Y+ PGP++ t+ 5+ X+ R+ tv+ b- DI++ D+++ G e h--- r+++ y++++(**) - -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFLeiTz3Av8JKgzxQRAqTaAKCZFB1AQDj6UL1wN/ISSKe7aervOQCePitY fXgAqWMemMUSe7V5opWXXCw= =vLRo -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html