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Re: [LUG] Running two independent instances of X (including two window managers) on one PC

 

Simon Williams wrote:
> Rob Beard wrote:
>> I had a bit of a play with it last night, I managed to get the two 
>> independent desktops working with two video cards (and also one dual 
>> head card but the screen updates were a bit sluggish) but the keyboard 
>> wouldn't work.
> 
> When you say independent desktops I assume you mean dual-head, where 
> both desktops are controlled by one instance of X and you can go between 
> them by sliding the mouse across?
> Or have you somehow managed to get 2 X servers to share the same memory 
> access?
> 

I was actually thinking two copies of X with their own window managers 
and own keyboards and mice.  I've managed to set it up so I can move the 
windows and mouse between the two screens using an Nvidia card with 
Twinview (using the proprietory drivers :-|).

>> I'll probably have another go this weekend.  I did find that two video 
>> cards caused the machine to lock up.  I presume that even though the 
>> motherboard supports dual video cards (to increase 3D performance) it 
>> might not like running them as two separate cards.
> 
> Shouldn't be a problem as far as the mobo is concerned- it's quite 
> common for people to use them to run 4 screens (in linux or windows). 
> Though I remember that there were stability problems when using lots of 
> PCI cards and doing the multiple user thing. I don't think the current 
> kernel/X/general linux setup lends itself to multiple concurrent X sessions.
> 

I've got a new mobo in there now, again it's got 2 x PCI-E 16x slots 
although this time it's an AMD chipset rather than the Intel chipset, 
not sure if it's going to make much difference.  If all else fails I'll 
just stick with Twinview until I can find the funds to build a cheap 
MythTV box.

Rob


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