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Re: [LUG] debian code names

 

On Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:31:29 +0100 (BST)
Gordon Henderson wrote:

> On Fri, 16 Jul 2010, Rob Beard wrote:
> 
> > On 16/07/10 15:54, Gordon Henderson wrote:
> >> On Fri, 16 Jul 2010, Paul Sutton wrote:
> >> 
> >>> Myself and Neil stone (I think) were looking at if it would be
> >>> possible to install woody or something around woody, then do an
> >>> update thing to the next release up to the current stable
> >>> release., just as a bit of fun.
> >>> 
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> >> Personally, I'd not bother unless you're bored one afternoon...
> >> 
> >> Gordon
> >> 
> >
> > Not really how I'd want to spend my afternoon :-)
> >
> > Okay that's coming from someone who tried to learn Z80 assembler on
> > an Amstrad CPC emulator.
> >
> > What I would like to do something is investigate multi-seat X, that
> > is having two monitors, two keyboards and two mice (and maybe two
> > soundcards) attached to one machine and creating two 'independent'
> > desktops which can be used (kind of in a way like LTSP but with
> > only one machine and no server).
> >
> > I've been looking into it but I've had so much on my plate and a
> > lack of space and hardware that I haven't really done much about
> > it.  I did try and get it working a couple of years back but had no
> > joy.  However maybe if a few of us got together one day with some
> > hardware we could possibly get something up and running.  Something
> > like this could possibly be a great way of using resources, such as
> > when a reasonable spec (say Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Pentium 4) PC is
> > donated to somewhere we could turn the one machine into two
> > machines.
> 
> It ought to be possible.

It is.  Last time I looked into it it worked but wasn't especially
stable... ie if user B logged out, then user A's X session was also
killed while the login manager restarted.  Not clever.

> You'll need a seconds keyboard and mouse (USB or old serial?) and a
> system with 2 graphics cards.

2 x USB mice, 2 x USB keyboards, 2 x PCI(e) GFX cards.
USB because they can each be identified individually, likewise for the
GFX cards.  Once the devices can be uniquely identified, you can set up
X to have specific keyboard, mouse and GFX card as a single X session,
and the other keyboard/mouse/GFX card as a different X session.

> You might make it work by using some sort of virtualisation and
> giving each host access to it's own graphics/keboard/mouse. If that
> works, you could probably have as many desktops as you've got slots
> to plug graphics cards into... (Assuming you can share the USB bus
> somehow).

Sounds like overkill. :D

> Can't say it's a project that enthuses me though :)

I tried it a few years back with my BTEC students.  It was fun, but a
bit over their heads I think.  Might try it again soon. :)

Grant.

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