Multiple Desktop Users on a Single Machine?

_Sharp'r_ asks: "I'm trying to design the least expensive way to make OpenOffice, email, and a web browser available to students in a new charter elementary school. In my past experience working with charitable computer donations, I can usually get three to four working computers out of five donated 'broken' computer systems, usually with plenty of monitors, keyboards and mice left over. I'd like to use one computer for multiple students by attaching multiple monitors, USB keyboards and mice. What drivers/OS versions support multiple local input devices and monitors that can be attached to a specific login session? Will this require virtualization? Is there a config I haven't found that you can use to assign these devices to specific ttys? Have you done this before?"

Comments

XFree-Local-multi-user-HOWTO

[Cocoronixx]

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree-Local-multi-user-HOWTO /index.html

The HOWTO is a bit dated, but it is probably relevant enough to get you on the right track.

A few links...

[stevo3232]

http://linuxgazette.net/124/smith.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=multiseat+x
http://cs.senecac.on.ca/~ctyler/ruby/
http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/ 14-Multiseat-X-Under-X11R6.97.0.html
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/200512070 0126OSDTHL

Re:A few links...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here are a couple other tutorials...

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Multiterminal_with_ev dev
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Multiseat_X
http://netpatia.blogspot.com/2006/09/multiseat-com puter-with-ubuntu.html

I did a multiseat setup using Ubuntu for Software Freedom Day last year and it worked quite well. The only way I was able to achieve hardware-accelerated 3D on _every_ head was to only use NVIDIA video adapters with the proprietary driver. (yes, I'm aware of the irony!) Unfortunately, none of the free (libre) drivers supported accelerated 3D on multiple heads at that time but perhaps things have changed with the latest release of Xorg.

Setups like this are quite fascinating to me as they reveal how much more efficiently a computer of moderate specs is capable of being used--desktop users don't even notice that they are sharing a machine. Some aspects are a little complicated (like mapping different sound cards to the correct seats) but IMO there is a _lot_ of potential in this area due to ease of administration, energy savings, and a decrease in noise (less computers means less fans whirling).

Here's one guy who built a six seat computer.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linuxgazette.net/124/smith.html

Not all good news though, seems it was a bit unstable. Still, it's a start. :)

One computer, many users

[Anonymous Coward]

Check this out: http://www.linuxtoys.org/multiseat/multiseat.html

Re:Hardware solution?

[Daemonik]

You're thinking of nComputing and they're still around: http://www.ncomputing.com/ They have a nice hardware setup that allows up to 30 users on a single PC, and it runs on Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, and Linux. You can also find them on TigerDirect http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/search.asp?keywords=ncomputing&image1.x=0&image1 .y=0

this doesn't answer your question

[Clover_Kicker]

but is a different way to stretch junk hardware.

Have you looked at Linux Terminal Server Project? Any old junk makes an adequate client, memory requirements are something like 64MB.

There's an there's an active LTSP community, including guys use it in schools: www.k12ltsp.org.

Edubuntu...

[EvilGrin666]

Edubuntu will do this out of the box for you. It's designed specifically for this sort of situation.

Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)

[ptelligence]

Get one server quality computer and load it up with Ram. The rest of the machines will be thin clients and can be just about anything down to a Pentium I. You can even run the machines diskless. You'll want a good 10/100 switch and at least a 100Mb NIC in the server. There will be a lot of information traveling across your network. I've done setups like this for kids in similar situations with donated hardware. One cool thing about this is that the students have the same experiences no matter what machine they sit down and log into. They don't have to be at one particular machine because that is where they saved their work. Definitely check it out. There is also a K-12 version for kids. Good luck. http://www.ltsp.org/ http://www.k12ltsp.org/

Userful

[rob1980]

http://userful.com/

I used this to set up 8 workstations (virtual art galleries, actually) out of two machines for a tattoo shop across town. I've followed some of the resources already linked on this topic and was never able to get such a setup working, but this software did it just fine. All you need are some dual-head video cards and USB hubs.

Re:Yes, but is it worth it?

[prefect42]

You're right on the money with this, and you can do it roughly based on the port (effectively) as often pairs of ports represent separately enumerated buses. I use:

KERNEL="event*",BUS="usb",SYSFS{bInterfaceClass}=" 03",SYSFS{bInterfaceProtocol}="02",NAME="input/%k" ,SYMLINK="input/evmouse-%b"
KERNEL="event*",BUS="usb",SYSFS{bInterfaceClass}=" 03",SYSFS{bInterfaceProtocol}="01",NAME="input/%k" ,SYMLINK="input/evkbd-%b"

To persistently name the devices attached.

I don't think so...

[swillden]

Edubuntu will do this out of the box for you. It's designed specifically for this sort of situation.

Are you sure about that? AFAIK, what Edubuntu provides is LTSP, which allows you to run one machine with a bunch of thin clients attached to it, but each of the thin clients requires another PC. That's not the same as attaching multiple monitors and keyboards directly to one computer.