Multi-user multi-head setup

windows_me · 2014-01-29 20:00:18

Purely out of curiosity, I would like to create the following setup:

Computers: 1 (i.e. 1 motherboard)
Physical displays: N
Keyboards, mice: N
Processor: >= N cores

...and have a separate tty allocated to each monitor/mouse/keyboard group such that N non-root users can simultaneously work on a single box, in independent desktop environments and unable to interfere with each other. The processor criterion is to ensure that each user has at least one core "of their own" via affinity masking, so no one user can monopolise CPU resources. RAM and I/O resources are something that I'll think about at a later date.

The idea is to allow multiple non-root users to simultaneously work on one computer in such a way that they cannot interfere with each other's sessions in any destructive way (e.g. reboot, kill processes, hijack session, etc).

Could anyone point me in the right direction ( configurations / supported graphics vendors / kernel parameters ) for this?

I have no real use for this (particularly with how cheap VDI is), it is purely an academic curiosity.

Last edited by windows_me (2014-01-29 21:12:03)

Nattgew · 2014-02-06 18:26:33

This is an interesting thought experiment.
I think having N displays will be the hardest thing. You will either have to have enough graphics cards with enough outputs, or buy one of those external adapters. Matrox makes external adapters, and I know NVIDIA has cards designed for this sort of thing, like some in the Quadro line.
Then I guess you would just have to run N X servers, specifying a keyboard/mouse/display for each?

Slithery · 2014-02-06 18:33:16

It's called multiseat, check the wiki.

Last edited by Slithery (2014-02-06 18:41:25)

windows_me · 2014-02-06 22:06:38

@Nattgew:

Cheap USB video adapters will be fine for testing, and I can probably bag some powerful old Radeons (48xx) on the cheap, each of which will drive at least 2 screens. Alternatively, I could probably daisychain a bunch of higher-end cheap monitors (e.g. Dell U2312) via DisplayPort.

@slithery:

Cheers! I got nothing but flaming when I asked on the Ubuntu forums, you've solved the problem in a single word ("multiseat")!

Arch Linux

#1 2014-01-29 20:00:18

Multi-user multi-head setup

#2 2014-02-06 18:26:33

Re: Multi-user multi-head setup

#3 2014-02-06 18:33:16

Re: Multi-user multi-head setup

#4 2014-02-06 22:06:38

Re: Multi-user multi-head setup

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