[ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

DePingus · 2008-09-25 20:49:00

Hi there folks. I'm trying to do something thats maybe a little off the wall.

I have a PC connected to a television (through the SVIDEO of an Nvidia GeForceFX 5600) that a want to use as a media center (sort of). I want to have an Openbox desktop on the TV tailored to media center type stuff (movies, music, pictures, simple cd/dvd burning). I can do this no prob.

BUT at the same time I want to have a separate Openbox desktop for regular desktop type stuff (internet, downloading, file management). This 2nd desktop I want to access on my CRT and remotely (but mostly remotely) via VNC or FreeNX.

I have some of this working but have stumbled a bit. I have come to the conclusion that I'm going to need 2 separate users, one for the TV and one for the CRT/remote. I tried with only 1 user, using Fluxbox on the CRT and Openbox on the TV, but discovered that the GTK themes are the same across both. Which makes the desktops not completely independent. 2 users is seems the best way to guaranty independent settings for ALL my apps. Yes / No?

I currently have my xorg.conf file setup without TwinView. I use Ctrl+Alt+F7 and F8 to switch between CRT and TV. Can I have them both on simultaneously but still be independent of each other? Perhaps only using Ctrl+Alt+F7 and F8 to switch only the input between the 2 (mouse and kb). This isn't so important since I'll usually be accessing the full desktop remotely.

Lastly, remote access to the CRT desktop is done by TightVNC right now, but I have to login locally and start the VNC Server. I did find a script to have the vncserver start as a daemon. So that solves that prob. Before I take tighvnc any further though, I would like to know if switching to FreeNX be a good idea for this setup?

Its a whopper, i know!
Thanks for all the info!

Last edited by DePingus (2008-10-07 19:27:40)

pelle.k · 2008-09-25 21:22:57

What you are doing, is in essence a multihead setup. You could attach another keyboard+mouse (or an ir remote) and configure that to be on head 2.
I tried to do this a couple of years back, but with gnome on one head, and openbox on the other. (never got it to work though).
I could have done that using inittab i reckon.
How did you "separate" the two sessions if i might ask?

Edit; i just read you hadn't tried two separate sessions yet! (right?)

Last edited by pelle.k (2008-09-25 21:24:23)

rostoQ · 2008-09-25 22:31:46

you need 2 graphic cards (or a card with 2 chips on it), so that each can run an Xserver. This is essentially!
http://www.linuxtoys.org/multiseat/multiseat.html is a quite nice HowTo...
If you just want 2 "seats", i guess its the cheapest to get a sli-mainboard (40€) and two cheap Pci-e cards (30€ each) (they dont have to run in sli mode). Prefably the same, or at least running the same driver/working with same settings.

pjjanak · 2008-09-25 22:58:00

Just recently they released something for X that supports multi-seat...mdm I think is what it was called. I don't think you need multiple graphics cards with mdm...but I'm not sure. Take a look see.

Peter

Last edited by pjjanak (2008-09-25 22:58:21)

DePingus · 2008-09-26 23:15:06

Thanks for the replys. MDM requires 2 video cards, 2 keyboards, 2 mice. I was hoping that TwinView could handle something like this. But it appears my choices are either Clone or extended desktop. I think I'm just going to forget the CRT desktop (I mean...who uses CRT monitors today anyways!) and just have the TV and the VNC/FreeNX desktop.

Speaking of remoting...any advice on which to use? VNC or FreeNX? I think I would like to have the vncserver (or freenx server/agent/whatever-it-is) start on boot. Also is 2 separate users the best way to go for 2 deparate desktops (taking themes and other program settings into account)?

Mektub · 2008-09-27 09:29:05

How about two X servers ? Thats what I am using for 2 completely separate sessions, even though my setup
doenst include a TV.

I am using GDM, and have in /etc/gdm/custom.conf the following:

[servers]

# Also note, that if you redefine a [server-foo] section, then GDM will use the definition in this 
# file, not the GDM System Defaults configuration file.  It is currently not possible to disable a 
# [server-foo] section defined in the GDM System Defaults configuration file.

0=Standard device=/dev/console
1=Standard

The name must be 'Standard', or else if using another name you have to define it.

Like this I have two independent login screens, one in Alt-F7 and the other one in Alt-F8.

Mektub

DePingus · 2008-10-07 19:27:21

2 separate X servers is the way I have it now and it works fine. But I think I'm gonna dump that old CRT monitor anyways and just FreeNX into the desktop as needed from my laptop.

In case any one is interested...
I tried both VNC (NOT tunneled through SSH) and FreeNX. Both were acceptably nimble but FreeNX was faster and just seemed more solid.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-25 20:49:00

[ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#2 2008-09-25 21:22:57

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#3 2008-09-25 22:31:46

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#4 2008-09-25 22:58:00

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#5 2008-09-26 23:15:06

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#6 2008-09-27 09:29:05

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

#7 2008-10-07 19:27:21

Re: [ SOLVED ] simultaneous multiple independant desktops

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