Multiseat with 1 graphics card

[agent_paul]

I've got a question that I'd like to up out there but first some background.

So I've got one of those HP Microservers that a lot of people here have got. It works absolutely fine for what I got it for but I want to try something pretty cool with it.

I've been thinking about setting up multiseat working with it (I just got an ATI 5450 just for this) which will start up 2 xservers at start up. One X server running off the monitor and the second off my TV. Once booted up the session with the TV will automatically start up XBMC and all interaction will be via a remote.

So my question is, has anyone ever managed to setup a multiseat system with just one graphics card? and am I asking too much from a tiny machine?

any thoughts please

 

[agent_paul]

I spent quiet abit of time trying to get this working on ubuntu 11.04 but after abit more research, it looks as though multiseat with Gnome 2.20+ is broken.

I'm going to remove the default version of Gnome and install Gnome 2.20.

If anyones interested, I've been using this as a basis and I'm going to start using this instead

 

[agent_paul]

I've decided not to go through with the downgrade route as it looked far to destructive. So I've done a bit more research and it seems what I want is more common than I thought.

There are a few posts over at the XBMC forums that have people starting up XBMC in the second monitor and using wmctrl and screenswitch to release the mouse and keyboard from the second monitor.

 

[agent_paul]

@inSilica

hi, thanks for your xorg.conf I had a conf file that was pretty similar to yours with some extra sections regarding input. but when i ran it, the second screen was just empty. Maybe that had something to do with not changing my .xinitrc file

 

[agent_paul]

Hi inSilica

Yes im running on ubuntu (64bit 11.04) with a few things installed but its still pretty much a bog standard install right now.

this is my xorg.conf file right now.

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "amdcccle Layout0"
        Screen       0 "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0" 1920 0
    InputDevice "kbd_0"
    InputDevice "mouse_0"
    Option      "AutoEnableDevices"     "false"
    Option      "AutoAddDevices"        "false"
    Option      "AllowEmptyInput"       "true"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "amdcccle Layout1"
        Screen      1 "amdcccle-Screen[1]-1" 0 0
    InputDevice "kbd_1"
    InputDevice "mouse_1"
    Option      "AutoEnableDevices"     "false"
    Option      "AutoAddDevices"        "false"
    Option      "AllowEmptyInput"       "true"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option      "Xinerama" "off"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "kbd_0"
    Driver "evdev"
    Option      "Device"        "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:5:1.0-event-kbd"
    Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option "XkbModel" "105"
    Option "XkbLayout" "uk"
    Option  "Protocol"      "Standard"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "mouse_0"
    Driver         "evdev"
    Option      "Device"        "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:5:1.1-event-mouse"
    Option      "GrabDevice"    "on"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "kbd_1"
    Driver "evdev"
    Option      "Device"        "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:3:1.0-event-kbd"
    Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option "XkbModel" "105"
    Option "XkbLayout" "uk"
    Option  "Protocol"      "Standard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "mouse_1"
    Driver         "evdev"
    Option      "Device"        "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:12.0-usb-0:3:1.1-event-mouse"
    Option      "GrabDevice"    "on"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-DFP1"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "50"
        #Option     "Position" "0 0"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-CRT2"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1680x1050"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "60"
        #Option     "Position" "0 0"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        #Option     "Monitor-CRT2" "0-CRT2"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        #Option     "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
        Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0"
        Device     "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
    Monitor        "0-CRT2"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-1"
        Device     "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
    Monitor        "0-DFP1"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

I've just ssh'd into the machine as for some stupid reason my keyboard has now stopped working on it.

this config gives me a cloned display on my second screen, which isn't what i want.

regarding the two lines in your previous post

DISPLAY=:0.1 exec ck-launch-session gnome-session
DISPLAY=:0.1 exec gnome-session

they dont do anything. the terminal just disappears when executing them

this is quite annoying now and i might just revert back to my previous setup. It shouldn't be so difficult to do this nowadays.

 

[agent_paul]

Hi inSilica, thanks for all the help.

the conf you you provided looks almost identical to what i get if i were to change the display settings in the catalyst control centre.

after spending way too much time trying to get this to work, i just decided to give up and stick to the wmctrl and switch screen method. its not the way i initially liked it but it works and it was pretty much easy to setup.

thanks for all the help!