# sharing one computer under linux

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Tuesday, 17-Jun-2008 13:14:02

Hello,
I have a crazy idea - and I discussed it little ith some friends.
Imagine one computer running linux - one person is sitting infront of it. An other person has only keyboatrd and screen (and speakers maybe) connected to it and doing absolutelly different things than the first person.
Is it possible? Anyone have experiences?
I heart, that when you have multiple graphic card and multiple mouses, speakers and keyboards, you can run two separate x-servers.

## Post 2 by Squiggles (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 08-Jul-2008 13:18:54

No this is not possible if you are saying that is 2 keyboards are connected with some sort of kvm thing if 2 terminals can be open at once. This answer is no. The system can only switch to one virtual console at once. You switch to each terminal by using control plus alt plus f1 through f7, f7 bringing you back to the gnome desktop if you have it. I'm not quite sure if I got your question all the way but you cannot do it, unless, of course, someone is telnetting or ssh ing in then yes you can, because that session is hidden ,and in that case many sessions can be opened, but you can't do that locally with just 1 keyboard or even 2 keyboards, because there is no place to plug 2 keyboards that are ps2 and I don't think usb ones are supported under bash. You could go to the extreme and try to split the screen, and then possibly having 2 sessions but for X, you cannot do anything like this. I don't even know how you'd split the screen but theoretically you could split the screen making 2 contiguous sessions...boy that'd get confusing pretty fast. But for all intents and purposes, the answer is no.

## Post 3 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Tuesday, 08-Jul-2008 14:58:31

You didn't catch my question.
Both persons are using gnomes.
Every xserver has it's own configuration file, telling it what monitor, keyboard and mouse to use.
Yes, there will be probably problem with virtual consoles, but lets suppose, that only one person will use f1 to f6.
F 7 will run one xserver and f8 another.
Well, that's my imagination, but my question is - can this be done?

## Post 4 by Squiggles (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 08-Jul-2008 16:49:53

You might be able to do this some how, but only one instance of X will be able to be displayed at a time, rendering only one user to use the syttem at a time.

## Post 5 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 3:05:04

yes, one xserver for one monitor, mouse and keyboard and an other for the second monitor, mouse and keyboard.

## Post 6 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 6:45:35

Why would you want to do this, the computers themselves aren't that expensive, may be $200 or so for decent cpu, even less if you want linux and not the top spec machines, may be if you could run 8 or 10 diffeernt ones on one machine you'd realize some benefits but for normal household use, it's cool but probably not worth it.Even if you could split the screen possibly you don't want the other person to see what you're doing, checking a bank account or something, so there's the privacy issue too.

## Post 7 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 7:09:56

Now, I've got the second computer, so it's for nothing.
But I was just interested, if it can be done?
Why splitting screen.
Running two xservers each with it's own configuration.

## Post 8 by Squiggles (Account disabled) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 11:58:05

But how would you tell X that you have 2 monitors/keyboards connected? Maybe via a kvm but I am unsure if this can be done.. This is quite interesting. Privacy, yes, but solely for technical and experimental purposes, it is worth a thought or 2.

## Post 9 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 12:04:33

Yeah, I agree that theoretically one would wonder if this can be done. I'm not sure honestly, may be with creating use of kvm or some such.

## Post 10 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Wednesday, 09-Jul-2008 12:10:47

maybe vvia two graphical cards?
Tell one xserver to use one and other to use second card?
I don't know.
Must revitalize my blindubuntu linux - doesn't speak.
I'm lazy to update, distupgrade and upgrade, but now, I have a plenty of time.