[gdm-list] User feedback on multi-seat gdm and ConsoleKit

[Wayne Whitney <whitney post harvard edu>]

Hello,

I'm a long time multi-seat home user, since Fedora 7 at least.  I recently 
updated to Fedora 12, which broke the gdm-2.20 based solution I had been 
using.  So I decided to try the current multi-seat branches of gdm and 
ConsoleKit, and I'm pleased to report partial success.  I'm sure I'm doing 
some things wrong, though, since I'm used to the previous solution; any 
guidance would be very welcome.

First let me say that I have an x86_64 machine with two ATI video cards, 
two keyboards, and two mice.  I have configured xorg with two different 
layouts, each one using one keyboard, one mouse, and one video card (via 
IsolateDevice).  So all I really need gdm to do is run two instances of X 
simultaneously and provide each with a greeter.

After figuring out the rudiments of git, I grabbed the appropriate 
branches of gdm and ConsoleKit, configured them to match the Fedora RPM 
configurations, and then installed them over the existing RPMS.  I was 
able to complete the first two testings cases listed on the page 
<http://wiki.genunix.org/wiki/index.php/testing_for_newgdm_consolekit_multiseat_multidisplay>.

Then I decided to set up a simple configuration with two seat files in 
seats.d, each with their own session file in sessions.d, and their own 
display file in displays.d.  I've attached them at the end, stripped of 
comments.  The main difference is that the display file for the secondary 
seat runs Xorg with a different -layout option and with -sharevts and 
-noswitch.

This works, in that I get two separate X processes, two greeters, and two 
people can login.  There are a few rough edges, though:

1) VT switching breaks things.  I'm not really clear how this should work; 
I would think the VTs should be per seat, although this would require 
multiconsole in the kernel.  Anyway VT switching appears to just affect 
the first seat.  Ctrl-Alt-Fn to switch from either keyboard causes the 
first seat to switch VTs; if I go to a text console, then that console get 
keystrokes from both keyboards.  Worst is that if I then switch back to 
VT7, I get the X session back on the primary seat, but it is now also 
getting keystrokes from both keyboards.

2) I can logout of the secondary seat and log back in fine.  However, for 
some reason when I first log out of the primary seat, X gets respawned, 
but I end up on VT1 instead of VT7.  So I have to manually switch back to 
VT7.  Unfortunately this has the effect of tripping the first problem.

3) My .display files have $vt as a command line option, but when I use ps 
to look at the Xorg commands run, there is no vtX option passed to Xorg.

4) Audio device ownership isn't getting set at all from either seat.

5) I don't know how to configure the greeters I end up with; I like to 
disable sound and avoid having to click "Login" before entering my 
username.

Yours, Wayne Whitney


%%% 00-primary.seat %%%
[Seat Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Primary seat
ID=StaticSeat0
Description=Wayne's Desk
Hidden=false
Devices=
Sessions=Local0;

%%% 01-secondary.seat %%%
[Seat Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Secondary seat
ID=StaticSeat1
Description=Diane's desk
Hidden=false
Devices=
Sessions=Local1;

%%% Local0.session %%%
[Session Entry]
Name=Local0
Type=LoginWindow
Description=Local Login Screen
DisplayTemplate=Local0
[Local]
display=:0
vt=vt7

%%% Local1.session %%%
[Session Entry]
Name=Local1
Type=LoginWindow
Description=Local Login Screen
DisplayTemplate=Local1
[Local]
display=:1
vt=vt8

%%% Local0.display %%%
[Display]
Type=X11
[X11]
Exec=/usr/bin/Xorg $display $vt -layout Layout0 -br -verbose -auth $auth -nolisten tcp

%%% Local1.display %%%
[Display]
Type=X11
[X11]
Exec=/usr/bin/Xorg $display $vt -layout Layout1 -sharevts -novtswitch -br -verbose -auth $auth -nolisten tcp