Re: Multiple local XFree users with a single Radeon 9600 card

[Thomas Steffen <steffen dot list dot account at gmail dot com>]

On 6/7/05, Mike Leddy <mike dot leddy at hotpop dot com> wrote:
> I am a happy Debian SID user using the latest Xfree debian package
> (4.3.0.dfsg.1-13) and the latest  ATI driver (8.12.10-2.1) from:
> http://www.stanchina.net/~flavio/debian/fglrx-installer.html

I would strongly recommend to try the x.org 6.8.2 packages from
ubuntu. They work a lot better for me (9600 dual head on AMD64).

> I decided to try my hand at "Multiple Local Xfree Users" as I have
> two keyboards and mice. 

Nice. I tried it once (around 4.1 or 4.2), and it is an absolute
nightmare of pain, imho. There are three main issues: keyboard
assignment, graphics card access and virtual console.

> Luckily the debian patched Xfree already has
> evdev applied so it can easily handle the extra USB mice and keyboard
>  - a very pleasant surprise.

That should solve problem number one. 
 
> I had some trouble getting two Xservers work simultaneously with
> the radeon card. 

Yes, that is to be expected. It is highly recommended to use separate
graphics cards. But I think the radeon presents two logical PCI
devices, so it might just be possible to do it with just one card.
Just to make sure, I would specify the PCI card id by hand for each
configuration.

> So, I can login and use both screens with the proper keyboard and mouse
> associated BUT they are on different VTs. One on vt7 Ctrl+Alt+F7 and
> the other on vt8 Ctrl+Alt+F8.... I can't use them simultaneously
> - Highly frustrating !

Yes, I know. There used to be a patch floating around that disables VT
control in the X server altogether. Using that patch for the second
server is a good idea.
 
> I've tried just about every variable I can possibly think of including
> patching an Xserver using the relevant VT parts of:
> http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/multiuser/

Ok, that should solve problem three. 

I think you are actually stuck with problem two: both X servers use
the same graphics card. As long as both servers use the same PCI id,
that is to be expected. You have to specify separate PCI ids for the
two servers (but I am not sure that it works with the same graphics
card at all). Further options you can try:

* Get a second graphics card, at least for testing. A Matrox G200 PCI
would be ideal.

* Use the built in driver from X.org. It seems to be much more
flexible than the fglrx driver.

* Use one dual head Xserver with access to the graphics card, and then
split it into two terminals with Xnest. Connecting the input devices
may be tricky, but otherwise that should be a nice solution.

Thomas