Re: two workstations, one tower

[Kara Pritchard <kara@luci.org>]

No, using the 486 as an X-terminal won't be slow, given the server is the 
eMachine, not the 486 :P

-Kara

On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, Robert Threet wrote:

> Multi-X sessions on a 486 might be a bit slow.  Have you
> considered a Wyse terminal?  It would be a separate machine
> and keyboard.  You could run a lot of those on a 486.  eBay
> might have some refurb'd Wyse 60's cheaper than an extra
> video card.  I only paid $150 for mine and that was 6 years
> ago.
> 
> --- Jeff Licquia <jeff@licquia.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, 2002-06-10 at 18:10, Brandon Adams wrote:
> > > I was wondering if it is viable to have two monitors
> > using two different > video cards use different mice and
> > keyboards but still all be wired through > the same
> > tower. I've done a little reading on the subject and I
> > think that > by using two different config files for X I
> > could get this done but I'm not > quite sure. Anybody
> > have any experience at this?
> > 
> > At the present time, I'm not sure it can be done.
> > 
> > The main problem is the keyboard.  On Linux, the keyboard
> > isn't really a
> > device in the traditional sense; it's just "there",
> > always attached to
> > the console.  XFree86 on Linux perpetuates this view of
> > the keyboard;
> > there is just one keyboard device.  This used to be all
> > you needed back
> > in the day when PS/2 keyboards were all you had, and you
> > could only have
> > one.
> > 
> > USB keyboard support is currently handled through a bit
> > of a hack; when
> > a USB keyboard event comes in, an equivalent "regular
> > keyboard" event is
> > manufactured and fired through the normal keyboard
> > driver, as if you had
> > just typed on the PS/2 keyboard.  This is accomplished
> > with the
> > "keybdev" kernel module.  If you don't load keybdev, your
> > USB keyboard
> > won't work as a console keyboard, but you can read
> > keyboard events
> > through /dev/input/eventX.
> > 
> > Long-term, work is in progress to make all consoles use
> > /dev/input/eventX, making it possible to do multi-head
> > with keyboard
> > support.  You can find out more about this at
> > linuxconsole.sourceforge.net.
> > 
> > In the meantime, I suspect that getting your 486 fixed
> > and using it as
> > an X terminal would be a better way to get
> > "multi-X-terminal" stuff
> > working on your box.  There are tutorials available for
> > building a
> > diskless X terminal, so if your disk is the problem, you
> > can work around
> > it.
> > 
> > Alternately, if you're not really interested in "two
> > people working on
> > the same box at the same time" stuff, Xinerama might be
> > what you're
> > looking for.  This way, you can drive both video cards in
> > the same X
> > session, and have that much more screen real estate for
> > your session.
> > 
-- 
Kara Pritchard                          Phone: 618-398-7360
Director of Exam Development            http://www.lpi.org/
--



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