[GRLUG] New Ubuntu Student Lab with MultiseatX

[Darrin Sculley]

Here is a summary of the selected hardware:
ASUS M4A79 Mainboard with Quad x8 PCI slots
AMD Phenom X4 955 Quad Core CPU
8GB of OCZ DDR2 1066 Memory
2x OCZ 30 GB Solid State Disks with Linux RAID
4x Radeon HD 3450 HDMI video cards
4x 24" widescreen HD monitors with HDMI
4x USB hubs
4x Logitech USB Keyboard/Mice sets

Yes, this hardware is way overkill for a student lab.  But since it services
4 students at once, I wanted to build something beefy.  Besides, building
fast computers is fun.

Here is a summary of the configuration:

Ubuntu 9.04 64bit
xorg.conf configured with statically-assigned keyboards and mice (so that
the same seat has a consistent set)
gdm.conf configured to start 4 XServers, tied to the correct video cards
sound is piped through the HDMI cable to the monitor, which has a headphone
jack


 At first, we struggled with the video card on the first seat (which hosts
the INT10 interrupt) with "interfering" with the other seats.  Once we added
the "dummy" seat per the community documentation, things were better.
 Seat-to-seat interference is the major gotcha with this technique, and
takes patience to iron out.

Sound is another issue, with getting it to the correct seat.  However, a kid
in Australia has figured it out (we have not yet implemented, but plan to):

http://jeremy.visser.name/2009/08/03/multiseat-tips/

So, the technique is not perfect, and not for the feint of heart.  But
rewarding in the end.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20091001/9bf8ef23/attachment.htm