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What is the state of Multiseat in Linux today? (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by Eric_Pollock@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I currently have a PC running Windows 11 that my S/O and I use multi-seated with Aster Multiseat. However, we're both equally sick of Windows and are interested in switching to Linux.

However, all the information that I can find on multiseat in Linux are forum posts and unfinished wiki entries for Ubuntu and Fedora, and they all seem to be from around 2008-2012.

We're about to upgrade our PC to support two RTX 3060s and a Ryzen 9 (of course, including the usual two monitors and sets of peripherals).

Can Linux (preferably Fedora, as it's my favorite distro so far) easily support multiseating?

Will there be any performance issues using this method?

Is it possible to isolate applications per user? (Aster Multiseat doesn't do this, so sometimes an application can detect another instance on the other user and refuses to start...)

Thanks in advance.

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[-] Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show 13 points 11 months ago

While Linux TTY is multiseat by default, each TTY is a seperate user login, I'm not sure any of the GUI's support this function.

[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 11 months ago

You can run multiple X servers for a graphical multiseat setup. It's a lot of work to set it up and most of the information about it is out of date though.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 10 points 11 months ago

And distros have basically moved to Wayland as well, which probably is worse when it comes to stuff like that.

[-] Dirk@lemmy.ml -1 points 11 months ago

I boldly assume that Wayland is simply incapable of providing multi-seat functionality.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 7 points 11 months ago

I don't know why you're being downvoted because basically we don't know. It mentions that it's supported but there's no info about how to do it and no compositors or WMs that implement it, so... yes, technically there's no support for multiseating at the moment. If anybody can point at one that can do it in the way OP needs it I'll be glad to stand corrected.

[-] Dirk@lemmy.ml 9 points 11 months ago

There is some setup to be done, but "a lot of"? ... If I remember correctly you just need to define the multiple outputs and bind the inputs to their individual instances.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 6 points 11 months ago

Yep, it's just a few lines in Xorg.conf. Basically just putting monitors and mouse/keyboard under a particular Xorg instance.

this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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