[H-GEN] Font Tomfoolery

[Robert Brockway]

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On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, Christopher Biggs wrote:

> We _can_ log in at the same console and each get our chosen setup.
> Having two separate X servers means we can each _stay_ logged in most of
> the time, and just switch to our own virtual console when we need to
> use the PC.

Yep.  I've been doing this for years and it works well.  I originally
played with the idea around 1995 but it worked so-so but when I tried it
again about 2000 the X server had become a lot more stable.

For those wanting to try this, the only trick is to define which VT will
get which Xserver in the Xservers file - relying on the auto-detection
with multiple servers starting is a receipe for disaster.

Here is my Xservers file:

:0 local at tty1 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -dpi 100 vt2
:1 local at tty1 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1 -dpi 100 vt3
#:2 local at tty1 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :2 -dpi 100 vt4

As you can see :2 is currently disabled :)

> It's more a matter of room than money.  I have, um, 5 computers in the
> house right now, but only one permanently sited in the study.

And the servers need not have monitors at all, thanks to software serial
consoles under Linux/*BSD.

Another great idea for the home is the thin client.  There is LTSP of
course or it is easy enough to knock together an Xterminal out of a PC
running some unix OS.

Before I left Aus I had an Athlon-800 (768Mb) with 2 or 3 Xservers running
on the console and another PC acting as an Xterminal (and running a VOCP
voice mail system).  All worked like a charm.  My wife would login on the
console and run NT4 under VMware while I was on the Xterminal.  She also
used kde for burning CDs and whatnot.

If she was not on the console, I could go there and change to a different
virtual console and remain logged in from both locations, all while she
remained logged in.  In principal there was no reason that VMware wouldn't
have worked on the Xterminal as well, but I was nice and gave her the
bigger monitor :)

Rob


-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah

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