Re: 2 keyboards, 2 mice, 2 monitors with 1 PC; possible?

From: Micah (micahjon_at_ywave.com)
Date: 10/14/05

  • Next message: Miles Keaton: "Re: FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE / 6.0 audio drivers for Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW Intel High Deficition Audio Controller" 
    Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:53:54 -0700
To: Rob <spamrefuse@yahoo.com>

    Rob wrote:
    >
    > --- Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
    >
    >
    >>On Thursday, 13 October 2005 at 14:21:44 -0700, Rob
    >>wrote:
    >>
    >>>I'm using 5-Stable right now.
    >>>
    >>>I wonder if FreeBSD allows me to have two
    >>>independent users working
    >>>on the same PC, by using two monitors, two
    >>>keyboards and two mice,
    >>>all connected to a single PC.
    >>>
    >>>xorg supports dual-head, which could be
    >>>a starting point.
    >>>
    >>>But how about the keyboards and mice?
    >>>Should that be one keyboard/mouse pair as PS/2,
    >>>and a second pair as USB? How would that
    >>>be detected and controlled?
    >>>
    >>>Is such a setup supported by the FreeBSD kernel?
    >>>Has someone tried this?
    >>
    >>I've certainly used multiple monitors, multiple mice
    >>and a single
    >>keyboard in a single user environment, and that
    >>works fine. I've also
    >>run multiple X servers on the same machine. X
    >>configuration allows
    >>you to specify which device to use. The only part
    >>I'm hazy about is
    >>how to map the keyboard definition to hardware
    >>devices. Looking at
    >>/dev, however, I see:
    >>
    >> crw------- 1 root wheel 3, 63 Sep 11 15:52
    >>/dev/kbd0
    >> crw------- 1 root wheel 3, 31 Sep 11 15:52
    >>/dev/sysmouse
    >>
    >>I just tried plugging in a USB keyboard and got
    >>this:
    >>
    >> crw------- 1 root wheel 3, 63 Sep 11 15:52
    >>/dev/kbd0
    >> crw------- 1 root wheel 3, 195 Sep 11 15:52
    >>/dev/kbd1
    >> crw------- 1 root wheel 3, 31 Sep 11 15:52
    >>/dev/sysmouse
    >>
    >>(yes, the date *must* be wrong). This looks very
    >>promising, but as
    >>long as it was plugged in, X only responded to
    >>/dev/kbd1. When I
    >>disconnected it, /dev/kbd0 responded again. So
    >>possibly there's some
    >>issue with the keyboard mapping.
    >
    >
    > Thanks so much for the helpful response.
    > Sounds good indeed, though I myself have to dig a
    > bit deeper into the technical and configurational
    > aspects of all this.
    > I asked here first, because I wanted to avoid to
    > run against the impossible when I will be trying
    > to understand and actually do these kind of things.
    >
    > When googled on this issue, I got only Linux
    > related sites . The main issue there appears to
    > be that the standard kernel can only handle one
    > single keyboard. A not-so-trivial hack to the
    > Linux kernel is needed for two keyboards....
    >
    > Does your observation above tell me that the
    > standard FreeBSD kernel (as of 5-Stable) is
    > already capable of handling more than one
    > keyboard?
    >
    > Regards,
    > Rob.

    Check out
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=+site:lists.freebsd.org+freebsd+multiple+keyboards
    A few minutes of reading suggests:
    FreeBSD recognizes multiple keyboards.
    Console can only accept input from one keyboard at a time.
    You can read input from the keyboard that is not in use.
    Setting up X may be tricky.

    HTH,
    Micah
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  • Next message: Miles Keaton: "Re: FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE / 6.0 audio drivers for Intel 82801FB/FR/FW/FRW Intel High Deficition Audio Controller"

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