Userful Multiplier® (formerly Desktop Multiplier) is a set of standard Linux software packages that extend the X Window System to support up to 10 fully independent and concurrent workstations using a single computer box. This is accomplished by adding standard video cards, USB keyboards and mice to a single PC system and installing Userful's software. Userful Multiplier is compatible with all single and dual-headed video cards supported by X.Org/XFree86 and has been tested on most major 2.6 kernel Linux distributions (see "Supported Linux Distributions" below for details).
Userful Multiplier is delivered as a single zip file containing either a .RPM or .DEB package and supports a variety of Linux distributions.
This package includes programs, scripts and config files for system configuration, keyboard/mouse assignment and device hot-plug capabilities. Files are named:
1box-utils-k26-<version>.<arch>.rpm
(For RPM based systems)
1box-utils-k26-<version>.<arch>.deb
(For DEB based systems)
This package contains the Userful Multi-Station X-Server, which supports multiple simultaneous local users. Files are named:
1box-server-xorg-<version>.<arch>.rpm
(For RPM based systems)
mx11r7-<version>.<arch>.rpm
(For RPM based system)
1box-server-xorg-<version>.<arch>.deb
(For DEB based systems)
mx11r7-<version>.<arch>.deb
(For DEB based systems)
Userful Multiplier's Dual View functionality enables each station to support up to five users, with each user having an individual desktop workspace that spans two monitors. You can configure monitors to use Dual View during the Userful Multiplier installation process. Note that the two monitors that display a Dual View desktop must be connected to the same video card.
Userful Multiplier will operate as a trial version until you purchase an appropriate license for your Userful system. You may purchase a multi-station license from your Userful representative or from Userful.com – see the Licensing section below for details.
Limitations of Trial Version: The Userful Multiplier trial software supports up to 10 concurrent stations (depending on your specific hardware) and will typically display a brief registration reminder on all attached screens every 20 minutes or so.
Userful Multiplier supports most well-known Linux distributions running kernel version 2.6 or greater. The following Linux distributions are currently supported:
NOTE: Userful Multiplier may work with other Linux
distributions that use the Linux 2.6 kernel, however distributions
other than those listed above are not officially supported by Userful
at this time. Instructions for installing Userful Multiplier on a
non-supported distribution are available at How
To/Port Userful Multiplier to New Linux Distros. Official
support for additional Linux distributions will be available in future
versions of this software. Please address specific requests for
supporting an additional Linux distribution via email to
partner@userful.com.
Note for Debian 3.1 (Sarge): Debian Sarge uses the Linux 2.4 kernel by default with new installations. You must upgrade your Linux kernel to 2.6 before installing Userful Multiplier.
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This software comes with a graphical interface tool, Userful Control Panel, to control various aspects of Userful Multiplier. This Control Panel can be launched from the icon labeled “Userful”. This icon can be found in the main menu of most distributions. The actual location varies between distributions, but is usually in “Accessories” or “System Tools”. The Python Gtk and glade module is required to use this interface. This module is available on most distributions and is called "python-gtk" and "python-glade" respectively. It is installed by default on Fedora Core, Ubuntu and Mandrake. On some distributions, such as Novell Linux Desktop 9, the module is only installed when the Gnome desktop is chosen as the default desktop during installation.
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Userful Multiplier supports the following optional hardware components:
Userful Multiplier is designed to support all single and dual-headed video cards, supported by X.Org/XFree86. Any video card combinations where you can start X in multi-headed mode (i.e. multi-monitor, multi-display) should work with Userful Multiplier. Xinerama extensions are not used, so any standard single-head or multi-head video card should work.
We recommend disabling on-board video in the BIOS if your motherboard includes an on-board video chipset. If the on-board video is not disabled, boot messages will be displayed on that video output. If no monitor is connected to the on-board video output, these boot messages will not be visible. The on-board video may be able to support a workstation depending on the model and revision of your motherboard.
Note: Although heterogeneous (mixed) combinations do often work, to ensure a simple and manageable computing environment, we recommend using a consistent model and revision of graphics cards and monitors for your Userful Multiplier system. We suggest searching the following third-party database for heterogeneous graphics card combinations that should work under Linux:
Userful supports and recommends the following low cost single chip, dual head chipsets, which are available as AGP, PCI or PCI-E cards from a variety of manufacturers:
Typically a 10 station system with one monitor each can be built using five dual head video cards.
Note: The default "mga/nv" display drivers included with X.Org/XFree86 do not provide adequate multi-head support. To use dual head Matrox or NVIDIA video cards, refer to Appendix B and C to install vendor's proprietary driver.
The following video cards have been successfully tested with Dual View in our lab. Note that the Dual View is only supported on ATI and NVIDIA cards at this time. If you require Dual View support for specific ATI/NVIDIA cards not in the list, please contact us at: 1-866-USERFUL (873-7385).
Prior to installing Userful Multiplier on your existing Linux system, you will need to add enough video cards and USB ports to provide a video head for each station. We recommend using USB keyboards with an integrated USB hub to easily connect each station's mouse (and other USB devices) to minimize the number of devices connected to the central system. If a USB hub is required, be sure to use a powered hub. Non-powered hubs may not provide sufficient power for all connected devices. Similarly, if you need to use extension cables ensure that the distance between the keyboard or other USB device and the computer/powered hub is not greater than 3 m (10 ft).
To install Userful Multiplier follow these steps:
Step 1: Download the latest software from http://userful.com/download/
Step 2: Position one USB keyboard and mouse combination for each workstation.
Step 3: Unzip the demo software on the target computer.
$ unzip Desktop-Multiplier.zip
Step 4: Run the INSTALL script as "root".
$ bash INSTALL
$ rpm -Uvh 1box-utils-k26-.i386.rpm
$ rpm -Uvh 1box-server-xorg-.i386.rpm
$ dpkg -i 1box-utils-k26-.i386.deb
$ dpkg -i 1box-server-xorg-.i386.deb
After the Userful Multiplier demo software installation has completed, you will need to reboot the computer to begin the automated configuration process and enable your additional stations.
Uninstalling Userful Multiplier software from your system should fully restore the original system configuration. See Uninstallation Procedure below for details.
Userful Multiplier software is currently not compatible with LDM (the default display manager in Linspire Linux). Because Linspire does not provide any display management packages other than LDM, you will need to install the GDM package from the standard Debian repository before installing Userful Multiplier software on your Linspire system.
Installing GDM on Linspire:
Step 1: Uncomment the last two lines in the
/etc/apt/sources.list file to install packages
from the standard Debian distribution.
Step 2: Update the package index file.
$ apt-get update
Step 3: Install GDM package.
$ apt-get install gdm
Step 4: Continue with the normal installation process as described above under "Installation Process".
Note: Be sure to create a Guest user before installing Userful Multiplier as it disables the root login. You can also refer to your OS guide for enabling root login.
The next time the computer boots after installing the software, the Userful Multiplier system will automatically detect your video cards. After it detects your video cards, you will be promoted to assign monitors for use with Userful Multiplier's Dual View functionality. An on-screen wizard will guide you through the process and generate the required multi-user configuration files, after which the system may reboot for the changes to take effect.
Userful Multiplier software is currently not compatible with LDM (the default display manager in Linspire Linux). You will need to install the GDM package before installing Userful Multiplier software on your Freespire system.
Installing GDM on Freespire:
Step 1: Update the package index file.
$ apt-get update
Step 2: Install GDM package.
$ apt-get install gdm
Step 3: Continue with the normal installation process as described above, under the heading "Installation Process".
The next time the computer boots after installing the software, the Userful Multiplier system will automatically detect your video cards. After it detects your video cards, you will be promoted to assign monitors for use with Userful Multiplier's Dual View functionality. An on-screen wizard will guide you through the process and generate the required multi-user configuration files, after which the system may reboot for the changes to take effect.
The first time Userful Multiplier starts, a text mode configuration tool enables you to set screen resolutions. If you need to change the screen resolutions at a later time, delete the /etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf file and restart X. The text mode configuration tool will once again activate, enabling you to set a new screen resolution, and create a new userful.Mxorg.conf file. Userful Multiplier supports resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024.
Once the system has started, each workstation display will prompt you to press a function key (F-1 through F-10) on the keyboard in front of the monitor in order to link the correct keyboard to the specific monitor. Both a keyboard and a mouse are required in order to create a station. If the mouse is plugged into the USB keyboard (via an integrated hub in the keyboard) the mouse will be automatically assigned along with the keyboard when you press the correct function key. If you have the mouse plugged into a separate USB port, you will be prompted to press a button on the mouse in order to link it with the correct monitor and keyboard combination.
After setting up mice and keyboards, you may login to your desktop normally.
You may reassign keyboards and mice at any point by simply pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Break key combination or re-connecting the device by unplugging and re-connecting it to the USB port while the system is running. The assignment screen will automatically appear on top of your current desktop. No work will be lost, simply press the correct F-key and return to your desktop.
Note: You can identify unassigned keyboards by examining their LEDs. The LEDs on a unassigned keyboard will blink until the keyboard is assigned to a station.
Warning: Logging in concurrently to more than one station as the same user is not advised. It can cause unintended consequences to your system (e.g. corruption of your user settings). Most Linux distributions will warn you if you attempt to login as the same user on more than one station simultaneously. The screen will display a warning message such as "this user is already currently logged-in to the system".
Note: If your touchscreen device is not in
this list, it may still work. You need to edit the config file /etc/X11/userful.Nxorg.conf.
The touch screen calibration wizard assumes all touch screens connected to the computer are of the same make and model.
Before starting the calibration procedure, all touch screens must be connected to the computer and powered on. If touch screens will not be used for all stations, make sure that a touch screen is connected to the first video head. The touch screen calibration tool will use the touch screen connected to the first video head as the basis for configuring all other touch screens connected to the computer.
Refer to the main Desktop Multiplier readme to identify the location of the first video head on the computer.
On the first boot after installing Desktop Multiplier, you
will be prompted to press F1 on the first
video head to start the calibration procedure. Only an "X" icon is
displayed on the other heads.
When you are prompted to press F1,
press the F1 key on your keyboard and touch
the screen connected to the first head. This will link the keyboard and
touch screen to the first video head.
In this step, touch the screen and drag your finger around the outermost edges of the screen.
Keep dragging your finger around the edges of the screen until the "Min" and "Max" value on the screen stop changing.
This step fine-tunes the touch screen. Touch the red square as it appears in each of the 9 key points on the screen.
This step verifies the current calibration. Touch the screen and drag your finger to confirm that the pointer follows your finger.
Y on your keyboard to
accept current calibration, or N if the cursor does not
follow your finger.
Drag your finger horizontally across the screen.
Y on your keyboard if the
pointer follows your finger, or N to flip the X-axis.
Drag your finger vertically up and down the screen.
Y on your keyboard if the
pointer follows your finger, or N to flip the Y-axis.
This concludes the touch-screen calibration process. If you
wish to
recalibrate the touch screens at a later date, you may do so by
deleting
the /etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf file.
To enable the full version of Userful Multiplier, you need to
purchase a valid license for the desired number of stations on each
computer that you wish to use the software on. This may be done through
an automated registration process by clicking the Userful
menu choice (typically located in the Applications
> System Tools menu tree) and following the
instructions, or by contacting your Userful Authorized Partner who can
assist you with your purchase and optionally send you an Activation
Code or License Key via email.
Q: What if I want to increase the number of stations in my license key?
Q: How do I get a new license key?
##:##:##:##:##:##.1box.info
or just 1box.info into the /etc/X11
folder on your Linux system and restart the computer. Two useful key combinations are available to users:
You can toggle between the regular X and multi-station X. This
is useful if you for example want to have a single user with multiple
monitors during the day, then multiple users each with thier own
monitor at night. You can do this graphically by toggling the checkbox
in the
Control Panel or manually by updating /etc/sysconfig/xtype,
Set the “XTYPE” to “MULTI” or
“SINGLE” to enable multi-station X, or regular X,
respectively. The change will take effect from the next reboot.
XTYPE=MULTI
XTYPE=SINGLE
You can make unwanted input devices stop working with Userful
Multiplier by adding them to the blacklist file input-blacklist.
Any devices listed in this file will be ignored by Userful Multiplier.
/etc/userful/input-blacklist
Vendor_ID
Product_ID Device_type "Description"
05D5 6782 2 "Super Gate Technology, built-in mouse"
#
is treated as a comment. For example:
# This is a comment
Note: You need extra packages to support multimedia and storage devices with Userful Multiplier. Please contact your Userful account representative to get the extra packages.
Multimedia and storage devices can be assigned to a station and operated independently with Userful Multiplier by installing extra packages provided by Userful. Storage devices can optionally be shared by all stations.
Supported multimedia devices currently include audio devices, and supported storage devices include floppy, optical drives and flash memory.
| Distro | Multimedia Devices | Storage Devices |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10 | Yes | -- |
| Fedora 4 | Yes | -- |
| Fedora 6 | Yes | Yes |
| openSuSE 10.1 | Yes | Yes |
| SLED 10 | Yes | Yes |
To uninstall the Userful Multiplier software, run the UNINSTALL script as "root"
$ bash UNINSTALL
Optionally, you can uninstall the Userful Multiplier software manually. To manually uninstall Userful Multiplier, run the following commands as "root".
For RPM based systems:
$ rpm -e 1box-utils-k26
$ rpm -e 1box-server-xorg
For DEB package based systems:
$ dpkg -r 1box-utils-k26
$ dpkg -r 1box-server-xorg
After uninstalling Userful Multiplier, you will need to reboot the computer to return to the previous single-user Linux system configuration.
(Inherent to simultaneous multi-station systems.)
Some graphical screen savers can consume 99% of CPU resources. Since Userful Multiplier software is a multi-user system and other users may be working, we highly recommend using only a blank screen or a very simple screen saver.
While it is possible to support a heterogeneous mix of video chipsets within a single computer box, for example by mixing ATI, NVIDIA and Matrox cards, such a configuration is not recommended as it is not possible for us to directly test and support all possible combinations. Using multiple video cards and monitors that do not share all the same characteristics and X drivers creates additional and unnecessary complexity. Therefore, we recommend keeping your evaluation and production environments as simple as possible and using a single graphics chipset for all video cards within the Useful Multiplier computer.
Using multiple and/or dual-headed video cards in Linux prevents software such as video games from using 3D acceleration properly. This is not a Userful Multiplier specific issue, but a limitation of the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) within the current X-server system. XFree86 does not support DRI acceleration on multiple video cards. XFree86 extensions not dependent on DRI should work, for example 2D acceleration is supported.
Switching between virtual terminals in X (pressing
Ctrl-Alt-F1) is disabled by default in Userful's Userful
Multiplier multi-station system. This limitation prevents a user
interfering with users working on other stations.
Users should typically not have permission to shutdown or reboot a shared computer as this could interrupt other users. The display of "shutdown" and "reboot" options to the user and their functionality are controlled by the specific desktop environment's logout dialog and greeter. Examples follow:
Certain combinations of Linux distributions and motherboards have known issues with multiple RADEON 7000 cards using the 2.6 SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) Linux Kernel. If you are using SMP with RADEON 7000 and encounter problems, we recommend switching to a non SMP kernel. This is a bug with the RADEON driver and is not specific to Userful's software.
BIOS and Linux boot messages will only display on the primary video adapter. On some dual head cards this is two monitors, but for the most part it will only display on a single monitor. It is important to connect a monitor to this primary head to display these messages. On motherboards with on-board video (video hardware built into the motherboard), typically the BIOS will be set to use the on-board video head by default. We generally recommend that motherboard/main-board/on-board video be disabled in the BIOS for Userful Multiplier systems.
This binary distribution only supports the x86 architecture. Contact us if you need support for additional architectures.
Utilities that enable multimedia keys in Linux may not be reliable when multiple keyboards are connected to the system.
The kernel layout map for individual keyboards is ignored by Userful Multiplier. Hence the X configuration and/or keyboard mappings created by hardware detection and configuration tools such as Kudzu are ignored. At the greeter screen, all keyboards are mapped to the default system language which is usually the language you selected when installing Linux. Most greeters allow login language selection and most desktop sessions (Gnome, KDE, etc) have tools to change keyboard layouts. Using a greeter to change language and keyboard layout selections behaves as expected.
Single-chip dual-head ATI video cards are not compatible with the XVidMode extension. XVidMode extension is disabled on ATI video cards by default when using Userful Multiplier.
We recommend disabling USB 2 support (sometimes referred to as “Enhanced USB” or “High Speed USB”) in the BIOS since the current USB 2 Kernel module is unstable under some circumstances. USB 2 devices may be used in Userful Multiplier, but only at USB 1 speeds.
Ensure a monitor is connected to each video head before turning on the computer, and optionally that the monitors are turned on. Some NVIDIA cards will not display to the second head if there is no monitor connected at boot time. Sometimes, disconnecting the 2nd monitor can even cause X to crash.
There is a known issue regarding system instability using NVIDIA video drivers with kernel 2.6.11-rc3 or lower. If you experience random reboot or kernel panics using the NVIDIA driver, please ensure that your kernel version is 2.6.11-rc3 or higher.
On X86 systems and AMD64/EM64T systems using X86 kernels, only 4GB of virtual address space are available, which the Linux kernel typically partitions such that user processes are allocated 3GB, the kernel itself 1GB. Part of the kernel's share is used to create a direct mapping of system memory (RAM). Depending on how much system memory is installed, the kernel virtual address space remaining for other uses varies in size and may be as small as 128MB, if 1GB of system memory (or more) are installed. By default, the kernel reserves a minimum of 128MB.
The kernel virtual address space still available after the creation of the direct system memory mapping is used by both the kernel and by drivers to map I/O resources, and for some memory allocations. Depending on the number of consumers and their respective requirements, the Linux kernel's virtual address space may be exhausted. Newer Linux kernels print an error message of the form shown below when this happens:
allocation failed: out of vmalloc space - use vmalloc=<size> to increase size.
The NVIDIA kernel module requires portions of the kernel's virtual address space for each GPU and for certain memory allocations. If no more than 128MB are available to the kernel and device drivers at boot time, the NVIDIA kernel module may be unable to initialize all GPUs, or fail memory allocations. This is not usually a problem with only 1 or 2 GPUs, however depending on the number of other drivers and their usage patterns, it can be; it is likely to be a problem with 3 or more GPUs.
Possible solutions for this problem include:
'vmalloc=192M',
'vmalloc=256MB', ..., to the kernel and checking if the
above error message continues to be printed.
title Kernel Title
uppermem 524288
kernel (hdX,Y)/boot/vmlinuz...
'video=vesa:off vga=normal'.
Currently it is not possible to link just a mouse to a screen. Hence, currently a keyboard is required even for touch-screen or mouse-only kiosks. Mouse-only assignment will be supported in a future release. Keyboard-only stations are currently possible, as the mouse can be unplugged after a station has been assigned without unlinking the keyboard (e.g., without the "press F1" overlay re-appearing).
Userful Multiplier software uses a default screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels at a standard color depth of 16 bits for all stations. Lower resolutions are automatically used for monitors that do not support this level of resolution. This default configuration may be changed by manually editing the Userful Multiplier X config file(/etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf for both X.Org and XFree86 based systems). Only edit config files if you fully understand what you are doing. Userful does not provide support related to user-edited X config files. This config file is automatically re-generated whenever changes are made to the graphics cards, hence if you add or remove graphics cards, you will need to re-apply your customizations.
Note: Some dual-head video cards do not support using different resolutions on each head. It is recommended to use the same resolution and color depth settings for all stations on your Userful Multiplier system.
The default Userful Multiplier configuration will set all
outputs of a video card to VGA. A DVI-to-VGA adapter will be required
for using DVI ports with the default configuration. DVI connections are
also supported if you are using either ATI Radeon cards
or NVIDIA cards by changing the /etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf
manually.
/etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf
with a text editor.
Option "MonitorLayout" "CRT, CRT"to
Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS, TMDS"
/etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf
with a text editor.
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT,CRT"to
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT,DFP"
Both monitors that form a Dual View station must be connected to ports on the same video card. This is a limitation with some chipsets which may be addressed with workarounds in drivers in a future release.
XineramaInfo is not supported in the NVIDIA Dual View configuration. Without this support, X will treat two screens as a single big screen, which may cause some unintended results, such as:
Some X Server operations have not yet been fully "virtualized". This means not all aspects of X's functionality work the same in a multi-user environment as they would in a single user environment. The X Resize and Rotate extension (RandR) which allows users to change monitor resolutions has been disabled. Display power management system (DPMS) is not currently supported. And the Gnome screen magnifier does not yet work.
Userful Multiplier is currently not compatible with MDKDM (the default display manager in Mandrake Linux). The Userful Multiplier installer will disable MDKDM, and enable another supported Display Manager (e.g. GDM, KDM or XDM).
Userful Multiplier is currently not compatible with ldm (the default display manager in Linspire/Freespire Linux). The Userful Multiplier installer will disable ldm, and enable another supported Display Manager (GDM).
Keyboards layouts for other languages are not supported by Userful Multiplier under Debian at this time.
If you are using more than two graphics cards and configure
them as Dual View, the X server may crash at the end of the startup
procedure. This is caused by incorrect probing of the RAM size for the
graphics cards. In this case, you will need to manually specify the
correct RAM size of your graphics card by adding a
“VideoRam” line to the device section of the /etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf
file.
/etc/X11/userful.Mxog.conf:
VideoRam 16384
This is not a functional problem. The KDM login screen appears a little to the right, below center, when a user logs out of a session.
The mouse doesn't work with VNC and Userful Multiplier at this time.
PolicyKit/Consolekit has been integrated
into the administrative user interfaces on Ubuntu 8.04. Although
PolicyKit/Consolekit allows fine-grained control over user permissions
and enhances security, it is in the early stages of development and
doesn't work well in a multi-seat environment. For example, users-admin,
Users Administration Tool, doesn't work with its default policy. To
give the administrator the authorization for administrative tasks, the
following policy setting for the administrator needs be added into /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf:
<match user="name_of_admin_user">
<return result="yes"/>
</match>
name_of_admin_user should be the login name of the administrator. Please refer to http://hal.freedesktop.org/docs/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf.5.html for more information on PolicyKit.conf.
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There is a If you have any questions or problems please contact us:
To get help quickly, it is important to be as specific as possible about your problem. Be sure to include the following information:
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$ userful debug -submit
Userful Multiplier is commercial software and contains proprietary, patent-pending intellectual property. See the Userful-EULA.txt file for full terms of the license agreement.
Userful®, Userful Multiplier®, and Userful Desktop® are a registered trademarks of Userful Corporation.
Desktop Server™, 1-Box™, Turn 1 PC into Ten™, Manage & Multiply your Desktops™ are trademarks of Userful Corporation
NVIDIA® is a trademark of NVIDIA Corporation. Intel® is a trademark of Intel Corporation. AMD® and ATI® are trademarks of AMD Inc. Matrox® is a trademark of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. X.Org is a trademark of X.Org Foundation. XFree86 is a trademark of The XFree86 Project, Inc. X Window System, and Xinerama are trademarks of the Open Group. Linspire is a trademark of Linspire Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2002-2007, Userful Corporation. All rights reserved.
This software includes X Window System source code licensed under the MIT X Window System License, http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html
Userful trial software comes without warranty or guarantee. By
using this software, you acknowledge that Userful Corporation is not
responsible for any damage resulting from its use.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER OR HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR
ANY SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY. THE ENTIRE RISK IS ASSUMED BY YOU. WE HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CLAIMS BY A THIRD PARTY. OUR MAXIMUM LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU FOR THE PRODUCT.
During the installation and first bootup, Userful Multiplier creates it's own X config file and updates startup procedure and the config file of Display Manager.
Userful Multiplier updates /etc/inittab
to start Userful's Multi-X in the end of the startup. For the Linux
distros using Upstart instead of inittab
like Ubuntu, DM adds a new task, dm-start,
into /etc/event.d directory.
dm.conf is the main configuration of
userful Multiplier located at /etc/userful
directory. Please see the file for more information.
Userful Multiplier starts Userful's Multi-X instead of normal
Xorg for it's X server. Multi-X uses /etc/X11/userful.Mxorg.conf
as the config file.
Userful Multiplier updates gdm.conf to support multiple
stations from a single Multi-X server. Instead of handling the real X
server, Userful Multiplier updates gdm.conf so that GDM uses Login
Server for each station. The Login Server
is a dummy X server that Userful developed for Userful Multiplier.
Support for the second head on Matrox cards requires Matrox's proprietary driver. Please follow the instructions below to install the driver with Userful Multiplier:
$ tar xvfz <file name>
$ cd <directory name>
$ userful driver -install matrox
To support dual-head properly on NVIDIA cards, NVIDIA's proprietary driver should be used instead of the built-in nv driver. The correct NVIDIA driver for each GPU chipset can be found at http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/100.14.11/README/appendix-a.html .
There are two methods to install the NVIDIA driver and kernel module:
http://www.fedorafaq.org/fc6/#nvidia
http://www.fedorafaq.org/#nvidia
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_setup_nVidia_drivers_in_7.04
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy#NVidia_Driver
http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy#Installation_of_ATI_and_nVidia_Graphics_drivers
There are a lot of commands related to Userful Multipler. Since each command has a different name and usage, it may be hard to find the right command for a task. Here is some brief documentation for the Userful Command Line tool which combines all commands into a single interface. The command will be updated and extended as needed and the documentation will also be available as a Linux man page. (The man page for this tool is not yet available.)
NAME
userful - Userful command line tool
SYNOPSIS
userful command [command_opts] [command_args]
DESCRIPTION
Userful Multiplier is a set of software that extend the X Window System
to support up to 10 fully independent and concurrent workstations using
a single computer box.
The userful program is a command line tool to use the various Desktop
Multiplier commands from the shell. It can be used for:
- Creation of X config
- Controlling of Video cards and input devices
- Handling of debug information
- Getting/displaying license
- Handling of general settings
COMMAND SUMMARY
The userful program provides a variety of commands, each of which has
different options and arguments.
xconfig - Handling X config file
SYNOPSIS
userful xconfig [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-gen - Generate an X config file for Desktop
Multiplier
-show - Display the X config file
-remove - Remove the X config file
video - Video cards control
SYNOPSIS
userful video [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-show - Probe and display all video cards
-blacklist [opt] [arg] - Maniplate blacklist
-whitelist [opt] [arg] - Maniplate whitelist
input - Input devices control
SYNOPSIS
userful input [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-reset - Unlink the assignment of all input
devices
-static - Enable/disable static config type
debug - Creating/submitting debug info
SYNOPSIS
userful debug [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-submit - Submit debug information to Userful
Support
license - Getting/displaying license
SYNOPSIS
Not implemented yet
driver - Handling video drivers (Only one fuction for now: Installing
Matrox driver)
SYNOPSIS
userful driver [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-install matrox - Install Matrox driver
multistation - Toggling between multistation and singlestation
SYNOPSIS
userful multistation [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print help message
-enable - Enable multistation
-disable - Disable multistation (Enable
singlestation)
ctrlaltbreak - Enable/disable Ctrl-Alt-Break functionality. (Default:
Enabled)
SYNOPSIS
userful ctrlaltbreak [OPTION]
OPTIONS:
-h - Print this help message
-enable - Enable Ctrl-Alt-Break functionality
-disable - Disable Ctrl-Alt-Break functionality
required line into
the end of the PAM configuration of current Display Manager as follow:
session required pam_xconsole.so
Userful wrote pam_xconsole PAM
module for this purpose and the PAM configuration of current Display
Manager can be found in /etc/pam.d/ directory
like gdm and kdm,
for GdM and KDM, respectively.