Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:53:54 -0700 From: Micah <micahjon@ywave.com> To: Rob <spamrefuse@yahoo.com> Cc: FreeBSD questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: 2 keyboards, 2 mice, 2 monitors with 1 PC; possible? Message-ID: <434F1DC2.3080902@ywave.com> In-Reply-To: <20051014021137.32350.qmail@web36207.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20051014021137.32350.qmail@web36207.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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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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