Re: Display multiple virtual consoles on multiple displays
rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, August 22, 2019 10:08:16 AM Dan Ritter wrote:
> > Franklin, Jason wrote:
> > > Greetings,
> > >
> > > I'm working on a project that requires me to debug a running screen
> > > locker.
> > >
> > > Currently, my workflow involves switching between the screen locker and
> > > virtual console #1 (/dev/tty1) using Ctrl-Alt-F1 and Ctrl-Alt-F7. This
> > > way, I can interact with the screen locker until I hit a break point. I
> > > then return to the first virtual terminal and step through the code.
> > >
> > > This has been very helpful so far, but it's quite slow!
> > >
> > > I have multiple displays, so it seems natural that I'd want to use one
> > > display for the screen locker on F7, and one display for vim and gdb on
> > > F1.
> > >
> > > Is this possible? Is it easy or difficult to achieve?
> >
> > What you want is called multiseat configuration; it assumes that
> > the N monitors are independent, and need to have their own
> > keyboards and mice (though you can fake this with a KVM switch).
> >
> > Most multiseat configs are X only.
> >
> > There were two projects to make the VT system multiseat: kmscon
> > and systemd-consoled. Both are defunct, and probably won't work.
>
> I am an optimist (at least sometimes) ;-) It seems to me there should be a
> way to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish.
>
> Without really having thought this out (or being able to, due to my lack of
> facile familiarity with virtual machines and such), I wonder if using a VM
> would give you a way forward -- maybe doing something like:
>
> Running either vim and gdb or the screen locker (that would require a VM with
> X capability, which exists, iiuc) in a VM, and then displaying both on the
> same screen, with, for example, the screen locker in a separate window. Hmm,
> I guess I'm not sure that could be done.
No, that's not run by the VT (kernel console) system.
> I guess another thought (maybe somebody mentioned it?) would be to have two
> separate computers, each with its own monitor and keyboard (or shared with a
> KVM switch), run the screen locker in one computer, and ssh from the other
> computer to access vim and gdb on the machine running the screen locker.
Sure. Or, you could wire up an actual serial terminal, or any
random computer with a serial port or a USB-serial converter.
-dsr-
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