Andrewski Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 I'm wondering if there exists an equivalent (or something) to the Windows XP login screen. I use GDM to do the first bit--logging in with personal settings and such--but I'm wondering if there's a way of setting it (or something else) to pick up when the screensaver deactivates (like that xlock program does when I use XFCE and like one can set the XP screen to do), so that other users could log in with their own settings, or the current user could password his way back into his session. Anyone know of anything? I've always appreciated Linux's superior handling of multiple users; I'd like to put it into better action on my family's PC! Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 AFAIK, fast-user switching like this is not yet possible in Linux. I could be wrong however. You could always go to a virtual terminal (ctrl+alt+fX, where X is 1-6), login, and startx -- :X (where X is 0-5) to bring up a new session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodFlesh Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 It works by default with the kde screensaver "launch new session". I submitted a bug report for this before the 10.0 launch, please vote for it. I think it should be a directive by freedesktop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maleck Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 (edited) It works by default with the kde screensaver "launch new session".Is true, and works pretty fine. exept for the sound that is disabled to the second user. so that other users could log in with their own settings,That is true in windows, but in linux the user do not has "own settings", insted they have a complete indempenden envairoment, with hig security. Others are not allowd to do what you not wanted them to do.It is not "settings", it is an ACCOUNT. Good by. Edited June 23, 2004 by maleck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewski Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 AFAIK, fast-user switching like this is not yet possible in Linux. I could be wrong however. You could always go to a virtual terminal (ctrl+alt+fX, where X is 1-6), login, and startx -- :X (where X is 0-5) to bring up a new session. Seems like one should be able to write a program to do this dynamically--e.g. start a new X session (with, say, GDM to handle logging in) on the first unused display (1-5, since 0 is taken) and then tack such a thing onto the end of xscreensaver (which I use) or what have you. Too bad I just have no skills as of yet in this regard... stupid university. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYinYeti Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Someone already answered for KDE (if you use KDM, it seems. I did not know this feature of KDE). If you're using GDM, whatever window manager you use (thanks to the unified menus in Mandrake), you can use the "New login with GDM" item in the menus, under "Configuration" if I remember correctly. It's always been there, and it's sad it is not better known. Bye, Yves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 AFAIK, fast-user switching like this is not yet possible in Linux. I could be wrong however. You could always go to a virtual terminal (ctrl+alt+fX, where X is 1-6), login, and startx -- :X (where X is 0-5) to bring up a new session. Seems like one should be able to write a program to do this dynamically--e.g. start a new X session (with, say, GDM to handle logging in) on the first unused display (1-5, since 0 is taken) and then tack such a thing onto the end of xscreensaver (which I use) or what have you. Too bad I just have no skills as of yet in this regard... stupid university. I will see if i can knock together a python script Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 actually, i think its out of my capabilities at the moment, but that is something that I will keep on the cards for something to do in the future, its a cool idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 I'm wondering whether this is actually a good idea or not, wouldn't the original user that logged in still have all their processes running, meaning the machine will become slow quickly! What is the actual practical purpose of doing this? Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 I'm wondering whether this is actually a good idea or not, wouldn't the original user that logged in still have all their processes running, meaning the machine will become slow quickly! What is the actual practical purpose of doing this? Just curious... Multiple users could keep their sessions running, i could share my computer with my brother (sif thats gonna happen) and we wouldnt have to shutdown all our proggies and log out. And it wouldnt use as much ram as you think. Remember linux is modular and libgtk is and other libs are only loaded into memory once. So it would be even faster than windows would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Multiple users could keep their sessions running, i could share my computer with my brother (sif thats gonna happen) and we wouldnt have to shutdown all our proggies and log out. But if you're having all these programs running won't they be eating into the others resources? I accept your point that only one copy of various things will need to be run and so mem demand won't be huge but I fail to see where the real gain is compared with just logging out and letting the other user log in. If someone else wants to quickly check email etc can't you just use su. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Multiple users could keep their sessions running, i could share my computer with my brother (sif thats gonna happen) and we wouldnt have to shutdown all our proggies and log out. But if you're having all these programs running won't they be eating into the others resources? I accept your point that only one copy of various things will need to be run and so mem demand won't be huge but I fail to see where the real gain is compared with just logging out and letting the other user log in. If someone else wants to quickly check email etc can't you just use su. because my brother has terrible wallpapers I hate Aston Villa FC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewski Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 If you're using GDM, whatever window manager you use (thanks to the unified menus in Mandrake), you can use the "New login with GDM" item in the menus, under "Configuration" if I remember correctly. It's always been there, and it's sad it is not better known. This I know, and it is a decent feature. However, compare it with what I listed above and you'll see it's not quite the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYinYeti Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 What exactly is missing from the menu>config>newlogin thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewski Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 (edited) Well, that will only do it from within an existing session. What the Windows XP screen thingy does is to resume directly from the screensaver, not allowing the previous session to be restored until the appropriate password is given. Additionally, from that screen, one can log in under a new account (with a new environment, just as maleck points out), something that xlock and others won't do (AFAIK). As a couple of us have pointed out, there are already programs that do some of these things; what I am proposing is a program to combine them with a seamless frontend to provide a secure and fast (because it's Linux!) multi-user environment. It seems iphitus understands this but, like he, I don't have the programming know-how to create such. If anyone has any ideas (other than the KDE one; I'd like one 'unbound', as it were) that do such, let me know; I can stop searching and thinking of a way to do this myself. Edited June 24, 2004 by Andrewski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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