[tru1ock]

I bought a modest gaming rig in 2016 and used systemd/loginctl to convert it into a multiseat setup. One seat for myself and one for the rest of the family.

The amount of value I got so far from this setup is unbelievable. Part of that is proton taking off and giving me and my kids access to most games on steam.

Very grateful to all involved that made it possible.

Still running ubuntu that have just been upgraded over the years on it.

[Am4TIfIsER0ppos]

Would you recommend any particular guide for setting up multiseat?

[tru1ock]

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/multiseat/

I did not follow a specific guide but the setup is relatively simple. The commands I list below is all you need to set it up.

To view existing seats:

  ~ loginctl list-seats

To show assigned hardware for a specific seat:

  ~ loginctl seat-status seat0

Initially there will one seat. To create a new seat just attach some hardware to it.

Lets reassign a usb port to a new seat:

  ~ sudo loginctl attach seat-1 /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.4/0000:05:00.0/usb3

Lets reassign a sound card to seat 1 instead:

  ~ sudo loginctl attach seat-1 /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.1/0000:02:00.1/sound/card2

You will typically do this for a screen card, sound card and some USB ports and then you will have another seat available.

If you want to reset run:

  ~ sudo loginctl flush-devices

Some gotchas:

Seats and users are two different concepts. You can log in on any seat with any user but then you should not log into the other seats with the same user. That generally causes issues for me but is fixed with a reboot.

Use GPU's that run on the same driver.

[stavros]

Sorry, what's multiseat?

[gkbrk]

One computer, N monitors, N keyboards, N mice etc. Basically multiple users being able to share one computer.

[Z_I_F_F]

With your setup (which I assume has one GPU) can the GPU be utilized by more than one user simultaneously?

[stavros]

Oh wow, I have to try that, thanks!